The Anchorage Fire Department is hiring and Chief Jodie Hettrick is hoping to see a diverse field of applicants that includes women. "What we should have is 50% of our department should be women and 50% should be men," said Hettrick. But according to a report Hettrick provided to the Anchorage Assembly Public Safety Committee earlier in the month, women make up only 3.6% of AFD's line operations staff. "We have 11 women for, out of 329 line operations positions," she said. "That's not very many." Firefighters Meghan McClain and Catlin Clark are two of those 11 women. Both said they didn't know firefighting was an option growing up. "It's hard to be something you don't know you can even try," said McClain, who has been a firefighter and an emergency medical technician with AFD for five years.  

A memorial ceremony was held Friday Sept. 11th in downtown Fairbanks, at the Veteran's Memorial Park. This special event was held to remember the heroes of that tragic day by honoring the men and women who gave their lives. This event was organized by Brad Bunnell, Purple Heart recipient and Outreach Coordinator of the Fairbanks Veterans Center. We spoke with him about this memorial service and what it means to him. "Here in Alaska, we have a lot of veterans and active duty up here. Who actually touched our hearts because September 11th, it stirred up our community here in Fairbanks, in the North Star Borough, together. Because we were a sleepy town, we do a lot of blue collar stuff, but when the towers got hit we woke up, we came together," said Bunnell.  

VIDEO: An off-duty New York City firefighter watched flames engulf his own home on Sunday but that didn't stop him from doing his duty and rescuing his neighbors -- all without any fire protective gear. The blaze broke out shortly before midnight inside Peter Orlowski's home in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, authorities said. More than 200 firefighters responded to the scene and battled the fire for four hours as it spread into a neighboring home at 74th Street and 13th Avenue. Orlowski, who has been a firefighter in Brooklyn for five years, was among those who jumped into action, video from the scene showed. He helped save his parents, his sister and his dog, and as the flames began to spread next door, Orlowski went inside and carried out his elderly neighbor.  

A rural fire chief and several of her volunteer firefighters in Oregon lost their homes and station house to the Holiday Farm Fire as they battled the blaze over the last few days. Upper McKenzie Rural Fire Chief Christiana Rainbow Plews is among thousands of first responders who have been combating the fires that have ravaged the West Coast for weeks. She got a call Monday night about a downed power line, and the resulting brush fire spread faster than anything she had ever seen. Within an hour or two of having left her home to respond, Plews said, she had issued a level 3 evacuation order — for residents to leave immediately — for the McKenzie River area in Lane County in western Oregon. Her family left their home about 20 miles downriver from the fire's origins, able to bring a few of the animals on their property.  

Gunfire early Sunday morning rocked a section of the West Rogers Park neighborhood that has long been known as a quiet place to live. As CBS 2's Jeremy Ross reported, the bullets went flying in all directions on California Avenue between Rosemont and Granville avenues. Booze bottles and trash littered West Ridge Plaza on the west side of California Avenue on Sunday. The scene tells a story. The debris supports what neighbors describe as a party – with some perhaps drinking shots and then firing shots. "Like 30 rounds, like, ‘Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!'" said Joe Pedro. That is what Pedro said woke him up around 6:30 a.m. Sunday. The gunfire startled other neighbors as well, including firefighters working at Engine Company 71 at 6239 N. California Ave. Bullet holes and evidence markers were seen at their building. A source told CBS 2 some Chicago Fire Department first responders were outside at the time and had to duck for cover.  

Cleveland Fire Fighters Union President Tim Lally and the Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters hopes a new study on dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center attack will provide some answers for those still suffering 19 years later. The study, which started on Sept. 1, is being conducted by Dr. Loren Wold, Assistant Dean of biological research at The Ohio State College of Nursing, and Dr. Mitchell Cohen at New York University. Dr. Wold said his team is exposing lab rats to re-aerosolized dust from the World Trade Center collapse, hoping it will lead to treatments for thousands of first responders who are now suffering from heart and lung disease, as well as symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. "We want to help to determine some of the long term effects, and how we can help them therapeutically," Dr. Wold said.  

Bernie Bierman rubbed his smoke-reddened eyes and managed a grin of relief. It was just after 4 a.m. on Sept. 24, 1936, and the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers football coach was standing across the street from the Florence Hotel in downtown Missoula as it went up in flames. Bierman was out his watch, hat, shaving kit and key ring, all left back upstairs in his haste to escape. Now came word that all 43 of his players, coaches and support staff were unharmed and accounted for. Safe too were the sportswriters and VIPs in the travel party, including the mayor and a state senator from Minneapolis. "Some of the boys lost their personal belongings and a few have tender feet from running around on the pavement but they are all safe, and that's all that matters to me," the coach said. There is no modern equivalent to those Gophers. For one thing, no big-time college football team since has won a third consecutive national championship as they were on their way to doing that season.