While climate change is the primary driver of permafrost degradation in Arctic Alaska, a new analysis of 70 years of data reveals that tundra fires are accelerating that decline, contributing disproportionately to a phenomenon known as "thermokarst," the abrupt collapse of ice-rich permafrost as a result of thawing. Reported in the journal One Earth, the study is the first to calculate the role of fire on permafrost integrity over so many decades, the researchers say. The Arctic permafrost is a vast storehouse of frozen plant and animal matter, a carbon stockpile that, if thawed and degraded, could more than double the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, researchers say. The Arctic permafrost is a vast storehouse of frozen plant and animal matter, a carbon stockpile that, if thawed and degraded, could more than double the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, researchers say.  

A massive fire destroyed a vacant building in South Jackson. The fire was reported about 9 p.m. Wednesday at what was once the ANCOR Adult Daycare on Robinson Road. The flames were so intense that part of the building collapsed. Deputy Chief Cleotha Sanders said the business was not operating and there was no power to the building. Firefighters stayed at the scene overnight putting out hot spots, Sanders said. The cause of the fire has not been determined. No injuries were reported.  

The pandemic has shown how critical emergency medical services are across the country. But in South Carolina and most other states, EMS is not classified as an "essential service," as law enforcement and fire services are. While those services have been part of the US in some fashion since colonial times, EMS is much younger, established in many areas of the country in the 1970s, according to South Carolina EMS Association Advocacy and Legislative Chair Steven McDade. But since then, McDade said EMS has become a necessity in every community. "You can look at it from just an everyday thing, where you can call for a heart attack or a stroke or a car wreck, or look at the impact that EMS has had during this pandemic. They, really, we've been the ones, frontline, combatting that," he said.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Jefferson County Public Schools is utilizing virtual reality to train future firefighters. The district is incorporating virtual reality into its academic programs and pathways, including in the Fire Science program at Fern Creek High School. Students use VR headsets to experience what it's like to enter a burning building. Fern Creek firefighters provide weekly class time and training for students. "They're able to get training done now, while they are in school, that would take them 6 months to complete after they graduated," said Nathan Mulvey, chief of the Fern Creek Fire Department. "So it's pretty exciting." Since there is also a shortage of EMTs, organizers are trying to develop an EMT program within the school's Fire Science program.  

Christopher Williams is still in disbelief that he's going to be an astronaut. "It's still almost a little bit surreal, something that you've dreamed about your whole life and now getting the opportunity to do, I feel so lucky and honored to have the chance to do this and to be part of the team," he told MyMCM. NASA announced its latest astronauts on Dec. 6 with Williams and nine other candidates being selected from a field of more than 12,000 applicants, according to a press release from NASA. Since the original Mercury Seven space mission in 1959, there have only been 360 astronauts selected by NASA, including Williams' cohort. "Becoming an astronaut has been sort of a dream of mine ever since I was a little kid," Williams said.  

Dec. 8, 2021, is officially known as Florida Urban Search & Rescue Task Force 3 Day in Hillsborough County in honor of the first responders that jumped into action after this summer's deadly Surfside condo collapse. In the wake of the tragedy that claimed 98 lives, some 75 men and women across the Tampa Bay area were dispatched to South Florida to assist with search and rescue efforts. The elite group, led by Andrew Capelleti of Hillsborough County Fire Rescue and Captain Brian Eichholz from Tampa Fire Rescue, consisted of members of both agencies as well as St. Pete Fire Rescue. "The gallant first responders of Florida Urban Search & Rescue Task Force 3 worked side by side, day and night, doing everything they could for the victims of this terrible tragedy and their grieving families," Hillsborough County Commissioner Harry Cohen said during Wednesday's meeting.