The bodies of three men have been located in the debris of an avalanche slide near Anchorage, Alaska State Troopers said. Troopers identified the victims as Thomas Devine, 54, of Chugiak; Matthew Nyman, 43, of Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Edward Watson, 50, of Miami. Troopers said in an online report late Wednesday that next-of-kin had been notified. The three had indicated to friends on Tuesday they were going hiking near Bear Mountain, which rises above Mirror Lake about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of downtown Anchorage. The view from the top of the 2,000-foot (610-kilometer) mountain peak affords stunning views of the surrounding area. The group was last seen leaving for their hike about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. They were expected to return to a parking area about 5 p.m. but didn't show. By 10:30 p.m., they were reported overdue to the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center.  

A Greensboro firefighter is being recognized for his life-saving invention. Capt. CJ Woody earned the city's Innovator of the Year award for designing and creating a decontamination shower head that attaches to fire trucks. The idea came to Woody after battling cancer. Firefighters are at a high risk of exposure to cancer-causing toxins. So, keeping their gear clean is crucial to their protection. His homemade shower head is helping firefighters wash off all their gear without any help. "I wanted to come up with a way that a firefighter could go up and decon themselves without having that outside person come in," Woody said. Isolating this pivotal decontamination practice to one person reduces exposing anyone else to dangerous toxins. The department's 26 fire engines are all fitted with a showerhead. The device attaches to a port on the back of the engine to create an outdoor shower. Woody hopes all that water is potentially saving lives.  

24-year-old Dejah Woods will make history when she begins her first shift as a firefighter in DeLand Thursday. At that moment, Woods will officially become the city's first ever black female firefighter. Of the 49 firefighters in the department, Woods is one of just three women, and four minorities. Woods says she's always wanted to serve her community. "Not only am I excited about it, you know, I've got the courage to want to go into a burning building and save whoever is in there," Woods says. "I want to be the best fireman I can be." Nationally, about 4% of firefighters are women, and just over 8% are black, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association. DeLand Fire Department Chief Todd Allen says they're actively working to recruit more women and minorities through social media, college recruitment, and working with community leaders.  

Google asked the US Federal Aviation Administration for permission to test a drone for monitoring and fighting fires. However, its drone plans, which were published Thursday in the federal register, have since been extinguished. The request came from Alphabet's Google Research Climate and Energy Group -- not the company's Wing subsidiary, whose drone delivery service was certified by the FAA in 2019. Wing drones are being used to deliver food and medicine during the coronavirus pandemic. The Google Research group asked for permission to operate an unmanned aircraft system called the HSE-UAV M8A Pro, which weighs between 55 and 99 pounds. That drone, made by Homeland Surveillance & Electronics for agricultural purposes like spraying chemicals on crops, could in theory be filled with water to put out a fire, a Bloomberg report noted. Google, though, has "no immediate plans to reengage on this work," said a spokesperson on Wednesday, adding that the petition to the FAA was submitted "almost a year ago for a project we were considering exploring at the time."  

PHOTOS: In nearly 50 years of reminiscing about his hometown of Park Ridge with fellow members of the Park Ridge Historical Society, a favorite topic for Ralph R. Bishop was his adventures with the Lil' Pirsch fire truck, first bought by the city in 1921. His father, Ralph E. Bishop, was fire chief when the city bought the pumper truck, built by Nash. The original chassis turns 100 this year, but by 1932 the department decided it needed to be rebuilt to replace the hard tires and wooden spokes on the wheels, and double the water tank capacity from 250 gallons to 500 gallons. The makeover, by Pirsch, based in Kenosha, WI, gave it a new name. the Lil' Pirsch, and an official age based on the 1932 parts. Ralph and his brother Emmett grew up in a fire department family so he learned to help care for it, to drive it, and to nurse it through fires when service stations were few and far between. He also repaired Model T. Fords.  

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, recently commented in a blog post that a next pandemic could be 10 times worse than the one we are currently experiencing. In this context, the billionaire proposes to create "a squad of pandemic firefighters" to take action against such a threat. "The unfortunate reality is that COVID-19 may not be the last pandemic. We do not know when the next one will arrive, or if it will be a flu, a coronavirus or some new disease that we have never seen before. But what we do know is that we cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard again. The threat of the next pandemic will always be over our heads, unless the world takes measures to prevent it ", explains the businessman. After encouraging governments to continue investing in technology, research and development even when this emergency has passed, and proposing the creation of "mega-diagnostic platforms", Gates sees the need to train professionals with new skills in order to have " a global alert system that today we do not have on a large scale ".