There were at least two car fires in Anchorage yesterday, an Anchorage Fire Department spokesperson said. In the video, a vehicle can be seen on fire next to a tree on Abbott Road. Mike Crotty with AFD said it's important for people to report these fires immediately and give detailed information about other potential fire risks around the vehicle including trees, other cars or structures that could also catch on fire. "It's always a concern when we have a car on fire somewhere," Crotty said. "It becomes more of a concern when the weather indices or index for fire season are dry and hot. Fortunately, we're coming off of a couple days of rain, but what we want to know from the public when something like this happens is, is there any other risk to a structure, to grass or wildland or trees or anything else that might catch on fire."  

The occupants of a house on First Avenue escaped unharmed from a Sunday morning electrical fire thanks to a vigilant house cat. Ketchikan Fire Marshal Andrea Buchanan says the family was alerted by the feline that apparently knew something was wrong in the house. "A cat in the structure was restless and getting their attention at which time, in responding to the animal, a fire was discovered on the 2nd floor." She says firefighters took the call at about 6:45 a.m. "Upon arrival, suppression units were presented with a large amount of fire from the second floor of the structure. Immediate suppression efforts took place with knock-down of the fire in approximately 45 minutes." Though all four residents and the cat made it out safely, the house was a total loss. Buchanan says there were no injuries, but one resident was transported to the hospital for a non-related medical issue. Power was shut down in the area due to the fire's proximity to power lines.  

A large, early morning house fire destroyed a home on Hazel Drive in Putnam Lake on Thursday. With no fire hydrants in the area, water was carried in on tanker trucks. The family living at the Hazel Drive home were all able to get out safely, with no injuries reported. Putnam Lake Fire Department responded to the scene, with mutual aid from Patterson, Brewster, Croton Falls, and New Fairfield and Danbury, Connecticut. The Putnam County Fire Investigation Team was called in and are currently investigating a cause for the fire.  

Emergency medical dispatchers across North America can now quickly direct 911 callers during time-critical cardiac emergencies to the closest automated external defibrillator (AED), thanks to the implementation of an AED geolocation plan by Priority Dispatch and the PulsePoint Foundation. The partnership between Priority Dispatch and PulsePoint allows 911 dispatchers to inform callers of the location of AEDs while using existing medical dispatch protocols within Priority Dispatch's ProQA® software, with no changes to workflow—saving critical time during life-threatening emergencies. Each year in the U.S., there are approximately 360,000 Emergency Medical Services (EMS)-assessed cardiac arrests outside of a hospital and on average, less than 10 percent of victims survive. The keys to survival are early recognition, early CPR and early defibrillation.  

The US surpassed 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases as experts predicted Thursday that tens of thousands more people will get infected and die in the months ahead. Nearly 113,000 people have died from COVID-19 nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. An influential model cited by the White House issued the dire prediction, saying the US death toll could reach 169,890 by October 1, with a possible range of about 133,000 to 290,000 deaths. Daily deaths are expected to decrease through June and July, then remain relatively stable through August before rising sharply in September, the model forecasts. "If the US is unable to check the growth in September, we could be facing worsening trends in October, November and the following months if the pandemic, as we expect, follows pneumonia seasonality," said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine.  

Researchers at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) have updated and extended the U.S. COVID-19 forecasts through Oct. 1. Researchers are forecasting nearly 170,000 deaths. Deaths are predicted to remain level through August but may start to rise in the fourth week and increase during September, according to an IHME release. Some states will see an increase earlier due to increased mobility and relaxed social distancing guidelines, researchers said. The model includes data through June 6, 2020. The states expected to have the earliest uptick in deaths, according to current modeling, are Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Colorado. Increased travel in some states, as well as the overlap with the flu season, may affect hospital demand in the fall and winter, the release stated.