A water treatment system is needed at Nikiski Fire Station #3 to offset high mineral content for the station's domestic water supply. That's according to legislation and supporting documents approved by the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly during the body's March 1 meeting. According to the ordinance passed by the assembly, the need for a water treatment system was determined as a potable water well was being developed. The well was installed as part of the construction of the station, which was completed in 2021. To complete the water treatment system, the Nikiski Fire Service needed to move an additional $10,000 from its capital project fund for the project.  

A father and his 2-year-old were safe after the toddler was tossed to safety from a second-story window during an apartment fire in New Jersey on Monday, authorities said. The rescue, which was was captured on video from different angles, involved officials from the South Brunswick Township Police Department and Chief Chris Perez of the Monmouth Junction Fire Department. "We thought the building was evacuated, and then there's somebody at the window and then we said, 'Oh my God, he has a baby,'" police Sgt. John Penney told NBC New York. After the boy was thrown to rescuers, his father, who has not yet been publicly identified, dropped from the second floor. His fall was broken by rescuers and shrubbery surrounding the building, police said.  

Though the Alexandria Fire Department doesn't have any female firefighters, the city's Board of Works and Safety on Monday voted unanimously in favor of a contract that would double the number of weeks for paid maternity leave from four to eight. Capt. Adam Matson said the newly approved contract also provides three days of paternity leave. "I don't know of a lot of fire departments that have maternity leave," he admitted. "We've made great strides to get it to eight weeks. We're hoping in '23 to go to 12." The Family and Medical Leave Act makes unpaid leave available to new parents working for larger employers. The Alexandria Fire Department has offered four weeks of paid maternity for the past four years, Matson said. The department doesn't have any current job openings, but Matson said he hopes the paid maternity and paternity leaves will be attractive to future candidates.  

VIDEO: A firefighter drill in Georgia turned into a surprise marriage proposal. Two Savannah fire stations partnered for a training session Wednesday, but unbeknownst to one firefighter, that wasn't the real purpose of the day. In fact, there wasn't going to be a drill at all. Tyler Carlson was blindfolded and sent into a burn building to find a downed firefighter. "My captain told me I was the lead and to go first," she said. "He was very adamant on that! I started searching...and then once I came to the end of the hose line, then told me to stop and remove my blindfold." She was shocked to see her boyfriend, Savannah Fire Capt. Bill Barrett, in front of her. Even before she took off her helmet, she could see he was on one knee with a ring in hand.  

In 2010, an East Tennessee firefighter by the name of Michael Robinson saw first-hand how hot a burning building can be when he almost watched his partner die from overheating. "We didn't have anything to help us cool off. We had some lukewarm bottles of water, a cold towel around his neck and it could have turned out a lot different but we saved him," said Robinson. Shortly after that happened he decided to take matters into his own hands and create the Heatseeker H2O, which acts as a nozzle you hook up to a fire engine that provides a cool mist to help first responders cool off. Robinson said with about 70 pounds of gear, and extreme heat, the elements can "literally cook our body" while responding to fires. The mist provided by the Heatseeker H2O can cool a first responder off as much as 30 degrees.  

Two years after COVID-19 first forced widespread closures in the U.S., Americans are more optimistic about the trajectory of the pandemic than they have been since last June before the delta and omicron variants of the virus swept through the country. As COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline, Americans' concern about contracting the disease has dropped precipitously. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Americans' views of it have tracked closely with the ebbs and flows in COVID-19 cases. That is, during periods of high transmission and infection, the public has evaluated the situation as worsening, and when the virus has receded somewhat, assessments have turned more positive.