The Bureau of Land Management personnel will burn woody debris piles on land it manages near Tanacross Oct. 26-31 to reduce the risk of wildfire, protect private property and community members, and provide a safe space for firefighters to suppress fires in the future. Burning will occur east of Tanacross, along the east side of the Old Tanacross Road, and west of the airfield. Additional burning will occur just south of the Alaska Highway east of milepost 1325. Signs will be posted along the Alaska Highway during periods of active burning. Smoke may be visible to motorists in the area, as well as from the communities of Tanacross and Tok. In accordance with smoke permit issued by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (ADEC), the piles will be ignited when weather conditions will minimize the impact of smoke on populated areas.  

VIDEO: For six months now, the Philadelphia Fire Department and Drexel University have partnered to study the levels of stress and mental health of first responders in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Presently, they are crunching the data collected, but already there are preliminary findings that could help guide officials going forward. Even before the pandemic, researchers at Drexel University's School of Public Health found that the mental health load of the job of firefighters and paramedics was already significant. Now you add putting on all that protective gear to make sure you're not catching the virus when responding to emergency calls. "It's the calls when you don't think you need to put it on and then the patients are coming back positive and then our members have to worry about did they contract it," said paramedic Jacqulyn Murphy.  

VIDEO: BSO Fire Rescue has a new tool it is using to help the public and save lives. Local 10 News got an exclusive look at their upgraded EMS rescue helicopters. Meeting up at Pompano Beach Air Park, BSO showed Local 10 what the twin Eurocopter EC135 helicopters can do. They are dedicated to EMS missions and have been branded as ‘Firestars' with a completely different black, red and gold color scheme. The EMS helicopters are also carrying whole blood, which is usually only available in trauma centers. Whole blood is much more effective for patients than an IV because it has oxygen in it. The fluids do not. A crew of three go out on each flight; a pilot and co-pilot up front and a paramedic in the back, attending to the patient as they wing their way to the hospital. The helicopters were retrofitted around the life-saving emergency equipment they carry, and it's not just defibrillators and heart monitors.  

VIDEO: DeKalb County firefighters saved one of their own after he fell through the floor while trying to put out an overnight hotel fire. Firefighters responded to the Oyo Hotel near the Wesley Chapel Road and Interstate 20 exit around midnight Monday morning. They found smoke pouring out of the three-story building. As firefighters worked to extinguish the flames, one of them fell from the second to the first floor. A standby team of firefighters then rushed in to save him. Luckily he wasn't injured. In fact, the Battalion Chief says the firefighter managed to finish out his shift and even continue to help put out the fire.  

In 1974, the television program "Emergency!" made Paul Brouwer, 72, keen on becoming a firefighter. "It was all the rage at the time," he recalled. The current township emergency manager since 1991, he spent about 30 years in the Clinton Township Fire Department before retiring in 2004 as deputy chief of operations. The emergency manager position is separate from CTFD. This month, the CTFD celebrates 75 years in operation. The department, which has five stations, serviced nearly 14,000 calls in 2019. Brouwer was part of the first HAZMAT technician class with the Michigan State Police, developing a team of around 20 technicians and a couple specialists in the late ‘80s — one of the biggest in Macomb County. He went from HAZMAT to working in specialties like high-angle rescues and confined spaces, to going on ambulance runs and being a first responder with EMTs. "Now, every person in the suppression division is a full-blown paramedic," he said.  

According to DHEC, South Carolina firefighters are reaching a milestone of 200 naloxone administrations for suspected opioid overdoses this year as of October 21st. The Reducing Opioid Loss of Life (ROLL) program trains any fire department to administer the opioid antidote naloxone, including departments not staffed with emergency medical technicians. It's administered by DHEC's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and currently includes over1,700 firefighters in 113 units across the state. South Carolina started the program in 2017 to address the increasing number of opioid overdoses and deaths. "The expansion of ROLL this year couldn't have come at a more important time, allowing more first responder fire departments to respond to significant increases in suspected overdoses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Arnold Alier, director of DHEC's Emergency Medical Services.