Governor Mike Dunleavy has introduced an Executive Order that would change the name of the Alaska Division of Forestry to the Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection. Division Director Helge Eng states, "The Division's current name no longer represents the full range of its responsibilities and priorities." The proposed name change "clearly reflects the public safety fire suppression responsibilities of the Division, as well as its forestry duties," he said. Barring opposition from the Alaska Legislature, the name change will take effect July 1, 2022. The Executive Order was read across the legislative floor on the opening day of the 2022 legislative session in Juneau on Tuesday. Alaska and the nation now face more intense and longer fire seasons due to increasingly hot and dry summers and forest insect and disease outbreaks.  

VIDEO: Six people need shelter after flames broke out in an Annapolis neighborhood damaging several homes early Wednesday morning. According to Lt. Michael Mayo, spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, firefighters responded to a report of a house fire in the 1600 block of Elkwood Court around 1:30 a.m. When crews arrived on the scene, they found multiple townhomes engulfed in flames. Approximately 50 firefighters from Anne Arundel, Annapolis City, and the Naval Academy fought the flames from inside and outside the row homes, Lt. Mayo said. They were able to bring the fire under control after approximately 45 minutes. Four homes were damaged in the blaze, however, no residents were injured.  

VIDEO: The Charleston Fire chief says calls for service in the department increased 11 percent this year to pre-pandemic levels. Even with the increase in call volume, some say the pay they're getting isn't enough to live in the city of Charleston. John Baker, who is the secretary of Charleston Firefighters Association Local 61, said it's hard to live and work in Charleston with the current wages they're getting. "We want people to live in the community they serve," Baker said. Starting Jan. 28, an entry-level firefighter/EMT in Charleston will be making $12.88 cents an hour, which is up 50 cents from before, according to Baker. Here in Charleston, the chief said they work 24-hour shifts, and then they get 48 hours off. Baker said they have to work a minimum of 106 hours to get overtime.  

PHOTOS: Virtually every time firefighters Mike Hendrickson and Jesse Schmidt pass by the empty lot on the west side of Broadway in downtown Fargo, they think about the day nearly 22 years ago they almost died there on the job. Reflecting on the arson fire at the Tropics nightclub on Sunday, April 30, 2000, can prompt a visceral response. "Even discussing it … makes the hair on my arms still stand up," Hendrickson said. The two men, among the first on scene at 58 Broadway in the pre-dawn hours, came within a few feet of being crushed by a massive boiler that fell through the floor above them. They and others also escaped a backdraft that broke windows and sent flames rolling out onto Broadway. "We were very lucky," Schmidt said. It was the worst fire in downtown Fargo since 1893, when blocks of wooden buildings in the business district and many homes were burned.  

In light of the recent deadly apartment fire in Aurora that took a child's life and hospitalized two others, FOX31 checked in with a nonprofit that helps front-line workers deal with mental health and stress injuries that the job creates. The fire was allegedly set on purpose and burned through 12 units, displacing 31 people — 18 adults and eight children. A 5-year-old boy died. The All Clear Foundation said they recognize the things that they are exposed to on the job impact the human behind the badge, the uniform and the scrubs. "There is pretty consistent occupational exposure to the intense trauma and pain of other people, to a lot of tragedy," said Rhonda Kelly, the executive director of the All Clear Foundation. "Responders experience exposure to more stress and trauma in the course of a year than many people do in their lifetimes. It is a lot to handle."  

The Omicron BA.2 sub-type continues to attract attention as it spreads in various parts of the world including the U.S. In several news reports and even by some healthcare experts, BA.2 has sometimes been referred to as "stealth Omicron." While the terminology has picked up recently in terms of usage, Google Trends data shows that the term was being used online as far back as early December. This is around the same time as BA.2 was designated as a sub-variant on December 6. Not all experts agree on the usage of the term. Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, tweeted last week that BA.2 "was misdescribed as a 'stealth variant' early on." According to Peacock, the likely reason why BA.2 has picked up the "stealth Omicron" nickname is because it is detected differently in certain COVID PCR tests compared to the more dominant version of Omicron BA.1.