This fall, voters in the Anchor Point and Ninilchik areas will consider whether to join forces on their emergency services. The Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly approved an ordinance last Tuesday that will ask voters on the Oct. 6 ballot whether they want to become a single service area for fire and emergency medical services. The move has had several public meetings and has been in the works since earlier this spring. Most of it originates from concerns from Ninilchik residents about the sustainability of their EMS services. Right now, Ninilchik Fire and EMS is a nonprofit funded by the residents, and earlier this year a restructuring sent a scare through the community about having services at all. After a work group facilitated by the borough evaluated it, the most financially viable option seemed to be joining forces with Anchor Point's fire and emergency service area, which starts just south of Ninilchik.  

The fire that broke out on the USS Bonhomme Richard on Sunday was still burning at the time of writing. The blaze has caused at least 20 casualties, and the fate of the ship is unclear, with Navy officials stating it was too soon to say if the vessel will be salvageable. But new firefighting technology might have stopped the fire before it ran out of control. Fire is the biggest hazard for warships. Compartmentalized bulkheads make modern vessels unlikely to sink even if holed below the waterline. During WWII, only one U.S. carrier was sunk, but four were lost to fire. As with Bonhomme Richard, the ammunition and aviation fuel on board made them especially vulnerable to catastrophe. Swedish company Unifire say their FlameRanger could make a difference. Claimed to be the most sophisticated robotic firefighting system in the world, FlameRanger comprises sensors linked to nozzles on robotic arms.  

A Daytona Beach man positive with HIV was accused of passing on the virus by spitting on a South Daytona firefighter-paramedic, police said. Julio Rivera, 41, who was being investigated in a domestic violence case on Tuesday, was charged with criminal transmission of HIV, battery on a firefighter by way of spitting, domestic violence battery, resisting arrest without violence, fleeing and attempting to elude police, giving a false name, unlawful possession of molly/ecstasy, possession of drug paraphernalia, and grand theft. Rivera was being held in the Volusia County Branch Jail on Wednesday without bail. South Daytona police were called to a domestic disturbance at a South Palmetto Avenue home where Rivera's girlfriend reported being battered. Rivera then fled on a bicycle, police said. An officer spotted Rivera and ordered him to stop but Rivera pedaled faster. The officer exited his patrol car and ran after Rivera, a report states.  

Evansville Fire officials are forging ahead with a diversity and inclusion training program from the firefighters' union. The move comes months after a fire inspector's use of a racist slur on the job pushed issues of race in the department into the headlines. A diversity sub-committee set up by the Evansville Fire Department Merit Commission will undergo a five-hour virtual training next week with the International Association of Fire Fighters, Fire Chief Mike Connelly announced at a commission meeting Tuesday afternoon. It's the first step in a three-step process developed by the IAFF. The program costs the city nothing, instead paid for by firefighters' union dues. The IAFF program consists of three separate modules, Larry Zuber, president of the Evansville Professional Firefighters Local 357, explained in an earlier interview. The first module focuses on training department officials on the best methods for recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce.  

The Austin EMS Association is worried there aren't enough ambulances in the city to quickly respond to emergencies. Leadership representing the medics of Austin/Travis County EMS said they were disappointed they didn't see any new vehicles in the budget released on Monday. "We are seeing at least 50 calls per day that are related to COVID-19," said Austin EMS Association President Selena Xie. Xie said at one point last Friday, 32 of the 33 ambulances in the entire county were unavailable. They were either in service, being decontaminated or going to the hospital. She said the pandemic has led to a higher call volume and long response times. Medics also have to spend more time dealing with PPE issues and heat exhaustion brought on by the extra equipment. "We are starting to see where each sector completely runs out of ambulances and that's going to keep happening more and more as it gets hotter and as COVID continues to really hit Austin hard," Xie said.  

VIDEO: A Raleigh firefighter is an unofficial Guinness World Record holder, pending paperwork. 5,297. That's how many burpees Nick Christopoulos said he did on Sunday in an un-air-conditioned gym. "It was as it sounds, awful...yeah." His venture to hold the title started simply enough- for every call at his firehouse, he'd do 100 burpees. "The day I started, I did 1,300 in one day." The 30-year-old's endurance appears to be genetic. One of his brothers is also a firefighter and Ultra Marathoner. His other brother is a minor league hockey player. Originally, Christopoulos wanted to set the record at his fire station, but COVID-19 slammed the door on that. Instead, a friend offered up their gym. Christopoulos says that since he started his journey for the title, the record had been broken twice - adding 600 more burpees than previously expected.