AUDIO: It's been more than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic upended life all over the world. A year ago this week, calls and texts went out to Ketchikan residents, urging them to "hunker down" to contain the spread of COVID-19. Earlier in 2020, as local authorities prepared for the pandemic to arrive in Ketchikan, they spun up an organization that's become all too familiar: the Ketchikan Emergency Operations Center, or EOC. Over the past year, it has tracked case counts, stockpiled protective gear and overseen tens of thousands of coronavirus tests — and more recently, vaccinations. At the head of the EOC is Abner Hoage. He's the chief of the Ketchikan Fire Department and the community's emergency manager. I sat down with Hoage earlier this month to reflect on the past year. I started by asking what it was like for him, a fire chief, to suddenly be tasked with managing the community's response to a new, relatively unknown disease.  

VIDEO: A woman was rescued from a four-alarm commercial fire just moments before flames engulfed the building in downtown Oklahoma City, fire officials said. Crews were called out to check smoke at the structure just before 6:30 p.m. Tuesday evening in the 800 block of NW 4th St. Responding crews reported seeing visible flames and heavy smoke at the vacant structure. We're told a local theater company uses the building for storage. Firefighters had to remove bars from a window in order to rescue a woman inside, Battalion Chief Benny Fulkerson with the Oklahoma City Fire Department said. The victim was taken to a local hospital in an unknown condition to be evaluated. Fulkerson said more than 75 firefighters were on the scene working to extinguish the flames. Investigators have not yet determined a cause for the fire.  

Nearly 24 hours after a firefighter went missing in a suburban New York assisted living home fire, his body has been found. Rockland County volunteer firefighter Jared Lloyd was the second casualty in the blaze that gutted the Evergreen Court Home for Adults in Spring Valley early Tuesday, according to Rabbi Yisroel Kahan of the county's Human Rights Commission. Lloyd was escorted to the Medical Examiner early Wednesday morning, Kahan said. Officials say Lloyd was one of the first firefighters to arrive at the scene. He was on the third floor trying to put out the flames when he became disoriented and eventually trapped there. His body was found just before midnight Wednesday after a search crew with a rescue dog were unable to locate him Tuesday afternoon. Hope for his survival had already faded as the crew was seen backing off so firefighters could continue to hose down the smoldering wreckage.  

VIDEO: Lieutenants Joe and Jennifer Linnenkugel completed their final shift at the Toledo Fire and Rescue Department on Tuesday. Both have been members of the department for years and knew each other well before joining. Jennifer had been a stay-at-home mom before her husband transferred to Toledo. Upon going through the training, she realized there were a number of women in his fire class. "I didn't think that women should be firefighters, so when he decided to get on Toledo so we could come back - my family lived here - he had three women that were in his fire class," Jennifer said. For some reason, that did not sit well with Jennifer. "Obviously, I could tell she was thinking about it before, because when I would come home from the academy she was always asking questions about it," Joe said.  

VIDEO: For those with mental or physical disabilities, moments of crisis and high-stress situations can causes panic or unpredictable responses. That's why Mankato Public Safety is using an app that can help them approach those with special needs. The Vitals App provides first responders with medical data and other critical information when they come into contact with a vulnerable person. When a person wearing a Vitals Bluetooth Beacon comes within 80 feet of a first responder, it notifies that responder's smartphone device on their unique needs and the best way to interact with them. "We will get an alert and we won't get an alert until we get within that distance. And that alert will provide information to the responder in real-time. Information provided by the person themselves, a parent, or a caregiver that may have information such as emergency contacts, ways to calm, ways to de-escalate," said Officer DuRose.  

VIDEO: The Lexington Fire Department is saying goodbye to a reliable and trustworthy member of the team. For more than 60 years, firefighters knew their ladder truck would get them to the fire. Thousands of miles later, it's time to retire the truck. Lexington Fire Chief Paul Jarrett is going over the retiring ladder truck for the last time. "It has a long, long history," Jarrett said. "Everybody that I can think of has some sort of connection to that fire truck." Built in 1958 and refurbished in 1997, many Lexington firefighters rode on the back or in the cab of the aerial ladder truck. With such an impressive service record, Jarrett can't imagine seeing this work horse sit in one spot. "We would use it anytime we needed extra help if we had a large call. It was always in operation," Jarrett said. The 62-year-old ladder truck is waiting for its fate at the city garage parking lot. In this case, the final resting place brings plenty of smiles.