COVID-19 has impacted staffing across the state, and the Girdwood Fire Department is adding housing to that list of challenges to finding enough people. Girdwood Fire and Rescue is looking to fill eight spots on their team, but they're specifically looking for people that live in Girdwood, and that's because 70% of their team commutes from Anchorage. "We need additional Girdwood volunteers because in the middle of the night when you need to staff up really quickly, we need to have community members that can come out and respond," said Chief Michelle Weston. Weston explained the factors that have led to the majority of the force's staff commuting from Anchorage, rather than living locally. "It's primarily influenced by the fact that we have a lot of people ... that want to volunteer, but they can't afford to live in Girdwood anymore and so they've moved into town," Weston said.  

VIDEO: Emergency crews worked to extinguish a large fire in Gary, Indiana. Firefighters responded to the 3100 block of Grant Street just before 11 a.m. for reports of a fire at the Denny's restaurant and Love's Truck stop. SkyCam 9 flew over the scene. Gary Police posted on Facebook asking drivers to stay away from the area. "All commuters: we are asking you to divert your traffic away from Grant Street between the expressway and 35th Avenue. The Gary Fire Department is working hard to contain the fire at Love's Truck Stop. Please keep the area clear for emergency vehicles. Do not come to the area or on to the property to sightsee or take photos," the post said. Employees at nearby businesses said they smelled smoke and went outside to see what was going on.  

VIDEO: Surveillance video has been released showing a fire truck on the move after someone attempted to steal it from a fire station in Lauderhill. "The person, the male subject, became aggressive with the firefighters," said Lauderhill Fire Department Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Levy. He climbs into the truck, lights it up and throws it into reverse, before eventually being dragged out. Police said his name is Freddie Ross. They said, Tuesday night, at Fire Station 110 in Lauderhill, a crew returning from a call saw something strange and got on their radios. He kept walking toward the ambulance, and that's when things escalated. "The firefighters were trying to calm the situation by talking to him through the window," said Levy. He wasn't giving up. "The male subject was able to force his way through the window of the driver's side of the ambulance onto where the driver was sitting," said Levy.  

Thick smoke billowed from the vacant, crumbling St. Louis house, but Benjamin Polson knew homeless people might be inside taking refuge from the January chill. So the 33-year-old firefighter went in. It cost him his life. Eleven days later, three Baltimore firefighters died when an abandoned row home collapsed. The same vacant house was the site of another fire seven years earlier that injured three firefighters. Vacant homes dot the landscape — urban and rural — across the U.S. They're far more prone to catch fire, and because the structures are often compromised, they are especially dangerous for firefighters. Officials in St. Louis and Baltimore are looking at ways to reduce those risks. St. Louis fire leaders are doing an inventory of every vacant home — all 10,000 of them — with plans to develop a computerized database so firefighters know what they're getting into.  

Even with six years of fighting fires under his belt, Renard Cox approaches his job with the excitement of a rookie. "I love it. I love putting this uniform on every day," Cox said. "If you've ever been at this station when tones go off, it is a rush." The veteran of the Richmond Fire Department thrives on helping strangers in need. Protecting his roots on the city's south side from Station 17. "This is one of my dreams as a kid," Cox said. "I used to come and frequently play in this district. So this is like home." His fellow firefighters are a true band of brothers and sisters. "We're not just a team. We're a family," he said. The 43-year-old Richmond firefighter takes pride in the task at hand. "It could be three or four o'clock in the morning. Tones go off. I'm wide awake," Cox said. "It's go time."  

States that recently announced plans to lift either indoor or school mask mandates have at least two things in common: Hospitalization rates are on the decline, and all except one have a larger share of fully vaccinated residents than the national average. Most of the governors in those states have linked these metrics to their moves to lift some Covid-19 mitigation measures. That's raising questions about whether these metrics should play a larger role in mitigation decisions nationwide -- more than Covid-19 case counts. Meanwhile, shifts to phase out state mask mandates conflict with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance to continue wearing masks in areas with "high" or "substantial" Covid-19 transmission, which includes about 99% of US counties.