Alaska is now past its historical peak of the wildland fire season and current and forecasted conditions are pointing to a below-normal fire season for the state, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center's Predictive Services desk. Significant rainfall in many parts of the state during the last half of June moderated fire activity and saturated fuel layers, Moore said. As a result, many of the more than 80 active wildfires around the state are simply smoldering or no longer showing activity. "Right now, we don't have the fuels to support a lot of fire growth on the ground and we would need at least a week, maybe 10 days or more, of warming and drying to put a lot of areas in the state into having the duff dry enough to start supporting more intense fire behavior that has been isolated this year," Moore said.  

Cooler, damper weather on the Kenai Peninsula has prompted the Alaska Division of Forestry to lift the two-month long burn permit suspension. In a release, the Division said it "opens the way for cautious, permitted burning." The suspension was lifted effective Wednesday at 8 a.m. Under the burn permit suspension, brush piles and the use of burn barrels were prohibited. With the burn permit suspension lifted, residents may now burn small brush piles or use burn barrels with a small-scale burn permit, which can be obtained online at DNR dot Alaska dot gov, or at local fire departments. For brush piles larger than 10-feet across and four-feet high, a large-scale burn permit is required, which can be obtained from the Division of Forestry office in Soldotna.  

VIDEO: Two workers were pulled from scaffolding that was dangling from the side of an apartment building in Boston's Chinatown on Thursday morning. The incident happened 13 stories in the air at Tai Tung Village, a housing and business complex. Witness Andres Mateo told NBC10 Boston he saw the scaffolding drop. "I saw the guy hanging from the rope," Meteo recalled. He said as he started recording with his cellphone, one man was pulled inside a window by firefighters. The other man was taken in after firefighters broke through the glass. "Both workers were brought in safely and they were immediately taken to Boston EMS just for an evaluation. They both appeared to be fine," said Jonathan Hernandez of the Boston Fire Department.  

As coronavirus cases surge in much of the country, issues with testing availability and access have once again arisen in nearly every aspect of the testing supply chain, local officials and hospital leaders in several states told ABC News -- a troubling echo of the shortages that plagued the nation's initial response to the virus months ago. Testing issues have manifested differently in different parts of the country, from states in the midst of a renewed battle against COVID-19 and those who still fear one might be coming, officials said. In California and Nebraska, some testing sites were forced to close down because of a shortage in testing kits, chemical reagents, and other supplies. Arizona and South Carolina reported slower turnaround times for test results from labs due to lack of capacity. In New York, private labs now take up to a week to return test results.  

A 100-year-old technique is still being used by firefighters to save lives in St. Bernard Parish. Firefighters at the St. Bernard Fire Department say they are incorporating the use of tourniquets when responding to emergencies. "How are you going to help somebody with a gunshot wound," said Mark Caruso, with the St. Bernard Fire Department. "We're thinking about things like tourniquets to stop the bleeding." Caruso said his crew had to make the decision to use a tourniquet while responding to a shooting. It helped stop the victim's bleeding until EMS arrived, according to Caruso. "When EMS arrived on the scene I was able to transport the patient to the trauma center," Said Raul Vallecillo, EMT. Three lives were saved that day and another the following month, all thanks to tourniquets.  

Survivors of the Camp Fire can get an online sneak peek of the Ron Howard documentary Rebuilding Paradise this weekend. The original plan of the filmmaker to have it first shown in the Paradise Performing Arts Center. This couldn't happen, however, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Instead, the film's debut was at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, which was attended by former Paradise mayor Woody Culleton, who was one of several survivors featured in the documentary. "The first 10 minutes are of live fire footage and people escaping," said Culleton, saying it can be traumatic for some survivors. "Once you get beyond that it's the story about how does a town come back from total destruction," he said. "Ron did a really good job of showing that side of our community." Showings of the film online will be at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.