Alaska is barreling toward 3 million acres burned this wildfire season as the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center Wildland Fire Dashboard reports 2.9 million acres burned statewide Thursday evening. Alaska Division of Forestry Public Information Officer Sam Harrel said the state will likely cross the 3-million-acre mark for what has burned this wildfire season soon. DOF is currently staffing 12 wildfires and Harrel said their top priority is catching new fires early before they spread. "If we can be aggressive on catching new starts, new fires, and prevent them from growing," Harrel said. "Becoming more of a problem, more of a project-type fire that we need to bring a management team into and bring in more firefighting resources. If we can catch those fires in initial attack that's really going to help us in the long run."  

PHOTO: A fire near Ilisagvik College in Utqiagvik engulfed a block of Styrofoam on Thursday afternoon. No injuries or victims were reported, but the college evacuated employees and students. The fire started after noon at the lot where Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp. was storing supplies from prior projects, said Pearl Brower, president and CEO of the corporation. A spokesperson for Ilisagvik College, Asisaun Toovak, said that "once the power lines started to explode, Ilisagvik evacuated the buildings and huts." Clouds of black and gray smoke could be seen rising above the college buildings and the Naval Arctic Research Lab area in photos and videos from the scene. By 4:30 p.m., firefighters had put out the flames, Brower said.  

Firefighters responded to an auto parts yard in south Sacramento after two cars caught fire early Friday morning. The fire started just after 3 a.m. near 25th Avenue and Florin Perkins Road. Crews got to the scene and found the fire in the middle of an auto dismantler yard. Apparently, two vehicles that had just shown up at the yard after some recent accidents had caught fire. It's unclear how the cars caught fire, but firefighters were able to put the flames out quickly. No injuries have been reported.  

VIDEO: When the call for help goes out, LifeFlight of Maine answers. But when they're not saving lives all across the Pine Tree State, they're keeping their skills sharp at the all-new simulation and learning lab. The in-house labs officially opened this week in Bangor, Auburn and Sanford, the beginning of a statewide training connection. "This will be paramedics, nurses, doctors all working together in a community, said LifeFlight Executive Director Thomas Judge. "And this way, we can do it in virtual communities simultaneously all across the state." It's just another day at the office for critical care flight nurse Kelsi Story. "Our trainings are constant, they're ongoing," Story said. "It's pushing us to be better so we can then translate that to the people that we're taking care of." And that training is the real deal. The quote of the day? "Perfect practice makes perfect."  

PHOTOS: Two Elizabeth volunteer firefighters recently took the trip of a lifetime when they drove the town's first firetruck along U.S. 20 from Elizabeth to Newport, Ore., a round-trip journey of more than 4,000 miles. Bob "Hambone" Wand, who is retired from the Elizabeth Fire Department, and Jacob Krug, a current volunteer, left Elizabeth on June 17 in the 1½-ton 1937 Chevrolet Rotary Fire Pump firetruck. They were accompanied by a couple of "chase" cars for moral and mechanical support that carried Wand's wife, Kathy; his daughter Heather; his son Casey; and friend Bonnie Knight, all of Elizabeth. Wand acquired the truck in 2002. "It was Elizabeth's first firetruck," he said. "When the truck was sold, I knew who the department had sold it to. The guy just kept it in a nice garage, and when he was selling it, I went and got it."  

Nearly four years ago, Brian Kyle "BK" Frizzell lost his sister, Haley Frizzell, and roommate David Angel Ortiz to a fire that was deliberately set at the Iconic Village Apartments in San Marcos. Haley, 19, was the youngest of five victims – along with Dru Estes, 20; Belinda Moats, 21; Ortiz, 21; and James Philip Miranda, 23 – who lost their lives on July 20, 2018. The still-unsolved case inspired BK to create "The Weight of Ashes," a 73-minute documentary focusing on each victim's family and BK's best friend, Zachary Sutterfield, who suffered burns on 70% of his body and lost his hands. "When I was in the hospital one time visiting Zach, his mom started talking to me about maybe making a documentary about the whole thing, and at the time I humored her; I was like, ‘yeah, that might be a good idea.' But really I was thinking, ‘there's no way in hell I would ever do that,'" Frizzell said.  

The Philadelphia Fire Department (PFD) is welcoming 76 new members — 67 firefighter/EMTs and nine paramedics — into its ranks after a nine-month training program. This year was the first live audience fire department graduation after the start of the pandemic. The fire department also celebrates 150 years in 2022. This year was very different from recent graduations as paramedic and firefighter classes graduating at the same time is an infrequent event. "This is an unusual extra special event because we usually don't have paramedic and firefighter classes graduating simultaneously. Plus, firefighters graduate every two years and they've all worked so hard," Kathy Matheson, Communications Director for the Philadelphia Fire Department, told AL DÍA. This year's graduation ceremony was special for other reasons, as well.