The Anchorage Police Department and Anchorage Fire Department unions are speaking out about some of the amendments Mayor Dave Bronson vetoed in the assembly's approved first quarter budget revision. In a press release, the mayor's office said the vetoes not only save taxpayer money and deliver a budget well below the tax cap, but also creates a "more efficient" and "effective government." However, some local union leaders now have questions about the mayor's actions. Vice President Justin Mack of the Anchorage Firefighters Union Local 1264 said his union is displeased that the mayor vetoed funding for staffing and personnel improvements. He specifically pointed to an amendment that would have allocated $50,000 from the Alcohol Tax Program that would have funded a study to review and make recommendations regarding the personnel levels, staffing structure, national standards and other contributors to labor costs within the fire department.  

Seasonal wildland Emergency Firefighters (EFFs) in southwest Alaska are being offered an online Fireline Safety Refresher tomorrow Saturday May 7, 2022 at 1:00 PM. This free required annual training is offered to wildland fire personnel who live in Nikolai, McGrath, Shageluk, Kalskag, Nondalton, Scammon Bay, Hooper Bay, Chevak and surrounding areas. Attendance is required for the duration of the class to receive credit for the Fireline Safety Refresher. Attending this full day class is an annual tradition that each local, state and federal firefighter does each year to obtain their valid wildland firefighting Red Card proving readiness for professional duty. The Work Capacity Pack Test and hiring paperwork will take place at a later date as conditions allow. As a reminder, this is for southwest Alaska EFF firefighters only please.  

VIDEO: An early morning apartment fire has displaced six people and destroyed five to six cars in Phoenix, the city's police department said. Phoenix and Glendale firefighters responded to the scene near 12th St & Maryland Friday morning, the department said. Heavy fire was coming from a single-story apartment when crews arrived. Firefighters discovered that the fire had spread to the back of the complex and had engulfed five or six cars, the department said. More units were requested and crews were able to aggressively attack the fire. 12 News has obtained security footage showing the moments before the fire engulfed the apartments and cars. A neighbor said he believes the footage shows the person responsible for setting the fire. Fire officials are still working to determine the cause of the fire.  

Ten firefighters were transported to the hospital, three of whom were administered naloxone, after becoming ill while at the scene of a house fire Wednesday afternoon on Webster Road in the town of Portland. All of the first responders have since been released and are recovering at home, Portland Fire Chief David McIntyre said. In his decades of fire service, McIntyre said he's never come across a situation in which so many firefighters have been stricken with illness at one time. He said there are "rumors and guesses" as to what the firefighters were exposed to while battling the remnants of the blaze, but nothing has been made official. Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone on Wednesday confirmed several firefighters had been "overcome with fumes" while at the scene. The firefighters were transported to hospitals in Westfield and Dunkirk.  

PHOTO: A piece of Baltimore history has a new home in Timonium. The fireboat "Tommy" rolled into the Fire Museum of Maryland on a flatbed truck Thursday morning. The boat is named after former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., who served the city for 59 years and is the father of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In 2015, the city decommissioned the vessel, and for the past several years, it sat at Tradepoint Atlantic. Although much of the boat was scrapped, portions were able to be preserved, and the museum has big plans for its display. "It's been about three years that we've been working on this and what you see here is the fruition of hundreds of telephone calls, emails and plans to have the boat cut down further," said Stephen Heaver, director of the Fire Museum of Maryland.  

VIDEO: A duo in Hernando County are bringing the beverages to events around the Tampa Bay area in a very unique way. Jeffrey Jackson and Devin Mormando volunteered in the 1991 fire truck they now run for events. They saw the truck in an auction and new they had to have it. "We used to volunteer on it back at our volunteer department locally. We saw it on the auction block, decided we wanted to pick it up before it went anywhere else, and started just shooting ideas back and forth," said Jackson. "Came up with a beer truck. Mostly, a tap truck. So we can do anything through here, not just beer or liquor. We can do multiple different beverages." Finding the truck they began their careers on as volunteers was astounding. But, it's not an opportunity Mormando and Jackson initially jumped on.  

VIDEO: For the first time in months, daily hospital admission levels and new COVID-19-related deaths in the United States are both projected to increase over the next four weeks, according to updated forecast models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The projected increases come after weeks of steady upticks in infections across the country, subsequent to the removal of masking requirements and mitigation measures in many states and cities. The forecast now predicts that approximately 5,000 deaths will occur over the next two weeks, with Ohio, New York and New Jersey projected to see the largest totals of daily deaths in the weeks to come. "We are still in the middle of a pandemic, to be sure -- there's no confusion about that," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told Foreign Policy last week.