Four small wildfires that ignited in dry grass during military training in south Delta Junction were swiftly extinguished Thursday. The fires occurred in the Jarvis Range in the Donnelly Training Area, a military range slated for upcoming annual prescribed burning by BLM Alaska Fire Service (BLM AFS) personnel to mitigate the risk of wildfire outbreaks from military activities. Each year, BLM AFS collaborates with U.S. Army Garrison Alaska to conduct prescribed burns in training areas near Delta Junction, Eielson Air Force Base, and south of Fairbanks, clearing dead grass post-snowmelt to reduce wildfire risks to nearby communities, resources, and facilities. U.S. Army helicopters were using the range for training when exposed, dry grass caught on fire. U.S. Army Garrison Alaska range control personnel quickly extinguished the fire.  

A fire burned through several units of an under construction housing development overnight on Sunday. The Phoenix Fire Department responded to multiple homes burning at 59th Avenue and Baseline Road around 11:30 p.m. Flames could be seen from the Loop 202. At least 75 firefighters responded to control the blaze, which was upgraded to a second-alarm at one point during the night. Due to the development still being under construction, the fire department had issues with water supply. "Because this is a new housing development, some of this water grid isn't fully set up, some of our fire hydrants did not have connecting water to it," said Phoenix Fire Captain Todd Keller. Firefighters from seven different cities in the Valley assisted in controlling the fire.  

VIDEO/PHOTO: A piece of Minnesota firefighting history is sending some retired volunteers down memory lane. A collector from New Mexico posted on Facebook last week that he bought an old fire truck and, after tracing some of its history, discovered it belonged to Bloomington beginning in the 1950s. Fred Fuecker, a 23-year volunteer firefighter, says he served on the truck in 1968. "Only place you see those is in the old books that we keep," he said. Pete Heger volunteered for 25 years. He considers himself an unofficial historian of sorts for the department. Heger served with the truck too in the 1970s and shared a couple of old photos of it with WCCO. Neither Heger nor Fuecker thought they'd ever see it again. "Brought back memories when I was at the old station before a lot of these guys were even around," Fuecker said.  

The increased traffic and spectacle of the total solar eclipse on Monday could imperil motorists, with researchers warning that fatal collisions increased during previous eclipses and law enforcement bracing for the event. There was a 31% increase in fatal traffic accidents during the 2017 total eclipse – and even in the days before and after the astrological event – according to a letter published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal this week. The surge in accidents wasn't linked to the moments of darkness when the moon obscured the sun – surprisingly, "we see a significant decrease during the single hour that involves the eclipse," co-author Dr. Donald Redelmeier wrote. The problem is the surrounding hours, when people are traveling to their place of observation and especially afterwards," Redelmeier, the University of Toronto professor of medicine, told Live Science.