The Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection announced at 7 a.m. this morning, Friday, July 15, Alaska has been downgraded from Preparedness Fire Level 5 to Level 4. The Emergency Burn Closure that has been in place since July 2 was lifted Thursday at 9 a.m. by the Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection. The Alaska State Fire Marshal's office has also rescinded the Personal Fireworks Suspension put in place on June 30. The office rescinded the suspension following the Division of Forestry lifting of the Emergency Burn Closures. This includes the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the Mat-Su Borough, Denali Borough, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough, plus Tok, Delta Junction, and the Copper River Basin. Use of personal fireworks may still be illegal in some areas of the state.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: The North Las Vegas Police Department confirmed on Sunday afternoon that there was a plane crash at North Las Vegas Airport. Police said they received the call at around 12:04 p.m. The Clark County Department of Aviation provided a statement saying that at the airport, there were two general aviation aircraft that resulted in multiple fatalities. The Federal Aviation Administration said that a single-engine Piper PA-46 and a single-engine Cessna 172 collided in the traffic pattern at North Las Vegas Airport around noon local time Sunday. Preliminary information indicates that the Piper PA-46 was preparing to land when it collided with the Cessna 172. The Piper crashed into in a field east of Runway 30-Right and the Cessna fell into a water retention pond. Two people were aboard each aircraft.  

PHOTOS: The schematic design for a new campus that would include a new city hall and fire station was updated and presented to Steamboat Springs City Council on Tuesday, July 12. Principals from Davis Partnership Architects, who are designing the new fire station, and Anderson Hallas Architects, the designers of the new city hall, were present at Tuesday's work session to bring City Council up to speed on the designs' progress. The campus encompasses two parcels, one at the corner of 10th Street and Oak, and another at on the corner of 10th Street and Lincoln Avenue. The design places the new fire station on the northern parcel, where the current city hall building is located. Because the new fire station would need so much space, 10th Street would end at the alleyway between Lincoln Avenue and Oak Street, but the space between the civic campus and Centennial Hall will be an open thoroughfare for pedestrian and bike traffic.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Baltic firefighter Wayne Troyer held the fire hose in his right hand and placed his left on his co-worker's shoulder. The referee started the countdown. "Three!" Troyer looked up at the barrel. It was attached on a line that ran above him. Opposite his team were their opponents: three firefighters from the Winesburg Fire Department. "Two!" To his left, hundreds of spectators from communities in and around Holmes County watched from a nearby hill Saturday night as part of the East Holmes Firemen's Festival, adding more pressure to his first water barrel competition. "One!" A whistle sounded and Troyer placed both hands on the fire hose, supporting it for his team's point man who held the nozzle over his shoulder aiming it at the barrel.  

VIDEO: Drug overdoses are taking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people every year in the United States. Law enforcement agencies are throwing all of their resources at drug dealers to put a stop to the trafficking of killer drugs, while local firefighters are trying to train the public in reversing the effects. The Flagler County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday the arrests of 13 people in what was called "Operation Meth Side Story," with deputies saying they're searching for five more people. The Sheriff's Office said the investigation resulted in the confiscation of enough narcotics to "kill the entire population of Palm Coast." "We've had 12 overdoses this year, not including three that we had within the last seven days," Staly said. Staly said toxicology tests are still pending to determine if Flagler County's latest overdoses are in any way connected to the arrests in the operation spanning more than two months.