There are benefits to having a good neighbor. A fleet of six, Air Tractor, AT-802, "Fire Boss" single-engine, water scooping tankers arrived in Palmer on Saturday; along with their Bird Dog, which serves as a spotter plane and leads the scoopers safely into their drop patterns. Arriving from Conair Aerial Firefighing in British Columbia, the pilots have been briefed, their aircraft inspected and the tanks cleaned. The group is headed to McGrath where 45 active fires are burning more than 200,000 acres across southwest Alaska. The Fire Boss is an incredibly versatile firefighting resource, as it can depart a tanker base with a load of fire retardant, and after dropping the retardant, continue to scoop water out of rivers and lakes. It takes approximately 15 seconds to fill its 820-gallon tank as it skims across the surface.  

A historically massive wildfire is threatening four villages on the Yukon River. On June 12, the fire was within 3.5 miles of one of those villages and many people had evacuated. Residents who chose to stay have been pitching in to keep their communities from burning. Pamela Tai stood over the stove in the home she shares with 11 family members. They've all chosen to stay despite the fire's proximity to the village. Outside the kitchen window, smoke blanketed the Yukon and Andreafsky Rivers. Tai was making meatballs. "Just makin' my balls. Balls of glory! Hamburger balls and gravy over rice. That's what's for dinner," she said. Tai had been cooking all day. Earlier, it was a big pot of goulash. She donated that to the firefighters for dinner. "I make it with love, honey, with love. So when they eat, they fill themselves up with lots of love," Tai said.  

VIDEO: People inside the Satanic Temple said they got notifications on their phones from their doorbell camera. Someone was on the porch, and the video showed he was lighting the place on fire. The video showed a man walking from Bridge Street onto the property at about 10 p.m. Friday. In the video, the man walked onto the porch, dropped a backpack and started pouring flammable liquid, according to police. The suspect, wearing a t-shirt displaying the word 'God' on the front, walked away. Lucien Greaves is the co-founder of the Satanic Temple and said two people were staying in the attached Airbnb at the time of the fire. "We've had some people stop by, we've gotten a lot of threats, but we have never had anyone do anything as blatant as throwing accelerant on our building and lighting it on fire," he said.  

A collaboration between three Butler County communities is the first in the region to provide a vehicle to be used exclusively to protect first responders at crash scenes. West Chester Township, Monroe and Liberty Township have agreed to terms of a memorandum of understanding establishing a traffic incident management safety unit that would be dispatched to crash scenes whenever requested. The agreement outlines the operation, costs, and responsibilities between the three departments. A 1999 Sutphen pumper will be used to serve as a "blocker" vehicle at crash scenes on high speed roadways. It would be positioned on the perimeter of the working area to protect first responders or victims from getting hit as they are working. Valued at under $8,000, the Sutphen would be less expensive to replace if hit, and less disruptive to a department than if a frontline vehicle used daily, were hit. "We're going to be the first in the region to do this,'' said Ethan Klussman, Liberty Township's fire chief.  

Responding to a fire or medical emergency often results in tense moments for firefighters as well as anyone who has called 911 for help if there is a language barrier. The situation can become overwhelming and scary for anyone who doesn't understand what is going on and can't provide information. That's the type of scenario that Richmond Fire Department Battalion Chief Bailey Martin hopes to rectify by getting help from the Virginia Commonwealth University Community Action Council and council member Anita Nadal, an assistant professor in the VCU School of World Studies and faculty fellow for community engagement in the College of Humanities and Sciences. "EMS is a big part of our workload. We field 35,000 calls a year, the majority of which are medical emergencies. It's very difficult if the people don't speak English," Martin said.  

Jeremy Oster awoke the morning of June 14, 2021 as his wife told him to go outside. What greeted him was a startling sight he would not soon forget. "There were pieces of black debris 5 inches long throughout my yard and I could see the burning Chemtool plant," Oster recalled. "I thought at first we were under attack." On that morning, around 7 a.m., citizens and area fire department crews were alerted to a huge industrial fire at the Chemtool lubricant manufacturing plant at 1165 Prairie Hill Road in the Town of Rockton. A black pillar of smoke rose hundreds of feet into the air, which could be seen for miles. About 40 fire departments in the area responded to the fire. The 70 employees of the plant were evacuated without any injuries. Residents within a one-mile radius of the plant were told to evacuate. Nearby businesses also were told to evacuate.  

Thousands of renters across the state will soon be getting new trashcans — with new regulations taking effect next month for valet trash services and new building codes aimed at reducing fire hazards. This comes after a deadly fire at the Aurella Cary Apartments in March, which was caused when cardboard and trash caught fire in the breezway. Baby Marlee Santiago, just 9 months old, died in that fire. Overflowing trashcans with no lids create a fire hazard. Family describes loss of 9-month-old in Cary apartment fire Report: Baby girl dies in Cary apartment fire while clinging to her mother's chest Some apartment complexes have already started giving out new trashcans to comply with the new rules. These are fire-proof cans with a self-closing mechanism – and the goal is make the entrance and exits to these apartments safer.