Anchorage firefighters were called to a home in the Bear Valley neighborhood early Sunday and worked into the afternoon to control the blaze, a fire official said. Crews were called to a large home on the 7900 block of Hazel Court at 7:10 a.m. and arrived about nine minutes later, Assistant Chief Alex Boyd said. "Very early in the fire, they called it what we would consider a defensive fire, meaning the fire had escalated so much that they can't get inside to knock it down," he said. There were people inside the home when the fire began, but they were able to get out safely and Boyd said no injuries were reported. The residents will likely be displaced but were able to find shelter without the help of the American Red Cross, he said.  

VIDEO: Atlanta firefighters were back on Cheshire Bridge Road on Saturday after a fire broke out under an overpass less than a month after officials started demolishing another bridge on the same roadway. Atlanta Fire Company 29 shared videos of the fire where black smoke could be seen filling the sky. The fire was underneath the bridge near the Buford Connector and where the roadway turns into Lenox Road. Officials said the area under the bridge was extremely hot but crews had to make their way underneath the bridge to put out the fire. Getting close to the blistering flames, Target shopping carts could be seen, along with countless other items. Grills, mattresses, propane tanks, office chairs, couches, dressers and generators were just some of the many items found within the rubble, fire officials said.  

PHOTOS/VIDEO: Christmas came early for Superior's firefighters. "If you would have asked me two years ago if I would have been working in a brand new fire station with two new ladders, I would have said you're kidding," said Battalion Chief Howard Huber. The Superior Fire Department has not one, but two new aerial ladder trucks. A week after the department unveiled its new $1.3 million truck to city officials, fire Capt. Tom LeSage drove a second 100-foot ladder truck into Superior from South Carolina. The sleek vehicle is the same age as the city's current backup aerial truck, but with fewer miles, no rust and an additional 25 feet of ladder. "It doesn't make much sense operationally to have a 101-foot truck but have a 75-foot truck backing it up," said fire Chief Scott Gordon. "Instead of refurbishing Engine 2 and keeping it for another 15 years, I asked the council if we could take that same money and buy this instead."  

The Pleasant Valley Fire District, with mutual aid from other area departments and community members, loaded 600 live Christmas trees onto two FedEx trailers for the annual "Trees for Troops" drive on Saturday, November 27. The trailers were loaded at Hahn Farm on Salt Point Turnpike. The nationwide movement began in 2005 when the National Christmas Tree Association formed the non-profit Christmas SPIRIT Foundation to unite local tree growers who were running small tree programs for troops. Through a partnership with FedEx, the Trees for Troops program has delivered more than 265,000 trees to military families in the U.S. and to troops stationed overseas in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Spain, and Guam.  

The Seguin Police Department threw down a challenge to the Seguin Fire Department, along with its razors, to help raise money for a local teen and awareness about the cancer he is battling. The pair of city departments are in the midst of the No Shave November "Stache-Off." The firefighters and police officers are tasked with growing out their best mustache, or beard, to raise money for Navarro High School senior Triston Brashears, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer last month. With the annual No Shave November geared toward raising money and awareness for testicular cancer, the chiefs felt this was a great opportunity to get the word out while supporting a community member. "This year we've decided to do it for this young man," Seguin Police Chief Terry Nichols said.  

Omicron, the newest coronavirus variant, is also the quickest to be labeled a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization because of its seemingly fast spread in South Africa and its many troubling mutations. Its emergence has already led to travel restrictions, high-level government meetings and promises by vaccine makers to start working on strain-specific vaccines just in case. But it has a long way to go to take over from Delta, the variant that dominates all over the world. And the long list of variants that at first frightened the world before falling off the map can be a reminder that viruses are unpredictable. Here's a look at the named coronavirus variants. WHO designates coronavirus variants as either variants of concern -- meaning they look dangerous enough to bear close scrutiny and continual updates -- or as variants of interest, or variants under monitoring. Only five currently meet the definition for variants of concern: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Omicron.