A house fire in Ketchikan Sunday morning left one person dead and another critically injured. Ketchikan Fire Chief Rick Hines said the neighbors in the apartment upstairs from the fire noticed smoke and called for help around 8:30 AM. When firefighters arrived on scene, Hines said they found light smoke coming out of the building and a small indoor fire that was easily extinguished. Crews transported the two victims inside to PeaceHealth Medical Center, where one was pronounced dead. The second victim was medevacked to the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. Hines said both victims, who were a couple, were harmed not by the flames in their home but by inhaling the smoke. "Most, when I generalize fire victims across the United States, it is from smoke inhalation," Hines said.  

VIDEOS/PHOTOS: An incident at a Rockdale County chemical facility early Sunday morning has prompted orders for many area residents to evacuate and others to shelter in place. A shelter-in-place order has been given to the entirety of Rockdale County. Around 5:30 a.m., a sprinkler at the BioLab plant on Old Covington Highway in Conyers malfunctioned and sprayed water on a chemical, causing a reaction that created a large, hazardous plume, which then began drifting to the northeast, Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel said at a press briefing shortly after 10 a.m. The malfunction also caused a small fire on the BioLab roof, which was contained, McDaniel said. During a press briefing around 5:30 p.m., McDaniel said the roof collapsed due to the fire.  

Fire chiefs from Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the U.S. participated in the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Urban Fire Forum (UFF) last week at NFPA headquarters in Quincy, MA, endorsing four important documents that address some of the most complex challenges facing the modern fire service. The documents, considered official UFF-Metropolitan Fire Chiefs (Metro Chiefs) position papers, take account of a wide-range of topics including enhancing firefighting safety, improving operational effectiveness, and promoting ethical decision-making in the face of emerging technologies and environmental concerns. "NFPA is proud of its longstanding support of fire departments worldwide through our Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association and the Urban Fire Forum," said NFPA president and CEO Jim Pauley.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Short on supplies, power and patience, storm victims who saw the brutal force of Helene upend their lives have emerged to a new week, facing the daunting challenge of rebuilding. Some of the roads and bridges they need to do the job aren't there anymore. Electricity could be a week away or longer. Emergency services are stretched. Communications infrastructure is in shreds. And neighbors, some of whose own homes are gone, are helping neighbors – all the while worrying about the fate of those from whom they haven't heard. At least 102 people have died across six states since Helene, which made landfall in Florida as a mammoth Category 4 hurricane, tore through the Southeast and left millions without power and communications.  

The number of people in the U.S. dying from drug overdoses is falling for the first time in years—and it's falling quickly. Nationwide, overdose deaths fell 12.2% between April 2023 and April 2024 from 110,771 to 97,309, according to CDC data released in September. In comparison, overdose deaths fell by 3% between 2022 and 2023, the first annual decrease since 2018 when the number of deaths was 67,367. Data from individual states shows even more drastic declines. In Ohio, for example, overdose deaths are down 32.6% so far this year compared to last, according to nonprofit Harm Reduction Ohio. And in Vermont, state health department data from January to June of this year shows overdose deaths have fallen about 16% compared to the average number of overdose deaths from the same period over the past three years.