The Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (BLM AFS) and U.S. Army Alaska (USARAK) will soon implement multiple prescribed fires on military training lands in Interior Alaska. Burning could begin as early as today, starting with woody debris piles and dead grass within the Donnelly Training Area East located on both sides of the Richardson Highway south of Delta Junction. As conditions allow, prescribed burning in the Donnelly Training Area (DTA) near Delta Junction, the Yukon Training Area (YTA) near Eielson Air Force Base, and on Fort Wainwright (FWA) land near Fairbanks may continue throughout the spring.  

VIDEO: Two people had to jump from the top floor to escape a massive condo fire early Thursday morning in Norfolk. Dispatchers say they were notified around 3 a.m. of the fire in the 4600 block of Mayflower Road, at the Lafayette Cove Condominiums in the Colonial Place neighborhood. Assistant Fire Chief Garry Windley said that two people were rushed to the hospital after they jumped from the top floor of the building. The extent of their injuries is unknown at this time. A entire section of the building was fully engulfed in flames, blocking the exit for multiple units. The building eventually collapsed, and a neighbor said he felt vibrations. "Just after a few minutes you could see a skeleton of it already," said Tristan. He said three other people were evaluated at the scene.  

Lawmakers have introduced a bill to add vascular rupture to the list of injuries covered under the Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law in honor of a Whitehall firefighter who died in September after suffering a line-of-duty injury last May. James Brooks was second assistant chief of the Whitehall Volunteer Fire Company and was responding to a fire call in Dresden on May 2. He was reaching for his radio when he suffered an aortic rupture. He initially thought he had pulled a muscle and had intense pain when responding to the scene. Brooks spent months at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington, Vermont. He had three strokes, which confined him to a wheelchair and left him with the use of only his right arm. Brooks died from his injuries on Sept. 17. Brooks had served in the department for 27 years. He had accumulated about a million dollars in medical expenses during his hospital stay.  

A group of off-duty EMTs and an off-duty police officer who all happened to be eating at the same Rahway restaurant sprung into action to save a man choking on his food Monday night. The six medics and the officer were dining at The Waiting Room in Rahway, when the man began choking on a piece of steak around 9:30 p.m. Elizabeth EMT Amber Henderson, 27, was the first to notice. "I happened to look over and saw a woman standing up and hitting a man on the back," she told Daily Voice. Henderson stood up slowly to see if the man was able to get the food out, but noticed very quickly that wasn't the case, she said. "I ran over and started doing the Heimlich, and a small chuck of food came out, but he was still choking -- and there was much more [food] left inside," the EMT said. Just as Henderson began wondering how she was going to save the man all on her own, off-duty Rahway officer Eddie O'Donnell realized what was happening.  

VIDEO: The southbound lanes of Interstate 35W were treated with a brine solution before a deadly 135-car pileup during February's winter storm, according to a preliminary investigation. The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report on the crash Wednesday. The massive pileup happened on the morning of Feb. 11 on the southbound side of I-35W near Northside Drive, north of downtown. Drivers who were reportedly traveling at a high rate of speed ventured onto slick roads coated with a thin sheet of ice from freezing rain that had fallen overnight and into the early morning hours. Cars, trucks and 18-wheelers collided one after another for a crash scene that stretched for nearly a mile. Six people lost their lives and dozens were injured.  

President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Americans to do their patriotic duty and get a COVID shot. He urged businesses (with the enticement of a tax credit) to give their employees the paid time-off to do so. The President's renewed appeals come as the country is fast-approaching an arguably more difficult stage of its vaccine roll-out—one where demand for the vaccine no longer outstrips supply. As of April 21, 133.4 million Americans—including 80.6% of seniors, 51.5% of adults, and 40.5% of the total population—had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up from 123.9 million people a week ago. Roughly 87.6 million Americans, or 26.4% of the population, have been fully vaccinated. In total, since the rollout began in December, the U.S. has administered 216 million vaccines of the 277.9 million distributed across the country.