VIDEO: A large fire burned an abandoned building on East Fireweed Lane, between A Street and Denali Street, Wednesday morning. An Anchorage Fire Department spokesperson said 13 units responded to the blaze, which was seen burning in an abandoned structure around 6:45 a.m. The building has previously displayed restaurant signs, including one reading "Cantonese Szechwan Mandarin cuisine." The department said no people were inside the building at the time, and asked the public to avoid the area while crews mop up.  

Alaska has moved up to its second-highest level of wildfire preparedness. The rise to preparedness level 4 went into effect at noon Wednesday and is based on the number of current wildfires in the state and the potential for more in the hot and dry weather. Alaska is already having a historic wildfire season this year, with the earliest date on record that more than a million acres have burned. Bureau of Land Management Fire Information Officer Geoff Liesik said that the move to level 4 means more firefighters, aircraft and other resources will be sent to Alaska. He said the state is working on requests from the Lower 48 for more resources, but he said it's unlikely that all its requests will be fulfilled. "Unfortunately, as we all know, there are not enough firefighters and not enough equipment to go around in Alaska or in the Lower 48," he said.  

A family of six and two other people are without a home this morning after a fire in a Franklin County home this morning. Franklin County firefighters say the fire began around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning at the intersection of Metcalf Rd. and Sagemoor Rd. When crews arrived they said the fire had spread to a nearby power pole and crews had to tend to the pole before the house. The fire spread to a shop and several trailers in the backyard of the house before reaching the house. Several propane tanks ignited and exploded during the fire. Franklin County Sheriff's Office helped the eight people displaced call Benton/Franklin Housing and the Red Cross to accommodate a current living situation.  

Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear ceremonially signed House Bill 562, relating to mental health for first responders. The bill establishes 48 hours of time off for police officers and firefighters following critical incidents. The bill also redefines a critical incident. It includes officer-involved shootings, serious vehicle crashes, the death of a colleague or partner and other circumstances. Brian O'Neil, president of the Louisville Professional Firefighters, said bills like HB562 are working to address a longstanding stigma among first responders. "You're supposed to just suck it up and be tough and deal with everything. And certainly, we do," he said. "We've done a lot better over the last several years with trying to do away with the stigma." Not addressing the root traumas of the job though, can lead to dire consequences.  

UT Health East Texas EMS paramedics will teach roughly 20 EMTs from Guam this summer about specialized clinical training to become accredited in advanced life support techniques. "They're going to experience high performance 911 training through UT Health East Texas EMS and receive training from paramedics who are actively working in the field," said TC Howard, chief operating officer of the School of EMS, which helped coordinate the effort. According to the announcement from UT Health East Texas, the Guam Fire Department officials contacted Howard over two years ago to transition from basic care to a paramedic level. Guam is an island territory of the United States in the Pacific Ocean. Paramedic intern, Patrick Flores, didn't think twice about traveling 24 hours to East Texas to become a paramedic.  

One hundred years ago, on a distant Feb. 16 evening, a blaze erupted at the Prospect School. The tragedy that occurred during the blaze has become a part of village lore. And the firefighter who gave his life was memorialized during a Tuesday evening ceremony at the location. It was freezing cold outside when the village's firefighters responded. Fireman Milton Meisner, along with Arthur Underwood, had climbed a long extension ladder to battle the fire that had moved to the building's attic along a ventilation shaft. The ladder broke as the two young firefighters were working their way down to the ground. Underwood was halfway down when the ladder broke, and severely broke his left ankle and leg as a result of the fall. Meisner was near the top and fell about 25 feet. He succumbed to his injuries while being driven to a Batavia hospital.  

PHOTOS: Usually, looking up while walking around Boston is the way to go. But if you find your eyes turned to the ground in the coming days and weeks, be sure to keep an eye out for a handful of delightful mice-sized storefronts that have popped up around the city. AnonyMouse has so far revealed two Boston installations on Instagram — a bookstore and a fire station — but there are a handful more still out there, according to the group. "We started back in 2016 in southern Sweden, a couple of us met up and started discussing just creating something together and the dialogue shifted towards our childhood love of the works of Walt Disney, Don Bluth, Beatrix Potter and Swedish author Astrid Lindgren," the collective told Boston publication in an email. "After a while we kind of centered around these small shops, since it was something we, ourselves, would have loved to stumble over as kids."