When temperatures drop in the winter, keeping warm is key, but making sure you're heating your home safely is also very important. Senior Captain Jason Dolph of Fire Station 7 in Anchorage said to have a professional sweep your chimney and clear it of any debris before lighting it. All other heating systems like boilers and water heater should also professionally be inspected every year. Dolph said when it starts to get particularly cold outside, people have a hard time keeping their homes at a comfortable temperature inside. Many residents utilize space heaters indoors. Dolph said space heaters are safe to use, as long as residents don't overload their circuits. Also, Dolph warned Anchorage residents to ensure at least 3 feet of space between the heater and any type of combustible material.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Crews responded to a fire at the U-haul Storage and Moving Facility on Ragland Road November 17, 2021. The cause of the fire is still undetermined. Fire Prevention Bureau Captain Ernest Parsons confirmed there was no one in the building when the fire started and there are no injuries. When it came to fighting the fire, Parsons said fire crews were dealing with high winds that created some challenges. "High wings is always a problem because it misdirects your hose streams so it can affect reach and the angle that you are flowing so it can be a challenge," Parsons said. Parsons said an investigation into the cause of the fire will happen in the next few days.  

After a successful trial period, Lubbock Fire Rescue is installing more devices on its trucks that will alert nearby drivers of their presence on the scene of an incident or while on their way to it. The goal is to get drivers to focus on what's ahead for their safety and the safety of first responders. "After the accident on January 11, we're very proactive in every avenue possible on how can we increase the safety for our personnel, as well as just the citizens out there," Captain Phillip Grandon said. "A vehicle accident, especially on a high-speed road, is hazardous to everyone involved." LFR has currently installed HAAS Alert transponders on 1/3 of its fleet and anticipates all necessary apparatus to have the technology in about a month. When the emergency lights are activated on those vehicles, members of the public who use the Waze app will be notified of those trucks.  

America's drug epidemic is the deadliest it has ever been, new federal data suggests. More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States during the 12-month period ending April 2021, according to provisional data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a new record high, with overdose deaths jumping 28.5% from the same period a year earlier. Opioids continue to be the driving cause of drug overdose deaths. Synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, caused nearly two-thirds (64%) of all drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending April 2021, up 49% from the year before, the CDC's 's National Center for Health Statistics found. The Covid-19 pandemic and the rise in use of fentanyl have both been key contributors to the rising overdose death toll, experts say. The latest provisional data on drug overdose deaths captures those occurring in May 2020 through April 2021.  

VIDEO: The nation's capital is suffering a surge in the number of fires and fire department responses to encampments for people experiencing homelessness. A News4 I-Team investigation revealed fire department calls more than doubled at encampments already this year. The problem is posing a risk to the safety and health of people living in encampments and in nearby neighborhoods. "I've seen several tents on fire, burned up," said Kory Walker, who has been living at an encampment on O Street NW for multiple years. The fires are often accidentally ignited by makeshift heating equipment, including grills, space heaters and cooking equipment, said Walker. Others, he said, are deliberately set during disputes between people living in encampments. Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Rachelle Nigro said the encampment near New Jersey Avenue and O Street NW had several large fires in recent months.  

VIDEO: Many firefighters will go their whole careers without seeing a train crash, derailment, or train hazard spill. But it's the one time it does happen, and being prepared for it, that can mean the difference between life and death. "You can actually YouTube a video of a tank car imploding," said a Norfolk Southern Railway instructor. "It's a rail car that's being off loaded out of a facility, wasn't vented appropriately, once it got enough liquid out and there was more vapor space in that car. That vacuum finally overcame the structural integrity of that car and it sucks it in like a coke can." Many thousands of tons of chemicals and fuels are transported on Atlanta railways. Firefighters got a rare chance to learn about the carriage systems that transport these hazardous materials.