The Fairbanks Fire Department is on track to respond to a record number of calls this year. According to Fairbanks Firefighters Union President, Nick Clark, the department receives 19 calls a day on average which is around 17,000 calls a year. "Our calls have been going up in the ball park of 300-600 each year and that is in addition to what we have already been doing," Clark said. However, the staffing levels have remained the same for many years, "With the amount of calls we are adding each year, we are quickly going to be out of where that optimal range is and what we can handle." Clark said that each shift has 11 people on duty but that number should be at least 13 but preferably 15 for each shift. The lack of staffing means they can't respond to calls as quickly as they should.  

The Anchorage Assembly voted Tuesday to shift $175,000 of unspent funds from the city health department's budget to fund overtime expenses for the fire department after an announcement earlier this month that the department would be implementing strategic closures to cut costs. But Fire Chief Doug Schrage said the funds won't come near covering all of the department's anticipated overages for the year, so the anticipated closures will continue regardless. The closures are expected to begin Friday and will cut overtime by taking certain pieces of equipment out of service, and therefore the staff that operates them, during nighttime shifts when there tend to be fewer emergencies. No station will be fully closed — instead the department will take one or two pieces of equipment out of service from bigger stations where there are multiple pieces.  

VIDEO: Eight people were injured Wednesday in an explosion at an apartment building in southern Dallas, including four Dallas firefighters and four others who are in critical condition, officials said. As of Thursday morning, one firefighter and four other people have been released from the hospital. The three firefighters are still being treated for their injuries. The firefighters were responding to a report of a natural gas leak at the apartment building when the explosion happened. Seven of the victims were taken to Parkland Hospital and one was taken to Baylor. Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans initially said two of the firefighters were in critical condition, but that number later changed to three. All four of the injured firefighters were taken to Parkland. All are expected to survive, but it will be a long road to recovery.  

VIDEO: Sailing on Chicago's waterways on the Chicago Fireboat is a truly unique experience. The Fred A. Busse is a retired fireboat that was part of the Chicago Fire Department's fleet till 1981. Built as a modern ship in 1937, the Fred A. Busse was a modern marvel, built with a lower profile to fit under the city's bridges. This helped cut down on response time to fire emergencies. Today, the Fred A. Busse heads out on the Chicago River and Lake Michigan as a historical tour vessel, with other options such as sunset cruise and private events. It's owned by two Navy veterans, Ray Novak and Erich Totsc. "Going around the world twice in the Navy, and then to be here on the water, showcasing Chicago on a boat like this with that military utility kind of purpose to it is pretty cool," Totsc said.  

VIDEO: A Minneapolis fire captain is starring in a TV reality show competition that premieres next week. Kalimba Edwards was in California for six months this summer filming the new season of CBS's "Tough as Nails." The show pits 12 people against each other in physical competitions that test strength, life skills and mental toughness. Edwards is competing for a $200,000 prize. "Being a firefighter, especially in a large metropolitan area, we're used to working under pressure," Edwards said. "I'm used to working with different people, different crews, getting a task done no matter who you're working with." Edwards can't get into the specifics of the competitions, but she says it's a lot of blue-collar trade skills like carpentry and plumbing. She said some things she did on the show were more physically challenging than fighting fires.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman, Supergirl, Spiderman and Captain America! Fairfax County Fire and Rescue superheroes dropped by Inova Children's Hospital in Falls Church for a special surprise Tuesday. "Good to hop up?" Loren Jewell asked her fellow firefighters as she checked her rappelling gear. Jewell swapped turnouts for a cape to become Supergirl Tuesday. She's part of Fairfax County Fire and Rescue and brought some super support to the young patients. Battalion Chief Matt Burns was right beside her, dressed in his own elaborate costume. "Captain America by night, my alter ego," Burns said with a smile. "The whole reason firefighters become firefighters is to do something for their community and the kids are always the ones closest to our heart and this is best about," he told 7News Reporter Victoria Sanchez.  

The U.S. recovery from the latest COVID-19 wave is taking hold across the country, with cases dropping or poised to start falling in the vast majority of states. In 47 states plus the nation's capital, a measure of average new infections from one newly infected person is below the key level of 1, signaling that cases are expected to decline, according to covidestim, a modeling project with contributors from Yale School of Public Health, Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Stanford Medicine. That measure, known as the effective reproduction number or Rt, was below 1 in 42 states and the capital a week ago; a month ago it was just nine. Meanwhile, the seven-day average of new cases in the U.S. was 110,232 as of Sept. 27, down from more than 160,000 at the start of September, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.