PHOTOS: The University Fire Department, located in Fairbanks welcomed in their newest Fire Chief on Monday, January 3, 2022, starting the new year off with a bang. Along with a fancy cake, family and Fire Officials pinned the new Fire Chief, Forrest Kuiper to the Department. UFD is located on the main campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is one of the few fire departments in the U.S. that provides fire protection and EMS to the campus as well as a large off-campus service area and does so with student firefighters. The program is very successful in how it has had 90% of its students successfully hired on to professional career fire departments, which says a lot for its namesake.  

VIDEO: A half-dome tent and a portable trailer on an empty piece of property off I-30, make up the newest official fire station in Fort Worth. Approved, constructed, and outfitted in three months, the temporary station opened New Year's Day, providing protection to the rapidly growing communities on the far western edge of the city. For now there is room for just one engine to park in the tent. Living space for the 12 firefighters assigned to Station 43 is cramped. It's not limited though in emergency response. "As far as capability, this fire station is capable of doing what every other fire station in the city of Fort Worth is doing," said department spokesman Mike Drivdahl. Until now, fire response for the area has come from two stations up to six miles away, and at least a 10 minute drive.  

COVID-19 cases in Maryland continue to skyrocket and as of Monday, 2,746 people are hospitalized with the virus. Not only is it overwhelming hospitals, but it's impacting fire and EMS operations. "We've noticed an increase call volume in EMS, primarily patients who believe they are experiencing symptoms of COVID," said Shannon Stallings, chief of the Bowleys Quarters Volunteer Fire Department. Sometimes, ambulances are waiting at the ER with a patient for hours because there are no beds available. That entire time, they can't respond to other calls. To help free them up, as of New Years, Baltimore County is allowing non-life threatening patients to be transported by fire truck or other non-ambulance type of vehicle.  

For John Alley and Luke Barron, being firefighters and varsity wrestling coaches isn't simply a matter of balancing two jobs. It's more like a double-dip in intertwined vocations. Alley is an engineer for the Westminster Fire Department, while Barron is a firefighter for the Denver Fire Department. They've coached at Columbine High School together for six years, the past two as co-head coaches. The sum of both jobs requires early mornings and late nights, traded shifts at the station and aching muscles from drilling with the Rebels in the wrestling room. But the payoff — building community via fire trucks and takedowns — makes it all worthwhile. "On the job, most times we see people at their bad moments — they're going through their worst time right now, and that's why we're there," Barron explained.  

In celebration of its 150th anniversary, The Firemen's Association of the State of New York is giving itself a new name. As of this month, the group will be known as The Firefighters' Association of the State of New York (FASNY). The organization's board voted unanimously to change its name at a December meeting. "We all felt it was time," FASNY President John Farrell said in a written statement. Using "firefighter" takes gender out of the association's name. "The volunteer fire service has evolved greatly from the late 19th century. While our original name was based on the fire service of 1872, our new name positions us for the 21st century." First Vice President, Edward Tase, echoed his comments. "We did not make this change lightly. We know and respect the great history of our association," he said.  

Ever since the pandemic began, public health experts have warned about the possibility of getting COVID-19 and the flu at once. With flu cases jumping up across the country after a very mild season last year, doctors are warning that so-called "flurona" can happen—and Israel just had its first documented case, which may be the first in the world. Israeli health officials recently announced that the patient was an unvaccinated pregnant woman who had both the flu and COVID-19 (likely Omicron variant) at once, per the Times of Israel. The woman had mild symptoms and was released from the hospital on Thursday. Flu cases are steadily increasing across the U.S.—4,514 new cases were diagnosed the week of December 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—and that raises the risk that flurona can happen here, says Thomas Russo, M.D., professor and chief of infectious disease at the University at Buffalo in New York.