Capital City Fire and Rescue responded to the 1200 block of Glacier Ave. early Tuesday morning after signs of smoke were coming from the building. CCFR responded at 4:21 Tuesday morning. Assistant Fire Chief Ed Quinto was on scene and said there were signs of smoke coming from the building. "There was no active fire seen from the outside, our crew went inside, and it took a while but we found the fire was in a sauna, which was contained in the building," Quinto said. "It was pretty much contained. No other fire damage to the rest of the building, just in that area where the sauna was located." Quinto said the fire took about a half hour to knock out.  

After the March fire in Selawik killed two adults and two children, Northwest Arctic Borough fire officials are working to educate the community members about fire response and prevention. Hans Nelson, the borough's Fire Safety Coordinator, traveled to Shungnak and Noorvik this fall to meet with battalion chiefs, volunteer firefighters and residents and address fire safety needs in their communities. Nelson plans to travel to more villages in the upcoming months. "When we had that Selawik fire incident," Nelson said, "our volunteer firefighters and first responders were frantically trying to access water, but they didn't realize that the river had frozen all the way through. So if we had potentially done drills, we could have very well known where to get water from and we would have been better prepared."  

PHOTOS: A woman is in critical condition Monday, Sept. 19, after being rescued from her back deck during a raging house fire. The woman, whose name has not been released, was trapped on the deck of the Cutlerville home. Kent County sheriff's deputies could not reach the woman but firefighters from Cutlerville, Dutton Township and Kentwood were able to rescue her while deputies sprayed water from fire hoses. Sheriff's deputies and Cutlerville firefighters responded around 12:20 a.m. to a report of a house explosion and fire in the 1500 block of Fairwood Court SE. The Sheriff's Department released body-worn camera footage of the response. Sheriff's deputies reached the scene first but could not get to the woman. They rushed fire hoses to the back yard, and started spraying the deck, while firefighters rescued her.  

VIDEO: An elderly volunteer firefighter underwent surgery Monday and remains in a hospital in Columbus after a rollover crash that happened Sunday. Middleport Fire Chief Jeff Darst tells WSAZ the 72-year-old firefighter suffered fractures in his lower leg. Darst says this could've easily been fatal, and they're just grateful it wasn't worse. The chief says while returning from a call on Storys Run Road in Cheshire, the pumper truck the firefighter was driving rolled over the side of a hill, throwing the driver out and pinning his leg underneath the truck. Nobody else was on board. Other firefighters also on their way back saw the truck had flipped and used air bags to lift the truck and pull the firefighter out. He was then flown to a hospital.  

VIDEO: Kevin Woyjeck, 21, was one of the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters killed while trapped in a fire in Arizona in 2013. Released in 2017, a movie called "Only the Brave" highlighted the men's bravery, making Woyjecks father especially proud. "Kevin was the ninth firefighter in our family. I retired from Los Angeles County Fire Department after 37 years, and he was following in my footsteps," said Joe Woyjeck, Kevin Woyjecks father. That's why Joe knows the true importance of firefighter safety protocols. Reports show so far in 2022, there have been 70 line-of-duty deaths in the U.S. There were 141 deaths in 2021. In 2004, agencies across the country convened with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and created 16 life safety initiatives.  

Denver firefighters now have a second option for covering cancer-related medical costs. The Denver City Council unanimously approved a bill that allows firefighters to join the Voluntary Cancer Benefits Award Program (VCAP) set up by the Colorado Firefighter Heart and Cancer Benefits Trust. This measure would exist in place of the existing workers' compensation program set up by the city, but there are a few key differences between the two programs that make the new one more attractive to city employees, city officials said."Instead of fighting to get the coverage, VCAP is presumptive that cancer was caused by firefighting," Devron McMillin, Denver's Director of Risk Management and Workers' Compensation said in an August Finance and Governance Committee meeting.