Emergency responders in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough have a new tool to help cardiac arrest patients. The borough recently purchased 20 LUCAS devices for more than $310,000 using federal coronavirus relief funds. The devices are chest compression systems designed to help first responders perform CPR. Manual compressions can be an exhausting task as medics aim to perform 100 every minute; medics typically switch every two minutes to conserve energy. Battalion Chief Cory Sathers likens it to an intense abdominal workout. "You can't push your shoulders into it, you can't bend at the elbows. It's consistently an ab workout. So you're doing crunches for two minutes and then you swap," Sathers said. "And two minutes and then maybe it's your turn again and if we're coming from Talkeetna, could be an hour and a half drive and that's a lot of crunches to have to do all the way down."  

VIDEO: A massive fire at a plastics facility in Grand Prairie is likely to continue burning for several days and could knock out electricity in the area for some time, firefighters say. Meanwhile, officials are urging people to stay indoors because of the "toxic plume" rising from the scene that could be an irritant for people with respiratory issues. At about midnight Wednesday, an overhanging power line fell onto plastic sheeting in a storage area at the Poly-America manufacturing plant, starting a fire, according to Bill Murphy, assistant chief of operations with the Grand Prairie Fire Department. The materials ignited and spread throughout the storage area, Murphy said, an area about 300 yards wide along the 2000 block of West Marshall Drive near Texas Highway 161. One rail car exploded and supporting towers for electricity lines are expected to collapse under the heat of the flames. At least three of Poly-America's freight rail cars had caught fire.  

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, motorists each day drove about 8.8 billion miles on American roadways, while the U.S. railroad system carried 85,000 passengers and 5 million tons of freight. Though travel habits have shifted since the coronavirus outbreak, transportation infrastructure remains vital to the health of the U.S. economy. Despite the importance of a reliable transportation network, upkeep of critical infrastructure is being neglected across the country as roads, bridges, and railroads age. Nationwide, 21.8% of roads are in poor condition, 7.6% of bridges are in need of replacement or repair, and there have been 4.8 derailments for every 100 miles of train track from 2015 to 2019, the most common cause of which are broken rails or welds. In some states, these figures are far worse, indicating a threat to not only the economy, but to public health and safety as well.  

Funding commitments are now in place for the Rescue Hose Co. to add paid firefighters for the first time in its 140-year history. Greencastle Borough Council agreed to develop a budget to support paid firefighters using a fire tax during a joint meeting with fire company representatives and Antrim Township supervisors last week. The borough can enact a fire tax up to 3 mills, but that much will not be needed to cover the funding request, according to Borough Manager Lorraine Hohl. Township supervisors had pledged their support months ago, with the money coming from the general fund. The timeline calls for a paid firefighter/EMT supervisor to be on staff by Jan. 1, 2021, with a probationary salary of $20 going to $21.50 per hour on July 1. Three part-time firefighters/EMTs will be hired around July 1 at $18 an hour.  

On Aug. 17, the United States recorded its fewest COVID-19 cases in nearly 2 months, with 35,112 new cases and 445 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The new cases raise the total to 5,469,604 cases and 171,344 deaths. Though the decrease in cases is a sign that early summer hot spots, including Arizona, Texas, and Florida, are showing falling case counts, reports from schools that have opened across the country, as well as nursing home data, show congregate living is still a major contributor to COVID-19 outbreaks. There is no official tally, however, on outbreaks in public elementary and high schools, NBC News reports. Though schools that have opened in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Indiana, have had significant outbreaks, no data are being collected about how reopening has led to outbreaks, quarantine protocols, and number of cases.