January is Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month, as cancer is one of the largest health concerns facing these brave individuals. According to Russell Dennis, IAFF Local 1324 Vice President and Firefighter for the City of Fairbanks, occupational cancer diagnoses are the largest cause of deaths in the line of duty, which was also confirmed by the CDC. "Our job is to run into burning buildings, and the byproducts of combustion are highly cancerous," Dennis explained. "Cancer is prevalent in the fire service. It is getting worse despite our efforts, and we have decided - as a service, our union, as a department, all across the country and in fact internationally - we have decided it's something we need to tackle ourselves. We need to get the public to be aware, we need to get legislators to be aware and to take action so that our job isn't causing us increased risk to cancer."  

VIDEO: Fire crews had their hands full with a two-alarm apartment fire in southwest Houston Tuesday night. This happened around 8 p.m. at the Amritta Apartments located in the 7800 West Airport Boulevard just west of Fondren. Fire officials said it took at least 50 firefighters about an hour to get the fire out. Sixteen apartment units were damaged by the fire, 10 by the fire itself, and the remaining six by smoke and water. All of the residents in the complex were able to make it out safely. Fire officials said they are speaking with one resident who said the fire started in his apartment. HFD said the fire sparked on the first floor of this two-story apartment building. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.  

August Schell Brewing Company is bringing back its Firebrick for Firefighters program, donating a portion of sales from every case and keg of Firebrick Vienna Lager sold in 2022. "Giving back has always been part of our DNA here at Schell's," Ted Marti, president of Schell's said in a press release. "I believe in our community. It's been good to us, so we want to be good to them." To bring more awareness to the program and highlight firefighters' sacrifices, Schell's worked with fire departments to source decommissioned fire helmets to rest on retail displays. Schell's gift shop is selling Firebrick for Firefighters branded apparel and drinkware with a portion of those proceeds to be given back to local fire departments as well. The brewery and its distributors are donating funds to MnFIRE, the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative and the St. Paul Fire Foundation to help firefighters throughout Minnesota as well as other organizations within their six-state sales region.  

The chain of events that led to the tragic deaths of a young crewmember and all 33 passengers aboard the Conception dive boat in 2019 are directly addressed in new rules from the Coast Guard, which are proposed to take effect March 28, 2022. The 33 divers were on a Labor Day weekend trip to the Channel Islands, having chartered the Conception out of Santa Barbara Harbor's Truth Aquatics. Unknown to them, and revealed in subsequent investigations, training records were lacking to show the crew had practiced emergency response or fire suppression, fire or smoke detectors were not interconnected throughout the ship, the emergency escape hatch was fatally inadequate, the ship's electrical wiring was a snake's nest of power-strip cords, and, crucially, the captain did not set an all-night watch.  

The Tahlequah Fire Department took delivery of a hefty amount of Ragú pasta sauce on Tuesday, Jan. 11. Tahlequah firefighters on Red shift were at Station 1 as the FedEx driver pulled up and unloaded 792 jars of the sauce. That shift caught the attention of the national company after crew members posted a video of them cooking while on duty, using Ragú sauce. "The definition of Tahlequah is ‘Two is enough,' and evidentially Ragú didn't think two was enough; they thought 792 would be," said Assistant Fire Chief Mark Whittmore. Ragú's recent on-air ads have shown people using its sauces and saying, "Cook like a mother!" Firefighter Anthony Margarit boasted in the video that he is, in fact, cooking like a mother.  

The national blood supply is so low as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the American Red Cross has declared its first ever national blood crisis. In the hopes of encouraging people to roll up their sleeves to donate, the organization is offering up a trip to this year's Super Bowl. The Red Cross said Tuesday it's seen a 10% decline in the number of people donating blood since the pandemic began. The decline coincided with the emergence of the delta variant of COVID-19 followed by the omicron variant now. Donor turnout is down, blood drives have been canceled and there have been staffing shortages, the organization said. The Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies said in a joint statement Monday that blood centers nationwide have reported less than a one-day's supply of some critical blood types in the past few weeks.