The Coast Guard and good Samaritan vessels responded to a vessel fire in Auke Bay, Alaska, Monday. The fire was extinguished and all 21 passengers as well as two crew members were safely offloaded at Statter Harbor. No injuries or pollution were reported. Watchstanders at the Sector Juneau command center received a mayday call over VHF channel 16 from 38-foot merchant vessel Tongass at 2:38 p.m. stating there was a fire aboard the vessel, and they needed assistance. Watchstanders directed the launch of a 29-foot Response Boat-Small crew from Coast Guard Station Juneau. Good Samaritan vessels Zephyr and Ranger overheard the mayday call and also responded. The vessels arrived on scene within five minutes of the mayday call and safely evacuated all passengers onto Zephyr and Ranger.  

In collaboration with the Fairbanks Public Health Center, the North Pole Fire Department hosts vaccine clinics every third Thursday of the month. This Thursday, June 15, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the North Pole Fire Department located at 110 Lewis Street in North Pole, nurses from the Public Health Center will be there to provide all childhood vaccines, including free COVID vaccines and boosters. The clinic will be conducted at the department's annex, which is across the street from the fire station. The North Pole Fire Department and the Fairbanks Public Health Center have collaborated on these vaccine clinics for approximately ten years now, added Shelly Foint-Anderson, Public Health Nurse Manager with the Fairbanks Public Health Center.  

An extremely aggressive fire broke out Tuesday afternoon on Chicago's South Side. The Bronzeville building fire has since been put out, though firefighters have continued to pour water on it and are keeping an eye on hot spots. The Chicago Fire Department got the call around 3:40 p.m., and by then, the fire was on all floors of the three-story home in the 4500 block of South Michigan Avenue. "The flames were very, very intense. Honestly, you can see ash, smoke for quite a while. Even inside, I really went and closed all the windows so the ash and smoke wouldn't come inside," said neighbor Anthony White. Firefighters had to take a defensive position because of the intensity of the flames. They did not report any injuries, but also said they haven't been able to conduct a search of the house for any victims.  

Two Maine firefighter organizations hope to enroll volunteers from the state's more than 400 departments in a new retirement program by the end of this year. Three quarters of the state's fire departments are run by volunteer fire chiefs, who along with other volunteers, are not eligible for retirement benefits because they do not work as full-time firefighters, according to the Maine Fire Chiefs Association. If the Maine Legislature's Appropriations Committee funds the $2.5 million price tag in LD 588, An Act to Promote Public Safety and Retain Essential First Responders by Funding the Maine Length of Service Award Program, volunteer firefighters, who must receive training just like their full-time counterparts, will be able to receive retirement benefits.  

The Brewster Fire Department has a message for the motorists who "screamed at, cursed at and flipped the bird" at firefighters while they were working the scene of a car crash last week. On Wednesday, June 7, crews shut down a road near the intersection of state Route 241 and U.S. Route 30 and rerouted traffic after a minivan struck a motorcycle, seriously injuring one person. Some motorists expressed their frustration in crude gestures aimed at responders, according to the department. "We would like to sincerely apologize," reads the department's June 7 Facebook post. "We fully understand that your minor inconvenience on the ride home to your families far outweighs the safety of our crews and the trauma patient we were working on. We will try to do better next time."  

In a Stanislaus County town with a population of 23,000 people, there's one thing families may not know. Oakdale has a rich history in the fire engine industry, with one family business in town being the only fire engine manufacturer on the West Coast. In fact, Stanislaus County recently celebrated the centennial of the fire engine industry.