As Juneau's 2021 cruise season winds to a close in a blustery October, some remember a day more than four decades ago when a cruise ship with an engineering casualty turned into the Coast Guard's biggest and most successful rescue. On Oct. 4, 1980, the Prinsendam, a Holland America Line cruise ship, caught fire in the engine room, requiring the more than 500 passengers and crew to abandon ship. The Prinsendam was due to cruise from Vancouver to Asia, said Stephen Corcoran in his book on the event, "None were Lost: The Prinsendam Fire and Rescue." Corcoran was a lieutenant commander and operations officer aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell at the time of the event. The Prinsendam departed British Columbia on Tuesday, Sept. 30, calling in Ketchikan, and visiting Glacier Bay on Oct. 3, Boutwell said.  

Phoenix first responders are some of the first in the country to get a brand-new type of cancer screening, and it's as easy as a blood test. The Galleri test is a game changer that screens for 50 different types of cancers at the same time and can find them in early stages. At Vincere Cancer Center in Scottsdale, firefighters and police officers were eager to get the major health check on Tuesday. "On my way over here I was telling folks, 'I don't want to know. I don't want to know.' But ultimately, down deep inside, you do want to know," said Phoenix Police Assistant Chief Steve Martos. Three years ago, Phoenix offered a month of free cancer screenings to first responders. Now the city has budgeted money for them to take this new test, which can look at DNA in the blood and determine whether it came from cancer cells. It's much quicker and less invasive than traditional cancer screening methods like mammograms and colonoscopies.  

A blaze broke out Tuesday afternoon at the Dunellen Defender Fire Company No. 1, officials said. A post from the company did not provide specifics on what was damaged but photos from the scene showed that at least two fire trucks were damaged as well as the front of the firehouse. "We are still assessing the damage and the cause is being investigated by the Middlesex County Fire Marshal's Office," the post stated. "There were no reported injuries and we are still assessing the damage." A spokesman for the office could not immediately be reached for comment. The company thanked the local departments that responded to the fire and said it would be working with them so they could help provide mutual aid until their apparatuses could be restored to "full service."  

PHOTOS: The Hard Rock Hotel collapsed two years ago on Oct. 12, 2019, killing three workers and injuring dozens more in one of the worst ever construction accidents in New Orleans. Structural design errors led to the upper floors crumbling into the floors below, damaging two massive cranes that threatened to tumble into nearby buildings. The city hired engineers to implode the cranes and officials spent months trying to retrieve the dead workers' bodies. After months of private and public squabbling, the city and the building's owner, 1031 Canal Development LLC, led by Mohan Kailas, eventually agreed to tear the building down piece by piece. Today, the site is cleared of debris. The demolition process necessitated destroying two historic Canal St. buildings. Rampart Street remains closed two years after the collapse.  

So far this year, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority has responded to 168 fires, two-thirds of which have been declared arsons, Capt. John Corippo reported last week. "We responded to 168 fires since Jan. 1, and 113 of those were intentionally set," said Corippo, describing arsons as 67 percent of the fires UVFA crews have investigated in 2021. "That number is just mind-boggling to us," said Corippo, especially given how extremely hot, dry and windy the weather conditions are much of the year now, and how every fire season over the past decade seems to get longer and more dangerous. "We're seeing fires burn in ways we never have before." Arguably the most concerning arson blaze this year was the Hopkins Fire, which started Sept. 12 in Calpella and destroyed dozens of homes. But another arson fire closer to Ukiah had the potential to be just as devastating, Corippo said.  

The Spokane Valley Fire Department isn't losing a single firefighter with an exemption over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. It worked out accommodations for the 22 who had a medical or religious exemption approved. The biggest change is those who are unvaccinated and staying on the frontlines will be separated from the rest of the department. They will all be working from stations 1 and 10, where the battalion chiefs are. "They are going to oversee the testing portion daily, with those crews, so it made sense to do them at those locations, so the battalion chiefs weren't driving around town, trying to find firefighters spaced out at all ten stations," said Spokane Valley Fire Chief Bryan Collins. That's not the only way the fire department plans on limiting the spread of COVID-19. The exempt firefighters will be tested daily and are required to wear an N95 mask at all times.