Fire and EMS Career Exploring is a hands-on program open to young men and women from the 8th grade to 20 years old with an interest in learning more about careers in the field of fire or emergency services. Rural Deltana Volunteer Fire Department is kicking off the Exploring Fire and EMS program in Delta Junction with a talk at Delta High School on Wednesday, February 22, and with an open house at the Clearwater Fire Station on Tuesday, February 28, 6-7:30 p.m. To join the program, youth must complete an application with parent consent. "We've all had to put in a lot of research and effort to make sure we're going to give a quality program," said Bry Wimberly, RDVFD volunteer firefighter and one of two advisors for the Exploring program. Firefighter Ryan Capporelli is the other advisor. Though adults will serve as advisors, the program is run by the youth, Wimberly explained.  

PHOTOS: Two people are confirmed to have died in a two-alarm house fire in the Makiki area, Thursday afternoon. Honolulu firefighters were called out to the scene in the 900 block of Spencer Street just before 1 p.m. When crews arrived they could see flames shooting from the roof of a two-story building. Firefighters worked quickly and were able to get the fire under control around 1:05 p.m. while simultaneously searching for people inside the building. Crews had the fire fully extinguished at 1:40 p.m. Two people, both said to be elderly individuals, are confirmed to have died in the fire, according to the Honolulu Fire Department and the Medical Examiner's Office. An elderly man was found just outside of the home under the exterior staircase of the building and one elderly woman was found in one of the bedrooms on the ground floor.  

The American Heart Association hosted dozens of CPR trainings throughout February's Heart Month with a focus on training those in minority communities. This focus has been years in the works for the American Heart Association (AHA). American College of Cardiology recently found that Black and Hispanic individuals were 41% less likely than white individuals to receive CPR when suffering cardiac arrest in public and 26% less likely to receive CPR when the cardiac arrest occurred at home. These numbers and the fact that Black adults are 32% more likely to die from heart disease than white adults are the reasons why the American Heart Association spent countless hours this month teaching CPR to minority communities.  

Norfolk Southern announced Friday that they are donating over $1 million combined to the East Palestine school district and fire department. According to the press release, a $300,000 donation will be given to the East Palestine City School District, while $825,000 will be given to the Village of East Palestine Fire Department. Norfolk Southern said that the donation for the school will be used for the district's academics, athletics, extra-curricular activities and its long-term contingency planning regarding the impacts of the derailment. Schools have recently forfeited games, despite the district being cleared to host athletic and extra-curricular activities. The donation to the fire department will be used as reimbursement for fire equipment used in the derailment response.  

It's difficult to pinpoint how Dr. Leonard Cobb came up with the idea to train firefighters in emergency medical care, but friends and family believe one particular afternoon more than 60 years ago played a role. Cobb and his wife, Else, had stopped at a market in Seattle's Madrona neighborhood for a frozen snack when they noticed a man slumped over in a nearby car. When Cobb opened the car door to check on him, the man sagged to the ground. Cobb stayed with the man while his wife rushed to a nearby fire station for help. A firefighter hurried over to bring oxygen, but there wasn't much else he could do until the man was taken to the hospital, Else Cobb, 88, remembers. "It was an incident where Leonard felt the fireman could have done more if he had known what to do," his wife said this week.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: It's not every day you see a 40-foot fire hydrant carried down the streets of downtown Columbia — or anywhere, for that matter. The "Busted Plug" sculpture, an iconic piece of public art by artist Blue Sky, was moved from its longtime home on Taylor Street on Thursday. Bucket truck crews had to lift up power lines as a flatbed carried the core of the hydrant along Taylor and Bull streets. Traffic backed up on all sides of the intersection around lunchtime, and cars honked as the sculpture made its way through the streets on the hot day. The sculpture is being moved after a new owner purchased the property it has sat on since 2001. Sky, a well-known Columbia artist, also created the "Tunnelvision" mural on the building behind Busted Plug's longtime spot.