From her home in the Interior Alaska town of Salcha the past few weeks, Red Cross volunteer Anne Johnson has been providing aid to people displaced by Northern California wildfires. She's been a Red Cross volunteer for about 18 years and has been deployed to disasters across the country, including the 2017 California wildfires, which claimed her sister's home. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson's most recent deployment is taking place virtually from her living room. But she said it has turned out to be her best deployment yet. Johnson is one of 30 Alaskans who have deployed virtually or in-person to respond to wildfires burning across California, Oregon and Washington. At first, Johnson wondered how she could help from Alaska.  

While evading police, a vehicle narrowly avoided colliding into a team of firefighters battling a three-alarm fire, putting a dramatic end to the chase and resulting in their apprehension Friday night, Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale said. The chase began when Paterson police stopped a sedan around 9:30 p.m. It's unclear what initiated the stop. The two unidentified suspects drove away on Fair Street and turned down Rosa Parks Boulevard where fire officials were removing their oxygen tanks, sitting and drinking water at the rehab tent. "This could have been catastrophic," Speziale told NJ Advance Media, explaining how firefighters quickly moved out of the way and no one was hit. The car attempted to make a quick left into a driveway in order to turn around, but at that point the suspects were surrounded by police, as well as officials from the Fire Department and Passaic County Hazmat Team.  

Researchers at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have been awarded a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute in the National Institutes of Health to study the long-term, longitudinal impact of COVID-19 on first responders, healthcare workers and the general population. "This is one of the largest grants ever awarded to the College of Medicine," said Peter Mohler, chief scientific officer for Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and vice dean for research for the Ohio State College of Medicine. It will fund the Center for Serological Testing to Improve Outcomes from Pandemic COVID-19 (STOP-COVID) at Ohio State, a new Serological Sciences Center of Excellence. With this funding, researchers will learn more about the interactions among exposure risks, transmission, immune responses, disease severity, protection and barriers to testing/vaccination, with the goal of improving population health and clinical outcomes in the face of COVID-19.  

VIDEO: A father and his son were rescued off a cliff at Fort Funston on Saturday, San Francisco fire officials say. Firefighters used ropes and pulleys to rescue the toddler and his dad from a steep and sandy cliff just after 11:30a.m. The father described what happened, after they stepped off a marked trail, near the cliff's edge when they realized they were 70 feet below. "Just hiking around and you take one wrong turn, and the next thing you know, the sand takes away leaves your feet, and the next thing you know, you're halfway down the cliff," he said. Lt. Jonathan Baxter praised the father for knowing exactly where he was when he called 911. Lt. Baxter advises residents not to walk down the cliff even if it might appear safe. "Although this resulted in no injuries and a successful rescue, it could also in injuries or death," he said. "We ask that you please stay on the trail." Firefighters told ABC7 News a Highway Patrol helicopter was standing by just in case the father and son needed to be lifted off the cliff. Both individuals are uninjured.  

As authorities in two D.C.-area counties investigate a flawed emergency response to a June drowning, new documents show the 911 center in Montgomery County had an automatically generated map that showed precisely where the call for help had come from. Emergency dispatchers in Maryland sent firefighters to the Potomac River after a teen called to say her friend had slipped underwater while the group was swimming in a "river." The caller went on to say her group had been in an "inlet" off the river and that they were in Virginia. It took 36 minutes for rescuers to reach the teen, 16-year-old Fitz Thomas, who by then had been pulled to a dock by his friends and a passerby who stepped in to help. Fitz, who was preparing to enter his senior year of high school, died. Emergency centers have long been faced with the challenge of responding to 911 cellphone callers who may not be able to provide a precise address or may be in an open space such as a park or along a highway.  

When a fellow Glendale firefighter in despair approached Ashley Losch on the job about struggles with mental health, Ashley found herself in an unfamiliar place. Firefighters are highly trained and highly skilled thinkers and problem solvers by trade. Not this time. "I didn't feel prepared. I didn't know how to help them in a way that would be effective other than listening," Ms. Losch, a Glendale firefighter, remembered on Sept. 15, during a break at Station 101, at 6851 N. 52nd Ave. "It just didn't feel like enough." Mental illness and the safest, most effective ways to support it among firefighters has been in sharp focus of late. A 2018 study by the Ruderman Family Foundation -- a non-partisan, philanthropic organization advocating "for and advance the inclusion of people with disabilities" -- revealed that firefighters across the U.S. statistically are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty. In 2017, there were at least 103 firefighter suicides and, in contrast, 93 firefighters killed in the line of duty.