Contract proposals for Western Alaska Village-based Type 2 wildland firefighting hand crews will be sought for the 2021 fire season by about March 26, 2021, according to a pre-solicitation notice published last week by the Bureau of Land Management Alaska Fire Service (BLM AFS). Multiple contractors may be selected to base crews in communities in the Galena Fire Management Zone covering much of Western Alaska for quick response to fires. Last year, the BLM AFS awarded three contracts for Type 2 crews based in the Upper Yukon and Tanana Fire Management Zones for quick response to fires within BLM AFS protection areas covering the northern half of the state. The contract crew concept intends to meet the need for Type 2 wildland firefighting crews in Alaska and the Lower 48 in response to the changing complexity of managing federal emergency firefighter (EFF) crews, which are hired only as needed.  

Local firefighters braved the snowy and frigid conditions while they battled a large warehouse fire in Princeton Wednesday night. The Princeton Fire Department responded to a structure fire at the old Leroi building on South Seminary Street shortly after 8:00 p.m. Caldwell County Emergency Manager Joey McCaslin tells the News Edge 24 firefighters responded to the fire with an aerial truck and two pumper trucks. Two ambulances, the Caldwell County Sheriff's Office and Princeton Police Department also assisted at the scene. The Fredonia and Eddyville Fire Departments were also on standby at the Princeton fire station to respond to any other emergency calls while firefighters fought to contain and extinguish the fire. McCaslin says there were no injuries reported. At this time, what started the fire has not been released.  

Decatur is offering an incentive package to get vaccinated for COVID-19 as an encouragement for hesitant city employees, especially first responders. The DeKalb County city is offering extra vacation time, health insurance credits and raffled gift cards to try to increase vaccination rates. Fewer than half of the city's 150 first responders — police officers, firefighters and public works employees — have gotten vaccinated, Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He estimated that 40-45% of them have chosen to get vaccinated, despite all first responders having ample opportunity to get vaccinated as part of the state's vaccine rollout plan. The lagging percentage mirrors a problem many metro Atlanta counties and cities are encountering among frontline government employees. "There's hesitancy everywhere, which is unfortunate given the consequences of the pandemic," he said. "I think there's been a lot of misinformation about (the vaccines)."  

The Porterville Fire Department will honor the memory of two fallen firefighters one year after Capt. Ramon Figueroa and Patrick Jones died making sure nobody was trapped inside a burning library. A virtual memorial service will be posted to the department's social media at 4 p.m. Thursday, officials announced. The service was prerecorded and is being shared online due to COVID-19 restrictions. The video will include an honor guard ceremony with speeches from Porterville Fire Chief Dave LaPere, the firefighters' families and other community leaders. Dispatchers will also alert Tulare County fire stations at 4:16 p.m. — the time Figueroa and Jones entered the burning building — to broadcast a moment of radio silence honoring the fallen first responders. On Feb. 18, 2020, Figueroa and Jones were the first to arrive at the Porterville Public Library following a three-alarm structure fire.  

VIDEOS: Emergency crews rescued 12 people from boats in frigid conditions Wednesday night after the roof of a boat dock collapsed in Old Hickory. Both the Nashville Fire Department and Office of Emergency Management responded to the Blue Turtle Bay Marina in the 2000 block of Riverside Road. Callers to 911 reported the roof of the boat dock collapsed on top of multiple houseboats with people inside. Conditions were too icy to reach the boat dock by foot, so crews deployed rescue boats to transport people. "Boat 22 and Boat 36 have been launched and will be en route. Additional connector boats are also being launched," Kendra Loney with the Nashville Fire Department said in an email. The dock that collapsed was about 100 yards long. The Nashville Fire Department said the docks are designed to move along with the water but the ice and snow jammed this one up, caused it to sink and eventually collapse.  

Scientists have identified seven new coronavirus variants that have emerged in the United States, according to a study awaiting peer review. All seven variants contained a similar mutation and were found to have emerged as early as July 2020. Scientists say it's not surprising that they're just now identifying new viral variants in the U.S., but it's too soon to know what, if anything, these variants mean for Americans. These variants add to a growing list of new variants now found within the United States, including the variants first discovered in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa. Scientists have also identified variants that first emerged on U.S. soil, including variants originating in the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California and the Midwest.