PHOTOS: The Division of Forestry & Fire Protection has deployed additional resources to Southwest Alaska and suppression efforts are underway. In response to the bloom of new fires in the wake of Monday's lightning, resources have been assigned to fires based on priority derived from location and proximity to values at risk. Firefighters on the ground are working in conjunction with aerial support to slow and extinguish as many fires as possible in full or modified protection areas. Detection flights flown Tuesday confirmed the locations of several additional fires, bringing the total number of fires in the Southwest region to 28. Weather in the region is expected to moderate slightly over the next few days contributing to the effectiveness of firefighting efforts. Scattered showers brought variable precipitation to some of the fires.  

A large fire creating huge amounts of smoke broke out at a building on Chicago's West Side Wednesday evening, the second massive fire in the city within two days—and even within 24 hours. Fire crews sprayed water from multiple angles at the building in 2800 block of West Grand Avenue, near the intersection with California Avenue in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Large amounts of smoke were visible from the air. Chicago Fire Department 1st District Chief Jim McDonough said the first companies were at the scene at 6:06 p.m. They found heavy fire in the cluster of structures, and everyone had evacuated by the time they arrived. The front part of the building, carrying an address of 2810 W. Grand Ave., is a three-story office building—which survived the fire, McDonough said.  

In 2023, 89 firefighters in the United States died from traumatic injuries, heart attacks, strokes, or aneurysms while on duty or within 24 hours of duty. This fatal injury count is a decrease over the 97 fatal injuries the previous year, but it is otherwise the second highest since 2013, during which there were 98 on-duty deaths. The increase in recorded fatalities over the past two years has been substantially influenced by the inclusion of deaths that occurred within 24 hours of duty. Prior to 2022, these deaths were not included in the study unless victims expressed a specific physical complaint while on duty. Of the 89 firefighters who died of on-duty injuries in 2023, 80 were municipal firefighters and nine were non-municipal firefighters. The municipal firefighters included 48 volunteer firefighters, 30 career firefighters, and two paid part-time firefighters.  

VIDEO: Video calls with 911 dispatchers may soon be a reality in Albuquerque. The city's fire rescue agency is looking to launch a new online video platform that they hope will help free up firefighter paramedics in the field. "This would give our dispatchers the ability to actually see the patient on scene," said AFR's EMS Division Chief Chris Ortiz. Ortiz said the department hopes to adopt a program that would allow dispatchers to see a 911 call in real time before crews even arrive on the scene. "They can't see the dispatcher on the other side, but the dispatcher can see them and in that, it will give a frame that will give the patient's heart rate and respiratory rate," said Ortiz. With a smartphone, the 911 caller would get a link to a website from a dispatcher. That link would then launch a live video call inside of the browser.  

The U.S. Senate passed S.870, the Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, sending it to President Biden to be signed into law. S.870 incorporates language from H.R. 4090, the Fire Grants and Safety Act of 2023, introduced by Science Committee member Tom Kean (R-NJ). The bill will support and advance firefighter and first responder services across the nation, providing a five-year reauthorization for the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), the Assistance to Firefighters Grants (AFG) Program, and the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant (SAFER) Program. "I look forward to President Biden swiftly signing this bill into law to ensure the safety and well-being of our communities nationwide," Chairman Lucas said.