VIDEO: This year, the Anchorage Fire Department had the most females ever graduating from its academy. The three women who graduated are now probationary firefighters who have just completed their cycle at their assigned stations. Captain Megan McClain is mentoring one of the probationary firefighters. She believes the department is changing for the better. "I feel like this kind of new generation, if you will, that's coming in is getting, I think, a better department and supporting them," said Megan McClain, Fire Captain with the Anchorage Fire Department. And some of the women in the Anchorage Fire Department are thrilled to be a part of the largest female graduating academy class. "Every day is a humbling day. Every day is a day to learn. Every day is a day to grow. And I don't want to lose that," said Camille Hierbert, probationary firefighter and EMT.  

PHOTOS: A suspect believed to have shot a man at a downtown Miami apartment complex and ignited a 3-alarm fire that engulfed the building has been taken into custody, authorities said Monday evening. Miami Police confirmed the identity of the suspect in the shooting and fire at the Temple Court Apartments as 73-year-old Juan Francisco Figueroa. Firefighters battled the flames that engulfed the four-story building in Miami's first 3-alarm fire in 25 years for more than eight hours before getting the fire under control. Firefighters rescued over 40 people who were trapped inside the burning building, including some from their balconies. After the fire was extinguished, police and fire officials said all residents have been accounted for. Three firefighters were hospitalized in stable condition.  

VIDEO: When Exeter Firefighter/Paramedic Matt Greene took up the fiddle five years ago, his vow to practice every day meant he would need to play during downtime between emergency calls on his 24-hour shifts. But what started as a passion for the violin quickly became a therapeutic experience on a challenging job that regularly involves witnessing trauma and responding to tragedy. "For me, the ability to play the fiddle here, even if for a few minutes a day, is meditative," Greene told Boston 25 News from the firehouse Friday. "It's literally being present in the moment and connecting with the music and the instrument and just setting aside that time for myself." With his stage the apparatus bay and his music stand the back of a fire engine, Greene sometimes captures an audience of fellow first responders as he plays traditional Celtic songs and folksy tunes.  

Brian Cummings, a retired former Los Angeles fire chief, joined Station 19 as the fire technical adviser, not entirely knowing what he would be doing on a day-to-day basis. But that didn't really matter. When the opportunity arose, his wife, Mallory Lewis, said take it. Perhaps that was because, in a way that feels fated, Cummings' career trajectory was eerily similar to Station 19's Captain Andy Herrera's. Right after World War II, in 1947, Cummings' father, Lewis Cummings, joined the Los Angeles City Fire Department during a period of time when there were only two firehouses where Black men could work. Lewis was eventually promoted to engineer (the person who drives the truck), so naturally, Brian Cummings spent a lot of his childhood in and out of firehouses. Eventually, the firefighting bug caught Cummings, and he left UCLA, where he was pursuing an engineering degree, to join the Los Angeles Fire Department.