PHOTOS: Crews are investigating after a seafood warehouse in Kent caught fire early Wednesday morning. Puget Sound Fire sent out the initial alert on social media at around 2:13 a.m., saying crews were on the scene of a two-alarm warehouse fire in the 20400 block of 80th Avenue South.

When firefighters arrived, flames were coming through the roof. Crews immediately set up a defensive approach, using three aerial master streams and portable monitors to control the flames.

“We would encourage people to give us the room that we need down here, because we do have fire hoses stretched across the road,” said Pat Pawklak with Puget Sound Fire. “Please adhere to those because of firefighter safety.”

No one was inside at the time of the fire and no one was hurt. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Crews will continue to put out hotspots and then make the call if it is safe for an investigator to enter.

KCPQ-TV FOX 13 Seattle

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While FDNY firefighters are continuing to perish from 9/11 related illnesses nearly 25 years after the terrorist attack, new Department data released on Tuesday shows that despite an insurmountable loss, there could be a silver lining.

The Fire Department suffered its greatest one-day loss in history on Sept. 11, 2001, when 343 members, including much of its leadership, were killed while responding to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

But in the nearly 25 years since then, they have also lost more than 600 other firefighters from illnesses they contracted due to their work in the rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero, the pile of rubble from the collapsed Twin Towers and nearby buildings. In that respect, as Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore noted, 9/11 “was not a one-day event for our department.”

“It is a day that continues to sicken our members, with many of them eventually succumbing to the disease related to the heroic work in the rescue and recovery efforts,” Bonsignore said during the Sept. 1 press conference at the Fire Department’s headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn. “Our members are still getting sick, and sadly, they are dying.”

amNewYork

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AI is already helping detect and monitor wildfires. Now, researchers are exploring how it could help fire officials decide where to deploy crews across multiple fires.

Studies show climate change is contributing to longer, more intense wildfire seasons, forcing officials to make high-stakes decisions about how to prioritize limited resources.

AI could help them process information to make those decisions faster. Jason Fallon, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service’s division chief for wildland fire intelligence, told Axios that AI is ingrained in many areas of wildfire management nationally, including monitoring, detection, information dissemination and data transfer.

• AI-powered cameras, satellite systems and weather-prediction tools are helping agencies in Western states detect wildfires and deploy crews sooner.
• For satellite data triage, AI can “help us quickly work through a workflow to separate noise from reality,” Fallon said.

Léonard Boussioux, an information systems professor at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, is part of a team researching how machine learning and optimization could assist fire officials in deciding where to send crews when multiple wildfires are burning.

Axios

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PHOTOS: Emergency crews pulled a young boy from Angle Lake after a reported drowning at the park on Tuesday afternoon, according to Puget Sound Fire. Puget Sound Fire said it and SeaTac police responded and searched the lake before finding the victim.

Firefighters and paramedics from King County Medic One provided “lifesaving medical assistance,” Puget Sound Fire said. The boy was underwater for about 17 minutes, the agency said. The child was then taken to a Seattle-area hospital in critical condition. Officials did not provide any other information on the cause of the drowning.

KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

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A victim who was found dead during the Chelan Hills Fire in Douglas County has been identified nearly two months later. Fire officials said that on July 5, the victim’s remains were found inside a vehicle that had gone off the road and was consumed by fire. The victim is 69-year-old Robert. M. Lister, a resident of Orondo, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO).

Douglas County Sheriff Tyler Caille said the fire, which was reported on July 4, is being investigated as human-caused. At least 9,700 acres were burned, and more than 100 structures, including homes, were destroyed. Caille said detectives are continuing their in-depth investigation into what started the fire and the events that led to Lister’s death.

KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

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