24-year-old Dejah Woods will make history when she begins her first shift as a firefighter in DeLand Thursday. At that moment, Woods will officially become the city’s first ever black female firefighter. Of the 49 firefighters in the department, Woods is one of just three women, and four minorities.
- PUB DATE: 2/4/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFTV ABC 9 News Orlando

Google asked the US Federal Aviation Administration for permission to test a drone for monitoring and fighting fires. However, its drone plans, which were published Thursday in the federal register, have since been extinguished. The request came from Alphabet's Google Research Climate and Energy Group -- not the company's Wing subsidiary, whose drone delivery service was certified by the FAA in 2019.
- PUB DATE: 2/4/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CNET

PHOTOS: In nearly 50 years of reminiscing about his hometown of Park Ridge with fellow members of the Park Ridge Historical Society, a favorite topic for Ralph R. Bishop was his adventures with the Lil’ Pirsch fire truck, first bought by the city in 1921. His father, Ralph E. Bishop, was fire chief when the city bought the pumper truck, built by Nash.
- PUB DATE: 2/4/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Journal & Topics

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, recently commented in a blog post that a next pandemic could be 10 times worse than the one we are currently experiencing. In this context, the billionaire proposes to create "a squad of pandemic firefighters" to take action against such a threat. “The unfortunate reality is that COVID-19 may not be the last pandemic.
- PUB DATE: 2/4/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Hour

Authorities are investigating after a toddler died in a house fire in Tacoma on Wednesday afternoon. Firefighters were called around 1:40 p.m. to the 2000 block of East Columbia Avenue. When crews arrived, they saw smoke coming from the second floor of a home. They found a 2-year-old on the second floor while searching the home, but it was too late.
- PUB DATE: 2/4/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle