public safety

Cooper Landing Emergency Services Chief Dan Osborn says no one was injured and confirmed Wednesday afternoon the fire had been extinguished.

In December, a Kenai superior court judge sentenced 37-year-old Nathaniel Erfurth to 77 years and one month in prison, with most of that suspended.

Thirty-six-year-old Kirby Calderwood has accepted a plea deal through which he would serve 87 years in prison. This is a developing story and will be updated.

Kenai Fire Chief Jay Teague says structure fire risk tends to increase during the winter months, but the two recent hotel fires are anomalies.

An Alaska judge on Friday delayed the troopers’ state criminal trial in response to the federal case.

Although sentenced to 77 years and one month, a majority of that sentence was suspended. Erfurth’s active jail time is 20 years and one month.

In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s office says 50-year-old Miller had no legal justification for the violent arrest. Prosecutors say 43-year-old Woodruff illegally used his police dog to bite the man when he did not pose a threat.

Alaska State Troopers say 45-year-old Aaron “Scott” Merritt was found unresponsive in his Anchorage cell on Nov. 21 and was pronounced dead five days later. A Kenai Grand Jury indicted Merritt on 20 felony counts of sexual assault and abuse of a minor in late October.

A Kenai Grand Jury indicted 45-year-old Aaron “Scott” Merritt last week in a case the Kenai Police Department began investigating more than two decades ago.

Troopers say 30-year-old Tyler Moyer, of Anchorage, was wanted on a $50,000 felony arrest warrant.