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Ukrainian forces brace for redoubled Russian assault Tribune Content Agency MYKOLAIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian military stiffened defenses Sunday against Russian assaults in the east and south as the nation’s president framed the war as an existential threat to all of European democracy. “The whole European project is a target for Russia,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address, labeling the conflict raging in Ukraine a “catastrophe” that will “inevitably” spread elsewhere in Europe. “Russian aggression was not intended to be limited to Ukraine alone, to the destruction of our freedom and our lives alone,” he said. The Ukrainian military said it was resisting Russian efforts in the east to break through from the city of Izyum, which Russian forces have seized as a strategic foothold to take more territory. Ukraine said it was also continuing to fight off Russian attacks in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, much of which has been destroyed in weeks of street fighting and shelling. It also reported a missile strike on an airport in the city of Dnipro in which
five emergency workers were wounded. Since troops retreated from Kyiv this month after failing to take the capital and becoming bogged down in the northern reaches of the city, Ukraine has been bracing for new Russian advances in the south and east. Russia says it is focusing its attention on the eastern Donbas region, home to a pair of breakaway, pro-Russia republics where fighting has been ongoing since 2014. Satellite images released Sunday by Maxar Technologies show what appears to be an 8-mile-long convoy of Russian military vehicles heading south about 60 miles east of the city of Kharkiv. In another apparent switch in strategy, Russia has appointed a new commander to oversee its invasion of Ukraine, according to U.S. officials. Speaking to CNN, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the new wartime leader, Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, helped lead attacks on civilians while he was in charge of Russian troops in Syria’s bloody civil conflict. “This general will just be another See Ukraine, Page A8
Covid could be surging in US and we might not know it Tribune Content Agency The rise of Covid cases in some regions of the U.S., just as testing efforts wane, has raised the specter that the next major wave of the virus may be difficult to detect. In fact, the country could be in the midst of a surge right now and we might not even know it. Testing and viral sequencing are critical to responding quickly to new outbreaks of Covid. And yet, as the country tries to move on from the pandemic, demand for lab-based testing has declined and federal funding priorities have shifted. The change has forced some testing centers to shutter while others have hiked up prices in response to the end of government-subsidized testing programs. People are increasingly relying on at-home rapid tests if they decide to test at all. But those results are rarely reported, giving public health officials little insight into how widespread the
virus truly is. “There’s always more spread than we can detect,” said Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University. “That’s true even more so now than earlier in the pandemic.” Despite groundbreaking scientific advances like vaccines and antivirals, public health experts say the U.S.’s Covid defenses appear to be getting weaker as time goes on, not stronger. "We're in a worse position," said Julia Raifman, an assistant professor of health law, policy and management at Boston University School of Public Health. "We've learned more about the virus and how to address it, and then we haven't done what we need to do to address it.” In late February, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began relying on hospital admissions and ICU capacity to determine See Covid, Page A8
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A technician with Ember Defense installs fire preventive elements to a home.
Company working to protect homes, businesses from fires Todd R. Hansen
THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET
FAIRFIELD — Devan LeBlanc seemed destined to be in the firefighting universe, but not even he saw the direction in which his life has gone over the past four years. LeBlanc recalled when a fire threatened the home of his friend's family and he rushed over to douse flare-ups with the garden hose. "It was just around Thanksgiving, so it was cold, but we were trying to spray down the embers that were getting into the (leaf piles and yard debris)," LeBlanc said. That was in Reno where he grew up. "I thought for sure I would go the whole fire route. I took all the fire science (courses), but then I went into the Marines," he said. LeBlanc served five years, much of that time as a helicopter crew chief. When he got out of the service, he went back to school and earned his mechanical engineer-
ing degree, and landed at Tesla – a position he described as his "dream job," except for one thing. "I've always been one of those guys looking for the next idea and we saw with the wildland fires there just wasn't any help for homeowners (preventing the damage)," LeBlanc said. The past four years, along with partner Adam Iveson, he has been holding the reins on the quickly expanding Ember Defense business, which is based in Reno, but has operated out of Fairfield since 2020. The company expects to do 1,500 jobs this year. The work is installing fire preventive elements to homes, like vents that keep embers from getting into attics and adding gutters that keep debris from piling up, and spraying landscaping to ward off flames. The landscaping retardant products are particularly popular with wineries and other companies that do not want to lose the esthetics of their locations. LeBlanc noted that the retar-
dant product being used is quite different than the thick red retardant that is dropped on wildfires. The industry also has created fire-restrictive windows, roofs and other protective measures. Now the company, partnering with Perimeter Solutions, has a new ground product, Phos-Check Fortify, described as "an uncolored, ground-based long-term fire retardant that provides extended protection from wildfires with a single application." LeBlanc called it a game-changer. Still, he emphasizes, the first step in reducing fire risk to a home is defensible space, and part of his work is to educate property owners about what that means. That is why before Embers Defense enters into a contract, it does a complete assessment of the property. "We go out to the property and do an evaluation and educate them on what defensible space is and See Protect, Page A8
Benicia fire ‘slowed considerably’ Tribune Content Agency BENICIA — A fire burning at the Port of Benicia has “slowed considerably” after firefighters spent Saturday night attacking the blaze from nearby boats, though officials warned that the blaze is expected to continue chewing through the port’s wooden dock all day Sunday. Three small pockets of fire remained Sunday morning at the dock, which consists of wood soaked in chemicals and can only be accessed by fireboats, the city of Benicia announced in a news release. Still, fire officials cautioned that shifting wind patterns could once again kick up flames at the dock — meaning air quality conditions around the dock could change at a moment’s notice. The blaze broke out at about 2 p.m. Saturday, when firefighters responded to a report of a structure fire at WEATHER 62 | 37 Chance of showers. Five-day forecast on B8.
Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group
Firefighters work on extinguishing a 4-alarm fire at the Port of Benicia, Saturday. the Amports facility off more difficult. Embers Bayshore Road. Fire- fell from the belt onto fighters immediately the wooden dock nearby, encountered flames at which set off the massive the base of silos filled with petroleum coke — a product of refining fuel. — N A PA VA L L E Y — From there, a small outbuilding caught fire, as Dr. David P. Simon, well as a conveyor belt MD, FACS. Eye Physician & system that is used to Surgeon, Col. (Ret.), USAF move product from the Services include: port to ship tankers, • Routine Eye Exams Benicia Fire Chief Josh • Comprehensive Ophthalmology • Glaucoma and Macular Chadwick said. Degeneration Care While firefighters • Diabetic Eye Exams were able to quickly • Dry Eye Treatment extinguish the flames at • Cataract Surgery the base of the silos, the • LASIK Surgery conveyor belt proved • BOTOX Now Accepting New Patients! 3260 Beard Rd #5 Napa
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blaze and large billows of smoke, Chadwick said. The fire, which was quickly elevated to a fouralarm blaze, engulfed a long, wooden dock at the port located on the Carquinez Strait below the Benicia-Martinez Bridge on Interstate 680. The fire that remained burning Sunday morning was eating through wood under the port’s dock, which is soaked in the chemical preservative creosote. A San Francisco Fire See Benicia, Page A8
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