PHOTOS: Akron firefighters responded to a recycling center fire Thursday that resulted in heavy black smoke and a shelter-in-place order that has since been lifted.

The fire sparked ahead of 1:35 p.m. at Holub Recycling, located at 470 N. Arlington St. near Summa Hospital. The source was a 40-foot-high pile of compressed recycled cars, metals, plastic and rubber.

Fire crews said fire and smoke were initially seen coming from “a large scrap/rubbish pile” outside the center.

The blaze drew nearly half of Akron’s fire department to the scene, with multiple pumpers, engine companies and several ladder trucks rotating in throughout the afternoon, fire officials said.

“We’ve had almost the entire department out here rotating in. So right now, we probably have close to half the department on scene. Multiple pumpers, engine companies, and several ladders,” Capt. Matt Askea with Akron Fire Department.

A shelter-in-place order has been lifted for parts of the Arlington and Middlebury neighborhoods.

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PHOTOS: Canton Fire reports a second burn victim has been found following a home explosion on Thursday, July 30.

Witnesses told FOX 8 News that the sound of an explosion at 1617 Bonnot Place NE, woke them up shortly before 4 a.m. on Thursday. Canton Division Chief Steve Henderson tells FOX 8 the explosion could be felt 2 miles away.

Canton Fire released video of the moment it happened. Henderson said the home was already destroyed when firefighters arrived. The blast was so powerful, it blew one man into the street.

Canton Fire says he was taken to the hospital with burns to 80% of his body. “It was a big boom like a bomb or missile was going off. It actually shattered some of my neighbor’s windows even and shook my whole house,” said Victor Howell, who shared video of the scene.

SkyFOX video over the neighborhood showed a massive debris field around the home. The man who survived the explosion told fire that there was another person in the home, prompting a search.

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VIDEO: A team of active and retired firefighters is working to bring an old fire truck back home in hopes of donating the truck to the city of Somerville.

The 72-year-old truck spent four decades serving in Somerville before being sent to New York.

The man who tracked down the truck said he found it through a Facebook post in Minnesota and knew he needed to jump on the opportunity to restore it.

“I just kinda always liked the design of this particular truck and sure enough this popped up in a field with snow on it in Minnesota and it still said Somerville on it,” said Jay Keane, the retired district fire chief of Somerville. “It served Somerville for 40 years, it was at some of the biggest fires Somerville had.”

Keane said the truck is getting work done in Connecticut before it makes its way back to the Somerville area.

A GoFundMe was set up for anyone looking to donate to help cover the expenses. He said they are hoping to offer it to the city this fall to be used in parades and other community events.

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Monday’s storms destroyed Fire Station 41 in Fox Crossing, leaving crumpled sheets of metal on the ground where the station’s roof once stood and burying several fire engines under rubble.

The Fox Crossing Community Center also sustained what village officials described as “significant damage” that will take time to fully assess.

Fox Crossing police issued a curfew for areas east of Little Lake Butte des Morts following the village administrator’s declaration of a local state of disaster due to the storms.

The curfew runs from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and remains in effect until further notice. It applies to pedestrians, bicycles and all vehicles on public streets, in buildings, in parks and in other public places.

The only exception is for people traveling for essential work as storm recovery crews continue operations.

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PHOTOS: Firefighters were on scene Wednesday morning after a utility pole and transformers came crashing down in Hackensack.

In a video sent to News 12, an explosion can be heard, and flames are seen engulfing the cars parked along the curve on Prospect Avenue.

Officials say as many as six cars were destroyed. Still no official word on what brought the utility pole down or if Tuesday’s storms played a part. At this time, there are no injuries reported.

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VIDEO: Rhode Island will now keep track of who owns electric cars, for the sake of firefighter safety, following new legislation signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee Tuesday. State leaders said it’s to help firefighters properly prepare before heading to a fire that involves an electric vehicle.

The law (2026-H 7135A, 2026-S 2181A) was introduced by State Rep. Earl Read. “Being a former police officer, public safety is very important to me and this bill actually came to me from my son,” Read explained.

He said his son went through the fire academy and mentioned the dangers of fired involving electric cars, including electric shock risks and environmental contamination. “The bigger the vehicle, the bigger the battery, the bigger the fire, the harder to put out,” said State Fire Marshal, Timothy McLaughlin.

Despite the dangers, it took two years for the bill to cross the Governor’s desk. “Some of the challenges were some privacy information, basically license plate information and of course people want to respect their privacy, and we need to weigh that vs. public safety,” said Read.

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PHOTOS: A disastrous fire in Union, Michigan, destroyed a well-known tavern, leaving one person injured. Firefighters were working since 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday to first put out this fire and then to find the cause.

WSBT22 knows the dispatch went out about 6:30 a.m. with word there was one man with burns. We’re still working to learn more about that man and his injuries.

Many of us have been kept at a distance as crews are drilling around the area because of what we’re told is an underground saturation of natural gas. The community is left to reflect on the memories made at Zimmy’s.

Zimmy’s just celebrated its 80th anniversary this year. Some of the neighbors have been around for a good share of that.

“We’ve come up here the last 30-40 years visiting friends, and Zimmy’s was always the hot spot, especially with takeout pizza and all that kind of stuff. Takeout food was great food, lot of memories, people just went up here every week for a meal, and it was a good place, and I’m hoping they’re considering rebuilding,” said Joan Speckman, neighbor.

The owner of Zimmy’s, Lee Oswalt, was known in the community to be kind and very helpful.

“He’s done everything that anybody ever asked of him. If we needed a donation for a kids fishing contest, if it was fish stocking on the lake, he was always one to step up and help out so, just did a lot for the community, and gosh, I hope we keep him, but we’ll see,” said Jerry Lintz, neighbor.

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Officials released new information about the fire that tore through The Dive, a floating bar and restaurant on Lake Winnipesaukee.

According to the state fire marshal’s office, the fire was reported around 3:40 p.m. Saturday, while the boat was anchored at the Smalls Cove sandbar in Alton and open for business.

Firefighters from Alton, Gilford, Tuftonboro, and Wolfeboro responded to put out the flames. The New Hampshire State Police Marine Patrol also helped with the response.

No civilian injuries were reported, though the Alton Fire Department confirmed one firefighter had a minor injury.

In a statement, Alton Fire Department Chief Reinert said firefighters had limited resources, with a handful of departments able to use boats with firefighting capabilities on the lake.

High boat traffic on the lake Saturday also made the response harder, as crews had to get around other boats.

State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey said investigators think the fire started in the kitchen area. The fire is not considered suspicious, and the vessel owner has been fully cooperative with the investigation.

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VIDEO: In the Horse Capital of the World, horses once played a role far removed from racing and farming, they were central to public safety.

Sunday marked exactly 100 years since the Lexington Fire Department’s last horse-drawn fire response. The response team was dispatched from the city’s current Station 3.

Mayor Linda Gorton issued a proclamation designating July 26, 2026, as ‘Lexington Fire Horse Heritage Day.’ In 1926, Lexington had four operating fire stations, all located downtown.

Three of them were designed to house horse-drawn response units. A century later, the department now operates 24 stations spread across the city.

Fire Chief Jason Wells said the department’s structure was also different then. “There were paid members back then. They essentially lived at the fire station. There were not a lot of shifts or anything like that, they were pretty much there full time,” Wells said.

Today, Lexington residents will likely hear sirens when the fire department responds to an emergency. In 1926, that sound was different.

“The wagons would have bells on them. There was a rope attached and the members who were riding on that wagon would ring the bell, and that was sort of the notification to, you know, move out of the roadway,” Wells said.

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Firefighters were working to extinguish a structure fire likely caused by an electrical box near New River Monday morning.

Crews were dispatched to the area of Central Avenue and Honda Bow Road, west of New River Road just before 5 a.m., where they arrived to find heavy flames engulfing a building.

The extinguishment appeared to prove more complex than a typical structure fire due to a large number of items scattered across the property, including several RVs, cars and at least one boat.

All residents had evacuated before firefighters arrived. No injuries were reported, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

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Nearly two dozen people were injured, including several New York City firefighters (FDNY) Saturday, when a massive fire broke out at an apartment building in Queens.

FDNY Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods said firefighters first got word of the fire at a two-story wooden building in Queens just before 10 a.m., and when they arrived, two buildings were fully involved, and the fire was spreading to a third building.

Woods added that rescuers were able to get to the second floor above the fire “under high heat and zero visibility” where one resident was trapped. “We want to thank the staff at all of these area hospitals for taking care of our personnel,” Woods added.

He said the five-alarm fire, which corresponds to using 250 firefighters, left “heavy damage” to the building and many of the families are displaced.

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A volunteer firefighter killed in the line of duty 91 years ago is being honored after a storyteller located his long-lost grave in West Prestonsburg last month.

Milt Nelson was a firefighter in Prestonsburg in 1935 when he responded to a Feb. 3 fire that tore through six buildings in the city. Reports say the fire triggered an explosion, sending a pipe from one of the buildings into Nelson. The impact carried him 100 feet and killed him immediately.

Nelson is the Prestonsburg Fire Department’s only recorded line-of-duty death. The department discovered that designation several years ago and soon realized his grave, like his story, had been lost to time.

After seeing her recent work on social media, Captain Tyler Sparks reached out to Shannon Deskins, an Appalachian storyteller and former journalist, for help locating the burial site.

“Captain Sparks reached out to her and said, ‘Hey, we think he might be buried in West Prestonsburg. If you can find that grave, we would really appreciate it.’ It wasn’t a couple days later she found the grave,” said Celina Thomas, chief of the Prestonsburg Fire Department.

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PHOTOS: Large flames engulfed a city storage building near Happy Valley Park on Sunday afternoon.

The Happy Valley Public Works Operations Building, located at 13910 Southeast Ridgecrest Road, caught fire just before noon, according to Clackamas Fire.

Graham Morrison said he lives near the park and saw the smoke.

“We rode past this and then we came down to my friend’s house, past the park. And then literally 10 minutes later, we just see a giant thing of smoke and we come back and it’s on fire,” Morrison said.

People in the area were urged to stay inside due to the heavy smoke. On Sunday evening, Clackamas Fire said they tested the air and determined there were no further health concerns and lifted a shelter in place order.

“Just because the smoke was so thick and you know, the wind and it was hovering in the area. So, it was just put into place for the safety of the community,” a Clackamas Fire spokesperson said.

Authorities say the building held equipment used to maintain the adjacent Happy Valley Park, and that the east side of the park will be closed until further notice.

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PHOTOS: Emergency crews responded Thursday after a Kenmore Air seaplane went down in the water near Sucia Island in San Juan County.

Kenmore Air said its de Havilland DHC-3 Otter, Flight 140, departed Lake Union in Seattle at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday en route to Roche Harbor on San Juan Island.

The aircraft was involved in an accident in Shallow Bay near Sucia Island at about 5:15 p.m., the airline said. The airline also confirmed there were 10 passengers and one pilot on board.

Orcas Island Fire & Rescue later confirmed that everyone aboard had been rescued and was receiving medical care or being transported from the scene. Kenmore Air said everyone on board has been accounted for.

According to the airline, two injured passengers were taken to a hospital in Bellingham, while two others were transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Seven additional passengers were taken to a U.S. Coast Guard base for further evaluation.

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Convenience stores nationwide are celebrating the people who never clock out.

On July 24, thousands of convenience stores across the country will participate in 24/7 Day, an annual event recognizing first responders, emergency dispatchers, medical personnel and American Red Cross volunteers for their around-the-clock service to communities.

The nationwide celebration is organized by the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) through its “Serve Up Thanks” initiative.

As part of the event, participating convenience stores will offer free coffee, fountain drinks and select snacks to eligible first responders and American Red Cross volunteers as a small token of appreciation for the work they do 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The campaign also encourages customers to support disaster relief efforts by making donations to the American Red Cross at participating stores.

According to NACS, the annual event is designed to recognize the everyday heroes who respond to emergencies, answer 9-1-1 calls, provide medical care and assist communities during disasters.

“Serve Up Thanks” has grown into a nationwide effort, with thousands of convenience stores taking part each year to show appreciation while helping raise funds for the Red Cross’ humanitarian mission.

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VIDEO: On Thursday, Salt Lake welcomed a somber piece of history into the heart of the city.

A 16,900-pound steel beam, recovered from the rubble of the original World Trade Center after September 11, 2001, is touring across the United States ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, and on Thursday, Utahns had the chance to see it in the flesh.

Stephan Siller Jr., son of a FDNY firefighter who lost his life saving others on 9/11, is using this tour as a symbolic memorandum of his father and all of the other first responders who gave their lives that day.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Stephen Siller had just finished his shift as an FDNY firefighter when he heard over his scanner that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Unfortunately, due to the security measures put in place that day, Siller could not get to the towers in order to help without an emergency vehicle.

So instead, he parked his car at the entrance of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, strapped nearly 70 pounds of gear to his back, and ran two miles to the Twin Towers.

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Emergency crews responded to a fire at the Barrington Place apartments in Westlake on Wednesday morning. According to Westlake police, no injuries were reported. Officers evacuated residents from the building’s first and second floors while firefighters cleared the third floor.

Westlake Fire Capt. Russell Hetman told 3News the fire started on the third floor. When firefighters arrived, they encountered heavy fire conditions, with flames extending through the roof. Crews were able to safely evacuate everyone from the building.

The fire has since been knocked down, but firefighters continued to extinguish hot spots. Officials believe the blaze originated on a third-floor balcony.

The Westlake Fire Department was assisted by fire crews from Avon, Lakewood, Bay Village and Rocky River. Hetman said the building’s third floor was heavily damaged.

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VIDEO: For firefighters, every second counts — especially when the person in danger is one of their own. The Tulsa Fire Department is making sure crews are ready for the unexpected through specialized training focused on rescuing fellow firefighters in life-threatening situations.

Tulsa firefighters are taking part in specialized “May Day” training designed to prepare them for one of the most dangerous situations they can face — rescuing one of their own.

The training is part of the Tulsa Fire Department’s regular curriculum and teaches firefighters how to quickly remove a colleague’s protective gear and get them to safety if they become trapped, injured or suffer a medical emergency while fighting a fire.

Training Captain Jacob Younger said firefighters face a variety of hazards that can suddenly put a crew member in danger.

“There could be a number of different things that cause an issue that force us to have to pull one of our own out of the fire,” Younger said. “It can be an equipment malfunction, outside of our control. It can be a collapse. It could be the fire conditions itself that overrun what our capabilities are. Or it could be a medical emergency.”

The Tulsa Fire Department estimates one to two firefighters are treated each month for cardiac emergencies, making medical response a key part of the training.

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PHOTOS: This summer has seen ferocious wildfires tearing across southern Europe earlier in the season than usual. More than 240,000 acres of land have already been destroyed across Spain, with a recent blaze in the south quickly turning into one the country’s deadliest.

Preventing wildfires has become a high-tech endeavor of satellites, drones and AI systems. But 80 miles south of Barcelona, an ancient solution is quietly roaming across the mountain. It’s a herd of donkeys.

Tivissa Donkey Firefighters, a nonprofit in southern Catalonia, rehabilitates mistreated and abandoned donkeys and puts them to work as “firefighters.” By grazing the most flammable grasses in mountains and rural areas, they carve natural firebreaks across the dry Mediterranean landscape.

Founder Joan Cedó Sans took in the first few donkeys in 2020; he now has a herd of 62, moving across the region to clear private and public lands thanks to their seemingly endless appetites.

“We’re grateful for the animals that we feel deserve a second opportunity,” he told CNN, in Catalan. Remembering the fires that swept near his land in Catalonia, northeastern Spain, in 2013, he decided to test if the first donkeys would clear the forest undergrowth around it. “They ate everything,” he said.

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: A massive fire engulfed a barn and destroyed the main farm market at Bauman’s Farm on Five Mile Line Road in Penfield on Wednesday.

Crews had been at the scene for hours, ever since flames broke out around 2:30 a.m.

In the daylight, the barn appeared heavily charred, and several parts of the market appeared heavily damaged. At one point, sheriff’s deputies closed both Plank Road and Five Mile Line Road as multiple fire departments worked to control the blaze.

In a statement on Instagram, the Bauman family said they “experienced a heartbreaking loss” but are grateful for the first responders who worked throughout the night to contain the fire. The Penfield, Webster, West Webster, Brighton, and Irondequoit fire departments all responded.

The family also said they’ve already received “overwhelming support, prayers, and kind messages” from community members. First responders told News10NBC that the owner was at the scene, assessing the damage.

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