The innovative new station of Rescue Company 2 in Brooklyn is a welcome upgrade from their former station house, which was built in 1893 when the FDNY still used horses. Designed through a partnership with the New York City Department of Design and Construction and the illustrious architecture firm Studio Gang, the multifaceted new building serves as a training space where the specially-trained unit can practice responding to fires, building collapses, water rescues, and other dangerous scenarios. - PUB DATE: 12/29/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Untapped New York
VIDEO: It's considered one of the toughest firefighter training programs in the country, with a waitlist stretching three years and filled with the names of firefighters from as far away as California and Washington State.
The North Carolina Breathing Equipment School, which is held twice a year at Gaston College's Dallas campus, even held the distinction of being named the "Top Gun" of firefighter schools. - PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WCNC-TV NBC 36 Charlotte
Nashville residents were jolted awake by a loud explosion in the city’s historic downtown district on Christmas morning. The bomb, hidden inside a recreational vehicle, devastated businesses in the area and disrupted AT&T communication networks throughout the state. Officials described the event as an “intentional act” and a “deliberate bomb. - PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Washington Post - Metered Site
VIDEO: A homeowner said she is glad to be alive after her house exploded into a fireball that damaged multiple homes in southeast Houston.
The explosion happened around 11 a.m. Sunday at a home in the 6000 block of Doulton Drive near Bellfort Avenue.
Mildred Whitfield captured the fire on her phone across the street. - PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KPRC-TV NBC 2 Houston
A Muhlenberg boy is finishing up a year-long journey.
Seven-year-old Ayden Robbins does good deeds year-round, but he’s most proud of the thousands of cards he’s written to first responders. In all, he’s written cards to 68 departments across the country, from California to Alaska to Florida to Maine. - PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WYMT-TV CBS 15 Hazard
VIDEO: On Sunday 37 years ago, five Buffalo firefighters and two civilians died in one of the worst disasters the city has ever seen.
A propane explosion leveled a portion of North Division Street downtown. Every year, the Buffalo Fire Department marks the exact time of the blast, 8:23 p.m., with a moment of silence. - PUB DATE: 12/28/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WGRZ-TV ABC 2 Buffalo
VIDEO: A De Soto recycling plant was destroyed in a fire Tuesday night.
A view from Sky5 around 6:30 p.m. showed massive flames at the Proud Veteran Resources and Recycling. Several fire trucks could be seen spraying water on the flames.
By about 7:45 p.m., it appeared firefighters were able to extinguish most of the heavy flames. - PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSDK-TV NBC 5 St. Louis
Everyone remembers the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but the blaze that left over 300 dead and thousands homeless was not the last disaster to scorch the city — not by a long shot.
On Dec. 22, 1910, a fire broke out at the Morris and Co. meatpacking plant at the Union Stockyards, burning out of control despite the efforts of many heroic firefighters. - PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Sun Times - Metered Site
New Orleans residents and visitors having emergencies can now talk to first responders by video when they call or text 911, thanks to a program city officials say will be a big help for people in crisis.
The Orleans Parish Communications District, which handles the city's emergency dispatches and 911 calls, will also be able to better determine a person's location using upgraded software from its private partner, Carbyne, a call handling platform. - PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Nola.com
Steve Buscemi hosted a virtual fireside chat on Tuesday in support of Friends of Firefighters, which offers essential programs and services to help active and retired firefighters and their families support, prioritize and clearly communicate their physical and mental health needs during stressful times. - PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter
A certain fellow in a red coat has the City of Laurinburg Fire Department to thank after he was stuck in a chimney.
Or, at least, that’s what the department said.
The department posted a video on Sunday to its Facebook page paying tribute to first responders, detailing a firefighter’s version of the classic “The Night Before Christmas. - PUB DATE: 12/23/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBTW-TV CBS 13 Florence
Two buildings were destroyed Monday night in a major emergency fire in North Hollywood that burned for nearly two hours before being extinguished.
The fire was first reported around 9 p.m. in the 5400 block of North Tujunga Avenue, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. The fire was "well developed" by 9:15 p. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KNBC-TV NBC 4 Los Angeles
The 91st class of 65 new Orange County Fire Rescue recruits marks the department’s most diverse class in history.
Department officials say more than half of the members in the group are Hispanic, Black or Asian. Recruit Paris Nunn, a graduate of the University of Central Florida, is one of 19 women in the class. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WKMG-TV CBS 6 Orlando
At 5:15 p.m. today church bells will ring downtown, not for the upcoming Christmas holiday but for a more somber reason — the 100th anniversary of the Lyons Union School fire that killed two young girls and destroyed the school.
It will be exactly 100 years to the time when a fast-moving blaze tore through the William Street building, trapping and killing 12-year-old Helen Baltzel and 13-year-old Elizabeth Burns. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Finger Lakes Times - Metered Site
As health care workers and nursing home residents await the first syringes of the COVID-19 vaccine, few realize that when they will get a dose depends a lot on what state they live in.
Though they’re first in line for the vaccine, some people in those groups may get vaccinated after people in other states who are deemed lower priority. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: USA Today
PHOTOS: Dating back to 1938, the New Deal-financed Austin Central Fire Station No. 1 sitting at 401 East Fifth Street on the northwest corner of Brush Square is an unlikely gem of downtown architecture, one of the few really striking examples of the Art Deco subset known as Moderne or Streamline Moderne in the city’s stock of public buildings — unfortunately, great vintage design doesn’t necessarily mesh with the facilities requirements of modern firefighting, meaning the Austin Fire Department has tolerated a growing list of frustrations with operating out of the the aging structure despite its obvious historic merit to those of us not actually fighting the fires. - PUB DATE: 12/22/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: TOWERS Austin
VIDEO: Four firefighters in Routt County suffered minor injuries after the fire truck they were in rolled off 200 feet down a steep embankment. The crash happened on Saturday after the firefighters were leaving the scene of a garage fire. The West Routt Fire Protection District responded to the home on Peak View Court to find the back of a garage on fire. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCNC-TV CBS 4 Denver
VIDEO: A paraglider dressed as Santa Claus was rescued after being caught in power lines in Rio Linda on Sunday.
Santa was removed safely from the power lines near 7th Avenue after being trapped for over an hour, according to the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District. SMUD, the Sacramento Fire Department and California Highway Patrol units in North Sacramento were called to the scene for assistance. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KOVR-TV CBS 13 Sacramento
VIDEO: Flames tore through the rectory of a Townsend church early Monday morning, sending a priest to the hospital with burns to his hands, officials said.
The rectory of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, at 20 Highland St., still had flames shooting from the roof just after 5 a.m. and fire crews from several towns were called in to help as the fire, which started just before 2 a. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Telegram & Gazette
On Dec. 14, 1920, a shiny, new, red truck rumbled into Mount Vernon.
It wasn’t Santa’s sleigh come to spread early holiday cheer, but was instead the newest addition to the Mount Vernon Fire Department — Skagit County’s first motorized fire engine.
“It was something new and different than what a lot of people had,” said retired Mount Vernon firefighter Terry Hill. - PUB DATE: 12/21/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Skagit Valley Herald
