YAKIMA, Wash. — From his rear seat on Engine 31, Michael Rhine watched the fire, seemingly at a safe distance. But as the engineer swung the truck around to face the one way out, a big stand of sagebrush blew up into a 40-foot wall of flame. Amid zero visibility and intense heat, Engine 31 was engulfed, crashing through a dirt ...

CHICAGO - The fireman trudged out of Kristi Cahill's smoke-blackened West Rogers Park bungalow Tuesday evening, cradling a small, limp cat. "Her eyes were bulging and her tongue was sticking out," recalled Cahill, 42, of her beloved cat, Roux. Then something remarkable happened: Firefighters slipped a pet-sized clear plastic mask over Roux's face, and condensation bloomed inside the mask. Roux was ...

BURTONSILLE, MD - An abrupt crunch announced the severing of the last column connecting the roof to the frame of a Chevrolet pickup truck in a Rockville scrapyard Thursday evening as members of the Burtonsville Volunteer Fire Department braced their shoulders under the strain and prepared to remove the roof. Hefting what appears to be a gigantic pair of scissors in ...

One firefighter was in serious condition after falling from a second-story window at an apartment fire in Northwest Baltimore late Wednesday. The union has blamed the injury on budget cuts which has caused a rotating closure of firehouses. The firefighter, who also had burns to both hands, was taken to Maryland Shock Trauma Center, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a department spokesman. ...

CAMDEN - After two large fires that tore through vacant warehouses within days of each other last week, Camden's mayor voiced her concern Monday to the state attorney general. Speaking at a news conference, Mayor Dana L. Redd did not say whether officials thought that Thursday's 12-alarm blaze at a building near the Parkside neighborhood, once rented by a tire company, ...

While investigators continue to search for the cause of a fire that heavily damaged a Harborcreek Township biofuels plant over the weekend, firefighters who answered the call say they want to know what hazards they came in contact with while dousing the flames. Fairfield Hose Co. Fire Chief Jim Hawryliw said he will meet with other fire chiefs, county and local ...

CAMBRIDGESHIRE, UK - A firefighter is in a stable condition in hospital after being injured while attending an incident in Cambridgeshire earlier. More than 30 firefighters were called to Eco Aegis Services Ltd plastics yard in Hook Lane, Wimblington. It involved about 50 tonnes of plastic and spread to a heavy goods vehicle. It was extinguished by about 1320 GMT. Cambridgeshire ...

BOSTON - A 69-year-old Boston woman and her dog were rescued this morning after the canine became stuck on a narrow ledge off Fan Pier while exploring. Mary Gier of Boston said she had let her dog Sammy off his leash to explore the rocks along the seawall, like the canine had done many times before, when the 10-year-old animal found ...

FOURMILE CANYON, CO - A barefoot violinist, Malcolm Watson, will lead a firefighter appreciation parade with other grateful local residents today in Boulder. Watson lives in Fourmile Canyon and is one evacuee who was able to return to a standing home after the recent wildfire there. The parade will start on Pearl Street and 16th Street and travel a mile east ...

LOS ANGELES — Motorists jumped from vehicles to kick open doors and help about two dozen third-graders out of a blazing school bus that had stalled on a busy freeway Wednesday near Universal Studios Hollywood, authorities and witnesses said. Two children complained of minor smoke inhalation and were examined by paramedics, but the driver and other youngsters were not injured. The ...

NEWINGTON — After 34 years of fighting fires, Newington Fire Chief Roy Greenleaf is hanging up his coat for retirement. His office walls are bare, only a few nails and hooks left as reminders of the memorabilia that once hung there — his three purple hearts, his bronze star and a collection of patches from the various firefighter pipe bands he's ...

Two firefighters received minor injuries early this morning while battling a two-alarm blaze in Kansas City, Kan. Shortly after 11 p.m. Monday night, fire crews were called to a house fire at South Minnie Street, near Southwest Boulevard, according to fire officials. The firefighters were injured when the structure around them began to collapse. The walls of the residence fell outward. ...

LOS ANGELES - A group of former U.S. Forest Service officials is calling for a new and independent investigation into the agency's handling of last year's devastating Station fire, with many contending that an internal inquiry completed in November ignored critical missteps. That probe by the Forest Service's Washington, D.C., headquarters found no tactical errors in the initial attack on the ...

LAWRENCE, MA- Eight of 24 city firefighters laid off in July are being rehired immediately after Mayor William Lantigua and Lawrence firefighters came to a long-awaited cost-savings agreement yesterday. The Lawrence firefighters' union voted 57 to 7 to make $241,000 in contract concessions, which include each firefighter working 24 hours overtime for free and giving up a week's vacation. Firefighters voted ...

HOEHNE -- Family members living on the Roberts Ranch just north of the Bear Fire were breathing a sigh of relief Wednesday as huge plumes of smoke from earlier in the week had shrunk to a light haze drifting over nearby rolling hills and mesas. The Roberts family has spent the week watching firefighters from several states battle the wildfire, which ...

STOLLINGS, W.Va. — The second fire in a year will delay the reopening of a southern West Virginia coal processing plant, owner Massey Energy Co. said Wednesday. The fire that damaged the new Zigmond Processing plant Tuesday and one that destroyed its predecessor Aug. 27 started with cutting and welding on steel pipe, Mine Safety and Health Administration spokeswoman Amy Louviere ...

ROTONDA, FL - Englewood firefighter Derek Kemerer's confidence has risen sharply after emerging from a training exercise that put his life in danger. His performance, and that of his teammates, earned special recognition from the Englewood Area Fire Control District Wednesday. The exercise, called a "confidence test," occurred June 3 at the conclusion of a 48-hour Confined Space Rescue Class. Kemerer, ...

Edinburg house fire 'suspicious,' chief says Source: The Monitor (McAllen, Texas) Publication date: 2011-05-19 McAllen, Texas -- No one was home when a house caught fire in two separate places Wednesday night, officials said. Edinburg firefighters responded to the blaze on the 7700 block of North Doolittle Road shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters in at least seven fire engines at ...

HARRISBURG - Firefighters' work is full of risks. Everyone knows that. What's not so widely known is the risks that come later, after they've hung up their helmets. Consider one statistic: A Cincinnati study found male firefighters 100 times more likely than other men to contract testicular cancer. Because of that and other cancer dangers linked to exposure to toxic chemicals, ...

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Authorities say a South Carolina mother who died in a fire with her twin 3-year-old sons had left them alone in her house with food on the stove when the blaze broke out. Charleston County Sheriff's spokesman Maj. John Clark says 30-year-old Mary P. Brown of Charleston had left the house to pick up a friend Tuesday evening. ...