JOPLIN, Mo. — Rod Pace, manager of the Med Flight helicopter service at St. John's Regional Medical Center, had just finished payroll paperwork Sunday evening when he decided to stay an extra 15 to 20 minutes to let the menacing weather pass. From the second floor, he watched the storm approach from the southwest, just like so many other systems. The ...

FOLKSTON, Fla. -- Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge Manager Curt McCasland admitted he didn't know much about swamp fires when he experienced his first: the now 148,522-acre Honey Prairie Fire. After all, McCasland just arrived in October from the Arizona desert where there's a different strategy for fighting fires. "My first reaction was to rain water on this thing," he said of ...

Stockton firefighters could soon see fewer people on a shift. A report on minimum staffing levels for the Stockton Fire Department by the San Joaquin County 2010-2011 Civil Grand Jury released Monday recommends the city reduce its staff on fire engines to three firefighters and staff and fire trucks to four. The grand jury also recommends the department create a relief ...

Idaho -- Nez Perce County's rural fire service would continue next year under a proposal submitted by Fire Chief Ron Hall. One week after voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan to replace the county fire department with a fire district, commissioners appeared ready during budget meetings Monday to continue some sort of volunteer-type service in most of the county not within a ...

Fire officials say a three-alarm fire that destroyed a garage and four vehicles at a northern Vanderburgh County property Sunday morning started as a grass fire. Homeowner Thomas Wilson, 69, is the only person who lives at 9301 Old State Road, about a half-mile north of East Mount Pleasant Road, and he was not injured in the blaze. The fire was ...

George Ballew spent Monday in an emergency shelter, nursing his wounds and worrying about his missing wife. He was clutching a tube of toothpaste, the fingers on one hand cut, broken and wrapped in gauze, when an emergency volunteer approached. "George, your wife is OK," she told him gently. "We just found her." "Oh, thank God," he said, collapsing into the ...

GULFPORT, Miss. -- A brush fire that kept reigniting for two days along Duckworth Road may have come to an end, Fire Chief Mike Beyerstedt said. The Mississippi Forestry Commission conducted a back-burn along the roadside Friday afternoon, leaving little or no dry vegetation left to catch fire. The brush fire started Thursday on the south side of Duckworth between U.S. ...

Fairbanks -- Hot, dry and windy weather stoked Alaska's first large wildfire of the season from a quarter-acre blaze north of Fairbanks on Friday afternoon to more than 700 acres of burning hillside by Saturday, fire officials said. The Moose Mountain Fire ignited near the well-populated Goldstream area, but it was burning away from residential areas on Saturday, according to the ...

BRIDGEPORT -- A city firefighter was arrested after police said they caught him injecting heroin while in uniform. Michael Arthur, 34, of Danbury, a 10-year fire department veteran, was charged with possession of narcotics and use of drug paraphernalia. He was released after posting $500 bond. He was off duty at the time of his arrest, fire officials said, and it ...

When EMS members responded to a call for two cars on the side of the road, they might have assumed there was a minor accident. But instead, there's a woman with no pulse, a burn victim and a hostage that pops out of the trunk of one car. It's not necessarily a typical day on the job. The good news? It's ...

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 ...

A woman was killed in a warehouse fire that sent two other people to a hospital suffering from smoke inhalation Tuesday night. Tulsa Fire Department spokesman Tim Smallwood said the woman was found inside the building, which is on Trenton Avenue just north of Interstate 244, and that medics brought her out and administered CPR before taking her to a hospital. ...

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 ...

Something seemed strange about the roaring house fire that Jeffrey Dancy encountered Tuesday morning while making his extermination rounds in south Columbus. Flames spilled out from the roof and a plume of smoke hovered over the Commander Drive residence. But no one -- including the family inside -- seemed to have noticed the blaze, which had engulfed about half of the ...

Clovis, N.M. -- A grass fire east of Melrose Tuesday burned about 5,000 acres before firefighters were able to gain control of it. Clovis Fire Chief Ray Westerman said after about three hours, fire crews were able to stop the fire that started about 11 a.m. east of Melrose along U.S. 60/84. Melrose Mayor Tuck Monk said there were no injuries, ...

Walnut Creek, Calif. -- Two Contra Costa Fire District stations slated for closure will remain open for at least the next two years after the federal government announced Monday that it is awarding the fire district a $6.5 million grant. The grant, which is part of a federal program called Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, will "significantly ...

Two firefighters were injured Friday while fighting a wildfire along the Mexican border, according to the Coronado National Forest. The firefighters were taken to a hospital with non-life- threatening injuries, the news release said. One was released from the hospital and the other was being treated for first- and second- degree burns. They were battling the Bull Fire, which is burning ...

EMS Week pays tribute to the men and women who are dedicated to provide first response care to your community and are often the difference between life and death. This gallery honors these first responders whose commitment to providing day-to-day lifesaving services helps us all live happier lives. Hear from communities they've helped, tour EMT facilities across the country, and listen ...

Firefighters in Arizona and New Mexico worked Monday to subdue large wildfires while blazes in Texas were mostly under control, officials said. Arizona forestry officials said the Horseshoe Two Fire near Portal had scorched about 26,500 acres and was only 20 percent contained despite the efforts of about 630 firefighters backed by 24 fire engines, 16 water tenders and nine helicopters. ...

Alberta - A wildfire roared through the Canadian town of Slave Lake Sunday, destroying scores of buildings in a scene described by one resident as Armageddon. The northern Alberta province community of about 7,000 people lost a shopping center, high school, city hall, police station, library, radio station, apartment complexes and an undetermined number of houses, The Globe and Mail in ...