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, ...

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, VA - When Prince George's County firefighters first came on the scene of a gas-leak-turned-explosion at the Penn Mar Shopping Center in May, they had all the right policies and procedures on the books to tell them how to respond. Problem was, not enough of them knew those policies and procedures existed, according to a federal safety report ...

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. ...

Volusia County firefighters this morning are continuing to battle the 125-acre brush fire that threatened homes Wednesday near DeLand. Pat Kuehn, spokeswoman for Volusia County Fire Services, said firefighters will be putting out flares and hot spots today. Winds are predicted to pick up today and they could affect the fire located in the Daytona Park Estates subdivision, on Larkspur Road, ...

ASHLAND, Ore. — Families looked for valuables, pets and mementoes Wednesday in the ashes of 11 homes destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire while a homeless man accused of starting the blaze sat in jail. John Thiry, 40, was arrested at 3 a.m. under a freeway ramp and charged with 11 counts of reckless endangerment and 11 counts of reckless burning, authorities ...

SHREWSBURY, MA - A 6-year-old Shrewsbury boy escaped with only cuts and scrapes over the weekend after he fell 20 feet into an abandoned well behind his house, firefighters said. The boy, who had just moved with his family to a house on Barrows Road a few days earlier, found the well Saturday afternoon while exploring his new home with friends, ...

FREEMONT, WA - The pain, sorrow and sense of loss triggered by Saturday's Fremont apartment fire is shared not just by those who knew the five victims but by the firefighters unable to save them. Firefighters who have been "beating themselves up" over their inability to rescue the woman and four children in the burning apartment attended a Tuesday night session ...

MANGALORE, India — An Air India Express plane trying to land at a tricky hilltop airport in southern India overshot the runway, crashed over a cliff and burst into flames at dawn Saturday, killing nearly 160 people, officials said. There were eight survivors. Dense black smoke billowed from the wreckage of the flaming Boeing 737-800 aircraft in a hilly area with ...

Squatters Died in House Blaze Source: Evening Mail; Birmingham (UK) Publication date: 2011-05-26 Birmingham, UK -- TWO Polish men died when a fire engulfed a row of derelict Birmingham buildings they had been squatting in, an inquest heard. Marek Ratuszniak and Arkdiosz Chylarecki, who were both aged 30, single and unemployed, died when the blaze broke out in the bedroom of ...

PORT AUTHORITY - A JetBlue flight attendant left his job in dramatic fashion yesterday, allegedly cursing out passengers on his flight before exiting via the plane's emergency exit -- beer in hand -- and eventually driving off in a car he had parked at the airport. As you might expect, the story has become the talk of the industry, generating headlines ...

HONOLULU -- A Honolulu firefighter is hospitalized in serious condition after falling through a warehouse roof. The Capt. Dwayne Lee, 43, stepped on a panel and fell about30 feet while investigating smoke coming from a Kalihi warehouse Monday night about 10 p.m., Honolulu Fire Department Capt. Terry Seelig said. The warehouse was on Republican Street in Kalihi. Firefighters responded to a ...

BOSTON - Federal authorities say Massachusetts should enact laws that require firefighters to wear seat belts and be tested on air brake operation before they are allowed to drive firetrucks, according to a new federal report on the investigation of the fatal firetruck crash in Boston last year. The investigation concluded that a fire lieutenant who was killed and two firefighters ...

For the second time within nine hours, firefighters in eastern Berks County were called to a two-alarm fire at the same address. Crews responded about 3:15 this morning to a duplex in the first block of Ehst Road in Washington Township for what emergency dispatchers called a rekindle of the fire that started shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday. Fire officials struck ...

Los Alamos, N.M. -- Thousands of residents fled the town that's home to the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory as a rapidly growing wildfire approached, sending up towering plumes of smoke, raining down ash and charring the fringes of the sprawling lab. The blaze, which began Sunday, destroyed 30 structures south of Los Alamos and forced the closure of the lab while ...

Arson investigators believe at least 30 intentionally set fires in southwest Houston dating to the beginning of last year may be the work of the same person or group of people, officials said Tuesday. Almost all the fires occurred at apartment complexes or homes on the southwest side during the early morning hours. In all instances a flammable liquid such as ...

WASHINGTON - The gulf oil catastrophe is striking a raw nerve with 9/11 victims who finally get their first hearing in the U.S. Senate this month. After watching President Obama declare BP will be held accountable, people whose lives were crushed by the 2001 terror attacks said their government remains unaccountable to them. "The government told us it was safe, the ...

WEST MAUI, HI - A West Maui brushfire that has burned 1,100 acres since Monday in the Olowalu area is 60 percent contained and firefighters are expected to continue monitoring the area tonight, Maui County said Wednesday. The county says the area of the fire is closed to public access for safety reasons. Mayor Charmaine Tavares said Wednesday, "I would like ...