Firefighter Close Calls

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report of a Broward Sheriff’s Office helicopter crash that killed two people last week, including Capt. Terryson Jackson. Three first responders were onboard the helicopter the morning of Aug. 28, as they were on the way to transport a patient from a car accident […]

On 9/9/1973 the three-story, wood-frame 30-room, 100-year-old Sedgwick Hotel in Bath Maine was destroyed by a fire that killed three men and a woman and injured eighteen in a building with no fire detection or alarm system and no fire sprinklers. The fire was reported to the fire department at 4:13 a.m. A ¼-inch separation […]

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Update: A driver of a Toyota Tundra experienced a medical issue, causing the truck to crash into Davenport Fire Station 3 on Harrison Street on Friday. According to a release sent by the Davenport Police, the Tundra was traveling southbound on Harrison when it abruptly left the roadway and struck the north wall […]

For the first time, Lt. Eric Knick returns to the Township in Hampton Woods Apartment complex ten months after he got severely burned then fired from his job to share his side of what happened. He was terminated from the Hampton Fire Department on March 31, 2023 after being with the department for 16 years. […]

On 9/8/1934 the SS Morro Castle fire killed 137 of the 549 passengers and crew on board the ship underway off of the New Jersey coast. A luxury cruise ship en route from Havana to New York caught fire and burned around 2:50 a.m. The ship was sailing about eight nautical miles off Long Beach […]

On 9/7/1943 the Gulf Hotel fire claimed fifty-five lives in the early-morning hours in downtown Houston, Texas. “The hotel was located on the northwest corner of Louisiana and Preston Streets and occupied the upper two floors of a three-story Type III Ordinary Construction brick and joist building, with a variety of retail businesses occupying the […]

GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — A firefighter and a civilian were injured in an apartment fire in Green Bay on Tuesday night, according to Green Bay Metro Fire Department Chief Matthew Knott. Knott tells NBC 26 the firefighter was treated and released for smoke inhalation. Knott said the fire was at a 24-unit apartment building […]

From the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department Facebook Page: The Beaufort/Port Royal FD is on scene at Beaufort/Port Royal FD Station 4. At approximately 1:45pm, a vehicle crashed into the fire station after striking another vehicle on Robert Smalls Parkway. Thankfully none of our firefighters were injured in the accident. Our firefighters […]

On 9/6/1896 the Yore’s Opera House in Benton Harbor, Michigan was destroyed by fire, and twelve firefighters died. “Sometime around midnight, the large four-story brick building of Yore’s Opera House started to burn. Before firefighters could arrive, the fire built in ferocity, and the building was well engulfed in flame. St. Joseph fire departments also […]

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — The South Charleston Fire Department is making history by becoming the first department in West Virginia to offer cancer screenings for firefighters. “Make sure we are [decontaminating] and taking care of ourselves the way that we should,” firefighter and EMT Corey Smith said. It starts with a single blood test. It’s […]

On 9/5/1881 the “Great Thumb Fire” of Michigan, a forest fire killed over 282 people, burned over a million acres, and damaged over 20 townships in less than a day. The fire is known as the Great Thumb Fire, the Great Forest Fire of 1881, or the Huron Fire, burned in Sanilac, Lapeer, Tuscola, and […]

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – A Cleveland firefighter was injured fighting a house fire on the city’s East side Monday afternoon. Crews were called out to the vacant home in the 3300 block of E. 146th St. around 2:50 p.m. This is in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. The firefighter fell through the floor, but is […]

CINCINNATI (WXIX) – One firefighter suffered burns at a Northside home fire on Monday. The fire broke out just before 1:30 p.m. at a three-story multi-family home in the 4200 block of Hamilton Avenue. Firefighters said they saw smoke coming from the second story of the home when they arrived, however, the fire started on […]

A man was killed in a hail of gunfire blocks from the site of the West Indian Day Parade in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, as revelers partied into the night Monday — part of a series of violent incidents that marred the celebrations. Earlier in the day, a man was shot and two others were stabbed in a […]

On 9/4/1894 the first fog nozzle for fighting fires was patented. A fog nozzle breaks water flowing through it into “tiny” droplets, creating more surface area absorbing the heat and creating steam. The A. J. Morse company made a brass 2-½” “fireboat type nozzle and stand” with patent dates of Aug. 2, 1891, July 31, […]

On 9/3/1991 the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant fire killed twenty-five in Hamlet, North Carolina.  Twenty-five people were killed and fifty-four injured in a fire that trapped the occupants behind locked fire doors after a hydraulic line failure caused a fire. “The intense fire quickly spread products of combustion throughout the plant causing employees to […]

On 9/2/1975 the 1st reported Learn Not to Burn® public service announcement (PSA) started in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and Muskegon, Michigan. On 9/2/1666 the Great Fire of London, a major conflagration, swept through central London, burning from Sunday to Wednesday. The fire destroyed the medieval City of London consuming over 13,200 houses, and 87 parish […]

The roof has collapsed as firefighters battle a large blaze in the Tony’s Bar and Cafe building in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on Friday morning. The fire was reported around 6:30 a.m. Friday at 118-120 County St., with people reportedly still in the building, according to the New Bedford Fire Department. Heavy smoke could be seen […]

On 9/1/1972 the Blue Bird Café and the Wagon Wheel, a country and western bar, fire in Montreal, Canada killed thirty-seven, as a result of arson at the nightclub where more than 200 people were at the bar celebrating the Labor Day weekend. Three excessively intoxicated young men were refused entry around 10:45 p.m. and […]

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – First responders who would’ve been first on scene to help out during the dramatic flooding Monday morning were hindered by water damage to their own fire station. The Chesapeake Volunteer Fire Department’s Winifrede Station is deemed a total loss. “The creek washed out the foundation from under most of the […]