Firefighter Close Calls

Firefighters in San Bernardino County found themselves running to safety after encountering a massive, boulder-filled mudslide barreling towards them Sunday as heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Hilary battered the area. KTLA learned that crews at Fire Station 99 in the Forest Falls area heard a loud noise that they went to check out. Video then shows the […]

On 8/21/1846 two Philadelphia, Pennsylvania firefighters died while operating “at a fire in at the George L. Broome & Company, sugar refinery. Firefighters found the eight-story building heavily involved in the fire. The fire had started in the engine room of the building and rapidly spread throughout the upper floors. The streets around the building […]

ALVIN, Texas – A volunteer firefighter with the Alvin Volunteer Fire Department collapsed Friday while battling a structure fire, the department said. According to the department, they were dispatched to a structure fire at approximately 9:48 p.m. on Friday, August 18. The fire was on Stadium Drive. Engine 11 was the first to arrive at the […]

TULSA, Okla. – Police say thousands of dollars worth of rescue equipment were stolen from the Tulsa Fire Department‘s search and rescue Task Force One trailer. Officers say it happened sometime between July 7th and July 24th. That’s when the trailer was parked at a service facility near 500 North Memorial. Air compressors, hydraulic equipment and other […]

By CBS News: The FDNY is investigating a five-alarm fire that tore through a series of businesses in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. More than 200 crew members responded to the fire, which sent a massive plume of smoke into the sky. The blaze at Lee Avenue and Williamsburg Street was eventually brought under control, but crews were still seen […]

On 8/20/1910 the “Great Fire of 1910, also called the Big Blowup or the Devil’s Broom Fire began burning in Northern Idaho and Western Montana. The fire burned three million acres; a size comparable to the state of Connecticut. In all, the wildfire killed eighty-seven, of which, at least seventy-eight were firefighters, and charred a […]

On 8/19/1943 an explosion and fire destroyed a three-story building and gutted two adjacent buildings at the Congoleum-Nairn plant killing eleven and injuring fifteen, eight critically at the Passaic Avenue plant in Kearny, New Jersey. “At 5:50 p.m., the police report reads, “a terrific explosion was heard in Kearny and about the same time an […]

A Maui Fire Department captain seriously injured while battling the Aug. 8 wildfire in Lahaina is continuing to recover at The Queen’s Medical Center in Honolulu, according to Hawaii Fire Fighters Association President Bobby Lee. Beyond a brief mention in a Maui County news release on the Upcountry and Lahaina fires issued at 9:45 p.m. […]

A Cruise self-driving car was involved in a crash with a San Francisco Fire Department truck just one week after California regulators approved 24/7 robotaxi service in San Francisco. The incident occurred Thursday around 10 p.m. in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, at the intersection of Polk and Turk Streets, Cruise said in a post on X, the social […]

A person is injured after a car crashed into a Trumbull fire station Friday evening, police said. The Trumbull Police Department said they were notified of the accident, which happened on White Plains Road. The fire department said none of their firefighters were hurt during the incident. The driver sustained minor injures during the incident. […]

On 8/18/2007 the “Deutsche Bank fire” at 130 Liberty Street in Manhattan, New York killed two firefighters on the 14th floor of a building under demolition. Seven FDNY officers were disciplined for their failure to ensure required inspections before the fire. “Numerous issues came out publicly following that horrific loss.” “At approximately 3:40 p.m., a […]

On 8/17/1975 the Gulf Refinery fire in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania killed ten and injured thirteen firefighters. The fire went to eleven alarms. When it was believed to be under control the naphtha tank burst into flames, shooting an enormous fireball into the sky that could be seen for 20 miles, covering an area of about a […]

On 8/16/1888 a Sanford, Florida firefighter “died of the injuries he sustained after he reportedly either fell through the floor or was on the second floor and fell into an open elevator shaft and was buried under a shipment of large iron ranges while operating at a fire in the DeForest Block building, which at […]

On 8/15/1948 a fire in a false-fronted frame and brick building in the old business district exploded killing five firefighters and injuring 137 spectators in Reno, Nevada. “The explosion and fire killed the fire chief of a nearby city and four men. A sixth, a Reno firefighter, was missing. The blast sprayed injury among the […]

SHAMOKIN — City council on Monday suspended Battalion Fire Chief Stephen Jeffery and Friendship Fire Co. Capt. Thomas Jeffery, pending further investigation, after a junior firefighter suffered second-degree burns during a training exercise in July. William Wood said his son, 17-year-old James Wood, of Friendship Fire Co., could have been killed during the July 2 […]

On 8/14/1952 in Marianna, Florida seven persons were injured, two buildings were destroyed, and several others were damaged by an explosion and fire which occurred in the business district around 7:30 a.m. The explosion is believed to have been caused by a tank of bottled gas located in the drug store. “The Marianna Drug Store […]

On 8/13/1945 a fire in a box factory in Detroit, Michigan killed fourteen and injured fifty-two people. “The blaze broke out as the 180 employees, mostly women, were in the midst of a rest period and were listening to a jukebox. Disbelieving a shout of fire from the first floor of the two-story factory building, […]

MT. JULIET, Tenn. (WKRN) — Firefighters spent Saturday afternoon battling a large fire at an apartment complex in Mt. Juliet, which left one first responder critically injured and residents of more than 20 units displaced. The Mt. Juliet Police Department said building 400 at Glass Creek Apartments caught fire. Residents of the nearby 500 building were […]

On 8/12/2015 in Tianjin, China over 173 people died and more than 700 were injured in fiery explosions at a warehouse of hazardous chemicals, including around 700 tons of sodium cyanide, shortly before midnight. “The massive twin blasts that rocked the chemical warehouse at the port city were also disastrous for the country’s firefighting unit, […]

One firefighter was critically injured and two others were hospitalized in fair condition following a residence fire Friday afternoon in the city’s Norwood Park neighborhood, authorities said. The fire was reported before 4 p.m. in the 8300 block of West Balmoral Avenue near Cumberland Avenue. The Chicago Fire Department said three firefighters were transported to […]