On Sept. 23, a house fire in Bethel destroyed or damaged nearly everything inside of it. The five people who were in the house at the time of the fire escaped unharmed. The fire started in the back room of a home on Alex Hateley Drive on Sept. 23 around 4:30 p.m. Bethel Fire Chief Daron Solesbee said that five people were in the home at the time the fire started: an adult woman and four of her grandchildren. They were all able to escape without any injuries. Bethel firefighters were able to put out the fire when they arrived, but not before the heat and smoke from the flames had traveled throughout the house. Solesbee said that it appeared the fire caused structural damage to the home and destroyed nearly all of the homeowners' belongings. Solesbee said that the cause of the fire appears to be accidental, although the official cause has not yet been determined.  

VIDEOS/PHOTOS: First responders and volunteers in Liberty County and surrounding counties quickly came together after an Amtrak train derailed just outside of Joplin on Saturday, September 25, 2021, leaving three people dead and dozens injured. A spokesperson for BNSF says the section of track where the derailment happened was last inspected on Thursday, September 23. The spokesperson also said the track can be repaired in as little as 14 hours after the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation, which usually takes a "single-digit number of days." All but five of the injured have been released from the hospital and are continuing to head west as the train was bound for Seattle. Many passengers were bused to Shelby where they stayed in hotels.  

The Valley Hispanic Bomberos, a nonprofit group made up of Hispanic firefighters, is rooted in culture and tradition with the goal of protecting their communities while mentoring others to join them in the fire service. The organization is made up of roughly 1,200 members, and for many of them, they serve the same communities they grew up in. "As our organization, we like to focus on the neighborhoods that most of us grew up in, you know – I grew up in Maryvale," Vice President of the Valley Hispanic Bomberos Greg Morales told KTAR News 92.3 FM. Morales prides himself in organizing and leading community events in neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations. Those events vary from drowning prevention, car-seat safety and anything that the firefighters can help educate their communities about.  

PHOTOS: After it was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stephen Siller Foundation Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk resumed for 2021, where the organization said it expected more than 30,000 participants on Sunday. The route retraced the heroic steps of Siller, a New York City firefighter (FDNY), who lost his life on Sept. 11, 2001, starting on the Brooklyn side of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and proceeding through the tunnel and into lower Manhattan. The event was created by Siller's siblings, who wanted to honor the final steps of their brother, who strapped on his gear and ran through the tunnel to the Twin Towers to save people on that tragic day. The Siller siblings have built the Tunnel to Towers Foundation from a grassroots local organization to a national effort that makes sure heroic sacrifices by firefighters and police officers, as well as members of the U.S. military, are rewarded.  

McKeesport firefighters aren't just fighting fires and responding to car crashes, they're picking up school students stranded by the bus driver shortage. Only on KDKA, Meghan Schiller talks with the firefighter who answered the call and now spearheads an initiative to ease the stress on parents, students, and teachers. "We all live here, our kids go to school here, a lot of us grew up here, you know a lot of us will probably never leave here unless they throw us out," said McKeesport firefighter Kevin Kovach. Forget walking, biking or public transit. There's a new way for kids to get to school in McKeesport. As cities across the nation try to solve the bus driver shortage, firefighters in McKeesport came up with an idea. It doesn't involve the typical transportation, but it's a fire someone needs to put out.  

The Raritan Township Fire Company is raising funds to restore its gear and station after the remnants of Hurricane Ida deluged the building with flooding and water damage, rendering it uninhabitable for a few months. The storm inflicted damage on the whole station, including the firefighters' wooden gear lockers, walls, kitchen, generator, bay doors, and other pieces of equipment, said Chief Keith Paradiso. The kitchen was recently upgraded and will need to be replaced, along with the other gear, he said. It will be an ongoing process to assess what needs to be repaired or fully replaced. And the station itself is not currently operational, he said. "We are hoping to (have a) modified return this year, hopefully November, but there is still some work to determine that," he said.