On March 14 in Bethel, a fire burned a family's house near H-Marker Lake. There were no fatalities and only minor injuries. Earl Polk had just finished lighting his wood stove and stacked a load of wet wood close to the stove to dry. He was settling in for the night and getting ready to put his daughter to bed. "I went to go to the bathroom, and was in there less than a minute, and I heard a weird noise," said Polk. "Then I turned and looked, and my daughter was coming out [of the room]." Polk said that he saw flames moving through the air, quickly spreading throughout his home. "It moved so fast. To me it looked like it was alive," Polk said about the fire. "I was totally awestruck. The thing looked to me like it was literally alive. It looked like it was almost trying to take us, but push us out." As the flames consumed his house, Polk and his daughter moved quickly. The extreme heat of the fire caused the light bulbs above their heads to explode.  

VIDEOS/PHOTOS: A fire at a Walmart warehouse distribution center has cast a large plume of smoke visible throughout Indianapolis. Nearly 200 firefighters are on scene with officials calling on anyone living near the looming plume of smoke to shelter in place and stay indoors along with not touching any of the debris that is raining down on the city's west side. Plainfield Fire Department officials confirmed the fire is at a 1.2 million square foot Walmart warehouse located at 9590 AllPoints Parkway between Avon and the Indianapolis International Airport. Neighboring facilities near the warehouse are being evacuated, officials said, as a precaution. According to Plainfield Fire Chief Brent Anderson, the fire started inside the warehouse on the third floor a little before noon on Wednesday.  

The St. Andrew Pipes & Drums band plays year-round at graduations and funerals. But there's nothing like the thrill of Kansas City's legendary St. Patrick's Day parade. Iain McKee grew up listening to the hum of the Highland bagpipe. Sixty years ago, his grandfather Wallace McKee helped found St. Andrew Pipes & Drums. "Nobody ever told me I had to play the pipes," Iain says. "I was around it, obviously, growing up and I was over at my grandparents house one day and my grandpa said, 'Hey, maybe I can show you how to play a scale.' And I said, 'Oh, that'd be kind of cool." Iain thought the resulting sound was "pretty neat," so he showed his dad what he'd learned. "He got really excited," Iain remembers, "and he started lining up lessons with me and my best friend and just kind of took off from there."  

When it comes to protecting first responders at accident scenes nationwide, brighter isn't better. A recent study by the Emergency Responder Safety Institute revealed that the light-emitting diode flashers on police cruisers, fire engines, and ambulances that spray the night with intense beams to protect first responders from oncoming traffic actually create a lot of glare, and that effect intensifies when the light bounces off retroreflective chevrons attached to the back of emergency vehicles. Calling their findings "surprising," the researchers determined that rubbernecking motorists can become blinded by the intense LED lights and won't be able to see emergency personnel near the roadway. The US Department of Transportation reports that vehicle accidents are the second most common cause of fatalities among police officers and firefighters, and the leading cause of death of tow truck operators.  

Saturday, March 19, 2022, marks the 40th anniversary of a fire that killed a Petersburg firefighter Mike Goff and nearly cost the city its entire downtown. For those who were there, the day is remembered as a nightmare. "Every second. It was yesterday. You know, in your minds, it was just yesterday," retired Petersburg Fire Captain Glenn Dean said. "You can still see the scene. You can still see what you were doing and what was happening around you." Even before firefighters arrived at the burning three-story building on the corner of Franklin and Sycamore Streets, they knew it was a serious fire. "When we pulled up on the scene, on the second and third floor, there were residents in the windows with flashlights and handkerchiefs," retired Petersburg Fire Captain Jimbo Rice said.