Firefighters from four departments coordinated to put out a blaze at the Willow Townsite on Sunday, May 8th, 2022. Photo courtesy of Brian Davis, Mat-Su Borough. A fire on Sunday night has caused significant damage at the Willow Townsite. Brian Davis, Mat-Su Borough Deputy Director of Emergency Services, says an employee at the gas station in the strip center smelled smoke and called 9-1-1. When fire crews arrived, they did not immediately find a source of the smoke. After searching the buildings, they found the fire in a rear storeroom. Davis says fires in a strip mall setting can be complex as they spread, and require significant coordination to fight. Firefighters were able to quickly control the blaze, they remained on scene to conduct cleanup activities for about four hours. Davis says multiple departments coordinated in the effortp, including Willow, Talkeetna, Houston, and West Lakes.  

VIDEOS: Multiple buildings are damaged following a large fire that broke out Monday afternoon in Salem, Massachusetts. The three-alarm fire started just before 4 p.m. along Hancock Street between Canal and Lafayette streets. Video from Sky 5 showed flames extending from one triple-decker home to other structures nearby. As many as six homes were engulfed in flames just before 7 p.m. Monday. One person told WCVB he was taking a nap while doing laundry, then woke up coughing. "I looked out the back door, and I saw smoke," one man, who escaped the fire with his dog said. "I grabbed my dog and we went. Scooby Doo made it." First responders and neighbors were going door to door to evacuate residents from the neighborhood. "I just heard everyone yelling, 'Get out! Get out!' and banging on the house. 'There's a fire!'" said Tyler Carlton.  

VIDEO: The future home of Station 30 is going to be electric and more than just in looks. The city of Charlotte's budget includes funding to build a new Station 30 in southwest Charlotte. The newly constructed fire facility will be on Beam Road and will be "all electric," complete with the city's first electric fire truck. "We are a climate change city, so we are going to try these things," Mayor Vi Lyles said after the budget presentation. The electric fire station is included in the budget as part of the $20.8 million set aside for building new fire facilities. The city's budget says Charlotte will be one of the first cities in the country to make this investment. The electric fire station, complete with the necessary infrastructure, is one of at least three fire facilities that is slated to be built. The $20.8 million is part of an estimated $48 million investment over three years.  

A 27-year-old was charged after allegedly breaking into a Kaimuki fire station, where law enforcement sources say he was discovered naked in a bathroom. The suspect allegedly broke in through a ground floor bathroom window while firefighters were inside asleep. Just after 2 a.m. Sunday, a firefighter reported being woken up by a man who had flipped on the lights inside the dorm at Fire Station No. 5 in Kaimuki. The suspect was allegedly wearing a Honolulu Fire Department t-shirt. Initially, the witness thought the 27-year-old was just another firefighter. But later, when he got up to use the bathroom, he found the suspect standing naked in front of a sink. It's a story that left people in the neighborhood puzzled. "It's crazy. I guess. I don't know what the objective was," said Ricky Garcia.  

The city of Pittsburgh and the firefighters' union have agreed firefighters no longer must live within the city limits, reaching a negotiated end to an ongoing legal battle. "This is a great thing for not only the city, the citizens, but the firefighters who serve here," Ralph Sicuro, president, Pittsburgh Firefighters Union Local #1, told Pittsburgh's Action News 4. "In order to work with the administration, Mayor Gainey's vision of diversity within the fire department. One of the barriers that has always been identified was the restriction on residency, both for the employee as well as for the applicant. We were able to reach a settlement that took care of both of those issues, all in one. Now we're going to be able to achieve a much more robust recruitment drive and hopefully achieve the diversity we're all looking for."