VIDEO: A fire broke out at Kayla's Furniture warehouse Thursday morning around 6:30 a.m. The warehouse is in the 11700 block of County Road 497. Furniture supplies occupied the building. "Where they're cutting lumber and building furniture. It was about 80, 90 percent involved whenever fire crews got here. It's going to be a total loss," said Smith County Chief Deputy Fire Marshal Chad Hogue. It took firefighters about five hours to put out the fire as the high winds made it difficult to extinguish. Hogue said no injuries were reported and the building was not occupied. A resident who lives across from the warehouse, Stephanie Williams, shared her observations from when the fire started. "My alarm went off at 6:30, and I heard this strange popping noise. I've never heard anything like it before, and so I looked out the window just over here, and there were just flames everywhere."  

From countless emergency calls to the largest fire in Fort Hood's history, the Fort Hood fire department had quite a year. Those efforts have earned them the title of Best Large Department on an Army installation. "It's an annual D.O.D awards program that all fire emergency services have the option to be a part of," said Dep. Chief Joshua Gillis, Fort Hood Fire Department. "It gives each agency its own chance to reflect on their accomplishments that they've done throughout the year." The team of civilian and Army firefighters had plenty to reflect on. "The firefighters had 3 saves where they performed CPR and the saved 3 people and they walked out of the hospital within a week or 2," said Chief Andrew Lima, Fort Hood Fire Department. "So, that was one of our other major accomplishments."  

At 11:40 p.m. Wednesday, Lubbock Fire Rescue responded to a report of structure fire in the 5600 block of Avenue A. One person was injured, three people were displaced and two dogs were found dead. According to LFR, a caller reported that a house and a shed were on fire and power lines were down. When crews arrived, they found a rear house and gazebo on fire. LFR said the fire "spread to the main house as well as the neighboring house," and multiple fire crews were used to put it out. The house of origin was completely damaged. One person was taken to the hospital by EMS to be treated for burn injuries and three adults were displaced and being assisted by Red Cross, according to LFR. The cause of the fire was undetermined.  

To expand on scenario and equipment training for its Fire Academy, South Texas College has partnered with the Pharr Fire Department to give fire cadets the chance to utilize tools and facilities that will prepare them for the job. STC and the Pharr Fire Department are long-time partners, but 2023 marks the first year that these additional trainings are available to students. "This is the first year that STC is training with our department. We have many instructors that are more than willing to help these students. We're excited to share our knowledge and for them to see how our department works," said Lieutenant Jesus Rosillo from the Pharr Fire Department. Weekly, after practicing numerous skills at the Regional Center for Public Safety Excellence in Pharr, where the academy is housed, the cadets visit Pharr's Fire Station No. 4 for additional training.  

A vacant house went up in flames west of downtown. And authorities say they've responded to the same house several times. The fire broke out before 2:30 a.m. on Friday in the 600 block of Torreon Street. The San Antonio Fire Department said they had to remove nails from boarded up doors and windows to get into the home. Once inside, crews were able to extinguish the flames quickly. No people were found inside the home, and no injuries were reported. Crews said there is a "high probability" that homeless people were trying to stay warm inside the abandoned house when the fire began to spread.  

Dry and windy weather is seen frequently in South Texas. With this, the wildfire threat rages on. "A wildfire could blow through here in a matter of minutes, so we want to be ahead of the game", says Kendall County Judge Shane Stolarczyk. He notes that Kendall County was the fourth driest county in the state of Texas in 2022, and is one of the fastest growing counties in the entire country. Stolarczyk is working with others in the community to make sure his county is prepared for a wildfire disaster. "The community wildfire protection plan (CWPP) is a plan that identifies the risks of a county, and then ultimately defines projects that can minimize those risks across the county to wildfire", says Christie Wiley. Stolarczyk works with Christie Wiley, the CWPP Manager, who uses her past experience nationally with the forest service to identify risks of fire in Kendall County, where she has resided since 2015.  

Nearly 20 crews are at the scene of a large fire at an apartment complex in Willoughby Friday morning, according to Willoughby Fire Chief Todd Ungar. The building was completely destroyed. The fire is at the Chagrin Riverwalk complex on Mentor Avenue between Erie Street and Kirtland Road. Ungar, who is at the scene, said no one was inside the building when the fire started. He said fire was found throughout the building. At this point, Ungar said the main concern is making sure the surrounding buildings do not also catch on fire, including a school and fine arts building across the street, and two apartment buildings on each side. Ungar told Fox 8 crews that it is hard to tell at this point what exactly started the fire in the four-story apartment building.  

VIDEO: A former New England Patriot and University of Central Florida football player is the newest member of the Seminole County Fire Department. Chris Martin left behind his life as an NFL star after an awful personal tragedy and decided to become a firefighter to teach others how to avoid that tragedy. Martin's 2-year-old son Gunner was precious, adorable and everything a dad could have ever wanted in a little boy. "On April 6, 2016, my wife and I found our son unfortunately at the bottom of a pool," Martin said. "We had a pool in the backyard. We weren't really aware of the different preventative measures we could take to prevent it." The Florida native was playing football at the time, first at UCF and then in the NFL. "That's when I realized that's what I want to do when I'm done," Martin said.  

VIDEO: Ambulance crews in Antigo have some help when taking care of young patients. A special security strap allows then to secure and transport pediatric patients. Up until now they've been using car seats, since traditional stretchers are made for the average adult. While most calls are for adults, they do occasionally need to take a child to the hospital. "The more capacity these cots hold, the less likely they are to properly fit a child, these devices go up to a 110 pounds, so that's a pretty significant sized child, and so that definitely goes to show that the harnesses that comes with the cots are definitely not made for children," said Corey Smith, Assistant Fire Chief. The new devices have three sizes, ranging from infants to older children.  

PHOTOS: Twenty years after the nation's 4th worst nightclub fire, Rhode Island is still dealing with the collective trauma, legislative fallout and lasting impacts of The Station nightclub fire. The West Warwick, Rhode Island club The Station was purchased by brothers Michael A. and Jeffrey A. Derderian in 2000 and three years later became a scene of tragedy that would haunt Rhode Island forever. As the California band Great White took the stage that February night in 2003, pyrotechnics ignited soundproofing foam insulation which resulted in a massive blaze. Survivors, families, friends, firefighters, doctors and nurses were left to carry the physical and emotional scars of that night. For everyone who was involved, the memories still haunt them.  

Megan Wichmann sat in her high school English classroom in 2009 and contemplated her new assignment for the month: Pick a career and research it. Wichmann was interested in shadowing a paramedic, so she went on a few ambulance ride-alongs in Johnson County. Wichmann's mother's partner at the time was an Iowa City firefighter, and he asked Wichmann if she wanted to ride along in a firetruck for the day. Wichmann quickly accepted, eager for every experience she was offered. "I think that's honestly where I fell in love with firefighting because I get to do EMS and fire," the Iowa native said. "Then, it kind of took off from there." And with each ride-along and conversation, Wichmann's passion for helping others grew stronger. Twenty days after Wichmann graduated from Iowa City High School, she went on a ride-along at Station Five in Cedar Rapids.