A 57-year-old Beaumont man is dead following an explosion and fire early Thursday morning at a home in Beaumont. City of Beaumont firefighters responded at about 4 a.m. Thursday to a home in the 2100 block of Rusk St. according to dispatch records. An explosion and fire destroyed the home according to a Beaumont Fire Department spokesperson. John Allen Hall, 57, of Beaumont, who was inside the home at the time of the fire was taken by ambulance to a Beaumont hospital where he later died according to a news release from the Beaumont Police Department. Nearby neighbors described the explosion as a loud boom. The noise was so loud, residents at first assumed it came from a nearby chemical plant exploding. They later learned the noise came from Hall's home exploding.  

VIDEO: Monday, the brotherhood of firefighters was shown in Dalhart. The procession started on the southern edge of the Texas Panhandle. As the procession traveled north to Dalhart more vehicles joined in to show their support but also say their final goodbyes. It was not just firefighters that showed their support for the families of Chief Curtis Brown and Firefighter Brendan Torres. Henry Brubacher was traveling to see his grandchildren in Dalhart on his yearly visits but while traveling he heard the tragic news. He went out of his way and parked along the procession route to show his support because he remembered his family needed firefighters when his home was burning. "When you think about the firefighters, you know, they do put themselves on the front. I don't know, you'll never know what it's like until you need them," said Brubacher.  

Investigators are looking into the cause of a fire that damaged more than one building at a North Side construction business early Friday morning. The fire broke out around 4:15 a.m. at a lot owned by Guido Brothers Construction on Breeden Avenue, not far from San Pedro Avenue and Jackson Keller Road. Firefighters said when they arrived, they found a fire in a mobile home which then spread to a second one. A battalion chief said the mobile homes appeared to be the type typically used at a construction site for an office, but it looks like they haven't been used in a while. Fire officials said just before the call they received another about a grass fire nearby on Recoleta Street. They are not sure if this fire was caused by that, or if the construction fire was the original cause.  

A fire that's been burning at a Fort Worth warehouse for a week continues to burn. Inside that warehouse are countless bottles of hand sanitizer. Not only does it tie up fire department resources, but it also has people who live nearby concerned about the air they're breathing. The fire broke out on October 6. Now, a week into the battle, fire officials said what was a warehouse filled with bottles of hand sanitizer is still smoldering. "We have had crews on the scene around the clock since the initial incident happened, monitoring the situation," said Craig Trojecek, with the Fort Worth Police Department. A third phase of fighting the stubborn chemical fire has just begun. "We're going to break up the big piles into smaller piles, and we can go in and extinguish those smaller piles," Trojecek explained.  

The Corpus Christi Fire Department (CCFD) received a donation of 100 free smoke detectors from the Insurance Council of Texas. The gift was made in honor of the 100th Annual National Fire Prevention Week, which runs this week from Oct. 9-15 with the theme "fire won't wait, plan your escape." The donation came just in time for winter, which the CCFD said is the peak season for house fires. "During the winter time, you do have a high abundance of fires due to the heating we're putting into the houses, whether it's through gas, or through electric or through fire places," said CCFD Fire Marshall Randy Paige. The CCFD also received a donation of $5,000 for its city-wide fire prevention education program. The smoke detectors will be given to area residents with houses built prior to 1993.  

Firefighters help their community. They respond to emergencies, but what if there's an emergency in their personal life? Houston Fire Department is hosting a new clinic to help firefighters navigate hurdles in their nuptials, so they can continue to safely and effectively serve their community. Executive Assistant Fire Chief of Houston Fire Department Rodney West said, "It is an opportunity for men and women who take more home than sometimes they bring when they leave a shift to enhance themselves in a personal world." This is why HFD is offering its staff a Firefighter Marriage Clinic, a partnership between HFD, Houston First Baptist Church, and Christ Way Counseling Services. "We realized in the Houston Fire Department our most valuable asset is not the multi-million dollar fire stations, it's not the $1.2 million ladder trucks, it's the men and women that serve, and we realize we have to make or at least provide positive outlooks for the things money can't buy," explained West.  

Several animals are missing after a massive fire tore through a Fort Myers home early Friday morning. Firefighters quickly responded to the home on Sunset Road around 2:30 a.m. Numerous dogs and a cage of parrots made it out ok; however, many cats and two monkeys are missing, according to the Fort Myers Police Department. A car inside the garage is destroyed as well. No injuries were reported in the blaze, but a woman was treated by an EMT. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.  

Fire service and homeland security leaders discussed issues ranging from wildfires in the wildland-urban interface and improving firefighter safety to fostering more diverse and inclusive fire departments at the U.S. Fire Administrator's Summit on Fire Prevention and Control on Tuesday at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md. "I can't begin to tell you how very important this summit is," U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell said, calling the event "historic" after a morning roundtable that included Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John Tien, National Security Council Senior Director for Resilience and Response Caitlin Durkovich, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. "We've identified some very real issues and we have a lot of work yet to do."  

Firefighters help their community. They respond to emergencies, but what if there's an emergency in their personal life? Houston Fire Department is hosting a new clinic to help firefighters navigate hurdles in their nuptials, so they can continue to safely and effectively serve their community. Executive Assistant Fire Chief of Houston Fire Department Rodney West said, "It is an opportunity for men and women who take more home than sometimes they bring when they leave a shift to enhance themselves in a personal world." This is why HFD is offering its staff a Firefighter Marriage Clinic, a partnership between HFD, Houston First Baptist Church, and Christ Way Counseling Services. "We realized in the Houston Fire Department our most valuable asset is not the multi-million dollar fire stations, it's not the $1.2 million ladder trucks, it's the men and women that serve, and we realize we have to make or at least provide positive outlooks for the things money can't buy," explained West.  

VIDEO: On Saturday, Oct. 8, the emergency room staff at St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale had to call in firefighters to help treat patients. The fire chief, Jason Christian, said a charge nurse called around 10:30 p.m. and said her staff was drowning and they needed help. "She expressed that this was a bit of an unprecedented request, and she said the conditions in the emergency room were horrible," Christian said. The nurse called the backline to a 911 dispatcher, and that dispatcher called the battalion chief for Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue. The battalion chief dispatched two firefighter EMTs to help. "She was describing to the dispatcher that they only had five nurses on duty and they had over 45 patients just in the waiting room," Christian said. The firefighters helped in the ER for about an hour and a half.  

AAA is raising awareness on Kentucky's Move Over Law, which looks to protect those who put their lives on the line while keeping roads and drivers safe. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, 28 people were killed in Kentucky after being hit while outside a disabled vehicle between 2016 and 2020. "Everybody just wants to go home at the end of the day," said Seth Pierce, a fleet supervisor with AAA. Pierce has been on the side of the road lending a helping hand, with cars racing by at high speeds. "A split second decision can be the difference in you going home or you going to jail for vehicular manslaughter," said Pierce. That's why his crews go through training to help keep themselves safe while out loading disabled vehicles. It's also where the state's move over law comes into play.