The Lewisville Fire Department is mourning the unexpected loss of a firefighter who collapsed while off duty on New Year's Eve. According to the Lewisville Fire Fighters Association, Landun Charles called out in distress as he and his wife were getting ready for work this past Friday morning. By the time she got to him, he had collapsed to the floor. Charles' wife, who is a nurse, called 911 and started CPR. He was airlifted to the hospital but did not survive. Charles had served the Lewisville Fire Department as both a firefighter and a paramedic for the past two years. He also worked as a paramedic for CareFlight on his days off.  

VIDEO: A roof collapsed during a fire at a vacant office building near the North Freeway early Monday. This happened around 1 a.m. in the 4100 of the North Freeway just south of Crosstimbers. Houston firefighters responded to a reports of a building fire and arrived to find heavy flames coming from the building. Fire crews went into a defensive mode since it was not safe to enter the building. The roof on the building collapsed within minutes of their arrival. Fire officials said the building had been vacant for many years. There was another building separated by a stairwell that had a lot of homeless people going in and out of it. There are about 65 firefighters at the scene. Arson units are investigating the cause of the fire. No injuries reported at this time.  

VIDEO: Fire crews are investigating after a Sunday evening fire heavily damaged an Orange home. It happened in the 500 block of Decatur Avenue around 6:45 p.m. Orange firefighters responded to a reported structure fire. Responding crews found a house fully engulfed in smoke and flames. Firefighters told 12News crews at the scene that the home was vacant at the time of the fire. A house next to the one on fire was also damaged by the flames. No injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire is currently unknown.  

VIDEO: The Austin Fire Department helped other agencies put out an estimated 50-acre grass fire sparked by fireworks on New Year's Eve. Travis County Fire Rescue Chief Ken Bailey said the fire started when a firework shot into a nearby field, and the wind Friday night contributed to those flames spreading quickly. The area where it happened is east of the Ascension Seton Hays Hospital in Kyle, along Rhode and Graef Roads. An Austin Fire Department spokesman told KXAN the fire was mainly in the Hays area, though he said the fire was large and had been burning since about 9 p.m. Friday. The fire damaged a corner of a home and a pop up camper according to Chief Bailey. No one was injured. AFD firefighters kept busy throughout the night, reporting they responded to over 120 calls in the first two hours of the year. Of those, 18 were dumpster fires.  

Houston fire officials worked for hours to put out a fire in northwest Houston Sunday. A trash fire was first reported on Crawford Road near Tanner just before 5 a.m. However, Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña later said it was a wood and grass fire. He said there is no elevated hazard to the community. ABC13 crews captured video of large amounts smoke billowing from the location. As of 1 p.m. Sunday, smoke could still be seen rising in the area. Strong winds Sunday morning fueled the fire even more, officials said.  

VIDEO: Investigators believe a 4-alarm fire at a storage building in northwest Harris County was intentionally set overnight. The fire happened at Great Value Storage on Highway 249 just after midnight. More than 100 storage units were impacted by the fire, officials said. The Harris County Fire Marshal said wind made the flames spread quickly. Hazmat crews monitored the air quality and took water samples. Nothing was detected that required further action. More than six fire departments responded to the scene. After putting the flames out and investigating the origin, officials determined someone intentionally set the fire. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.  

PHOTOS/VIDEO: A 4-alarm fire at a commercial building in Hillsboro has shut down a city block for the rest of the day as crews work to put out hotspots after an hours-long battle against the flames. Hillsboro Fire and Rescue first reported the fire at SE Main Street and 3rd Avenue just before 3:30 a.m. When crews arrived the Weil Arcade building was fully involved. Two blocks were closed around the fire as crews from several neighboring agencies were called out to assist. Approximately two hours after first notifying the public of the fire, Hillsboro Fire and Rescue said via Twitter that it was still active. Shortly after 7 a.m., fire officials said the bulk of the fire had been knocked down, but that crews were still extinguishing hotspots. At the firefighting effort's peak, about 90 firefighters were on the scene.  

A child in East Haven was severely burned while attempting a social media challenge that calls for igniting a bottle of alcohol, fire officials said Wednesday. The victim was being treated at the Bridgeport Hospital Burn Center, Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli said. Firefighters responded Tuesday at about 8:30 p.m. to a call about a burn victim and learned the child had been trying the latest TikTok craze called "the whoosh bottle experiment," Marcarelli said. Igniting alcohol inside a bottle is meant to create a "whoosh" sound, he said. Warning that fire is not a toy, the chief said, "This could easily have led to a fatality as well as a major fire in the house. Alcohol is a volatile flammable liquid and can act as an accelerant." Fire Marshal Charles Miller investigated the incident and will be reaching out to local public schools to make sure kids are aware of the potential dangers.  

"I've always been one of those guys who liked helping out other people," said Jacksonville resident Michael Griffitts. Captain Griffitts is the Crew 3 shift commander, EMS coordinator and fire safety and prevention officer for the Jacksonville Fire Department. His 24-year career has allowed Griffitts to pursue his passion for helping other people while making the community a safer place. "Our need in the community is pretty big. If people don't know what to do, the police don't know what to do, the ambulance companies don't know what to do, they call the fire department," Griffitts said. "There is a huge, dynamic area of stuff that we get ourselves involved in. Someone has to have an answer to fix the problem, and more times than not, the fire department is the answer."  

VIDEO: One small town in Massachusetts is coming to the aid of another in Kentucky after its fire department was devastated by a recent tornado. The tornado that ripped through Kentucky on the night of Dec. 10 was on the ground for 235 miles, obliterating everything in its path. It hit the rural town of Cayce hard, tearing apart its all-volunteer fire department. "I live 2 miles from the station and I watched it walk right across my station," said Chief Wade Adams of the Cayce Fire Department. The department lost everything, including all of its trucks and firefighting apparatus. "When I topped the hill and you could see the station it was a pile of rubble," said Adams. When the call went out that Cayce was in desperate need of a 3,000-gallon tanker to replace one lost in the tornado, the town of Rochester, Massachusetts, answered that call.  

PHOTOS: More than six years after then-Cumberland Fire Department Chief Donnie Dunn sounded the alarm for the need for a new ladder truck, city firefighters now have a 2021 Sutphen model to help in their firefighting mission. "It's been a lengthy process," interim Chief W. Shannon Adams, Dunn's successor, said Thursday, a few days after the new purchase arrived at CFD headquarters. "The whole process took about two years discussing what we needed, meeting with Sutphen representatives and receiving approval from the mayor and council, who did a great job working with Chief Dunn getting this project funded." At a cost of $1.3 million, the new truck, equipped with a 100-foot aerial ladder, will be utilized in response to all structure fires in the city and outlying areas as requested by allied volunteer fire companies. For the last several weeks, the city department has not had a ladder truck as part of its fleet.