PHOTOS: A building is destroyed after a massive 2-alarm fire at a Northwest Side apartment complex. The fire started around just after 6 a.m. at an apartment complex off Gardina Street and Vance Jackson Road. San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood said that crews saw the building engulfed in flames when they arrived. Firefighters were able to get the fire under control quickly using ladder units to stop the fire from spreading to nearby buildings. No word on how the fire started, but investigators are on scene to work to determine the cause. There were eight units in the building that caught fire. Chief Hood said one wall of the building is very unstable and has instructed his firefighters to stay clear in case of collapse. One person was being treated on scene for smoke inhalation.  

Greg Benson, 63, started his career as a volunteer firefighter after high school. He was deciding what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, when he spoke to a volunteer firefighter who convinced him to look into the option he had not considered before. The ability to help people on their worst day sparked his interest. "There were some interesting things that happened not long after I started that kind of created a foundation for going forward," Benson said. Benson still remembers what felt like a brand-new experience in a Chicago suburb and when he realized the work was providing a service to residents. As he spent more time in the volunteer role, he saw the door open to his career path. "I just got on it and kept going," he said. Four decades later, he's the chief of the Port Arthur Fire Department.  

The owner of the Ponderosa Pet Resort in Georgetown is offering his condolences after at least 75 animals were killed in a fire at the facility over the weekend. "I am emotionally overwhelmed by the accidental fire on Saturday night at our business," Phillip Paris said in his Monday statement. "Fifty-nine families are affected and their best friends won't be coming home. As a dog owner, I feel their heartbreak intensely." The deadly fire at the Williamson County pet facility happened at around 11 p.m. Sept. 18, when fire crews say they arrived to find "the worst possible" conditions of flames and smoke. Georgetown Fire Department says the animals likely died from smoke inhalation. Paris says the fire was "100% accidental" and that he's working with a local veterinarian to make sure families get their pets' remains however they wish.  

For McKinney Fire Captain Joel Hutson, going on his first hurricane deployment was eye-opening. He remembers when Hurricane Katrina came through in 2005, all he wanted to do was help. "Just like every firefighter," he said. "They just want to go help." This month, he got the chance. Hutson was one of multiple McKinney Firefighters who deployed to Louisiana as part of the response to Hurricane Ida in Louisiana. Hutson returned home Tuesday after a roughly 15-day deployment. As Hutson worked through his first deployment, he said he didn't expect there to be such a sense of camaraderie among the firefighters he worked with, including with those from other states. Working as part of a strike team, Hutson and other fire personnel worked to hand out supplies to local residents, respond to a Sept. 12 structure fire and assist local departments in responding to 911 calls.  

Firefighters in Fort Worth are battling a house fire Monday afternoon northwest of the Fort Worth Stockyards. Investigators said one man was trapped inside the home and had burns on up to 40% of his body. He was flown to Parkland Hospital for treatment. A second man was found outside the home, also with burns on his body. He was taken to JPS Hospital in Fort Worth for treatment. The home is in the 2800 block of Pearl Avenue and the cause of the fire seems to be accidental. No one else was inside the home at the time of the fire.  

VIDEO: A delivery driver for Woody's Brick Oven Pizza had to be rescued from an elevator at the Raider Park parking garage after it fell seven stories with him in it on Saturday. Responders told him the brakes stopped the fall just three feet from the ground. Fortunately, Woody's says the driver was not injured and posted video of his rescue on Facebook. The social media post says the phone in the elevator was locked and none of the emergency buttons worked. The fall may have been related to a power outage reported about 30 minutes after the Texas Tech game on Saturday night.  

VIDEO: One person is in critical condition after a possible honey oil lab explosion in Merced Monday morning. Merced Fire Department Fire Chief Derek Parker said the person was airlifted to a local hospital. "The garage door was in the middle of the street,' Parker told ABC10. The explosion was reported just after 8 a.m. near Colma Avenue and Wildcat Drive in Merced. Fire officials say the two-story home was fully engulfed by the time crews arrived. Five other homes experienced damage as a result of the explosion, according to Parker. In total, six homes were impacted. The fire did not spread beyond the original home. Parker did say firefighters found "a lot of marijuana" inside the home, as well as large cylinders of butane. Though what actually sparked the fire is under investigation he emphasized.  

Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. submitted to the City Council on Monday a 248-page report that examined every aspect of the Worcester Fire Department, including how it can better prevent line-of-duty deaths. Since 1999, the city has suffered the loss of nine firefighters who all died while battling blazes. The department also suffered another line of duty death in July 2019 when Lt. John Kennedy died after fighting a fire. Kennedy's death however, was not mentioned in the ESCI report. The consulting company, which began its research in August of 2020, provided the city with 10 recommendations to improve the department that range from a complete overhaul of leadership to improved support service staffing. "We have an extremely talented group of individuals that want to do a great job," Deputy Fire Chief Martin Dyer said in an interview.  

Ryan O'Connor has spent more than a decade handling thousands of calls while working as a volunteer emergency medical technician with the Snyder Fire Department. Most came evenings and overnights because O'Connor works full-time in the banking field. The way he sees it, that service didn't matter much to the state Bureau of Emergency Medical Services last spring, in the midst of a pandemic, after a miscommunication within the all-volunteer department caused O'Connor's EMT recertification paperwork to be sent six days after his certification expired. A bureau official barred him from handling emergency medical calls until he repeated a beginner-style refresher course at his department's expense. "All the missed time from family and sleepless nights responding to EMS calls apparently means nothing to the New York State Department of Health," O'Connor told The Buffalo News.  

It's been two years since WCCO first reported on the dangerous needle littering problem in parts of south Minneapolis. At that time, Minneapolis firefighters planned to pick up the needles until the city found a better solution. But despite their efforts, the problem is arguably worse, says Assistant Minneapolis Fire Chief Melanie Rucker. "This year it seems like it's almost double, you know, the amount of needles that we're picking up, and there has been an uptick in some of the overdoses and drug-related responses that we go to," Rucker said. Minneapolis Fire Stations 5 and 7 on Bloomington and Franklin avenues are the busiest, with firefighters picking up hundreds of needles last month alone. WCCO revisited an alley near 25th and Bloomington avenues, where syringes with needles still attached are everywhere.  

A fire in an attic may not be the way most people start their day, but for rookie Tampa firefighter Lauren Glanton, it seems to come naturally. "That was my alarm clock," she said. "It was fire time, time to rock and roll!" Answering the call runs in the family. "Broken legs, gunshot wounds, overdoses and everything else," said Lauren's dad, Larry, a Tampa Fire Rescue paramedic who has seen it all during his 24 years with the department. But now, Lauren has become the first daughter to follow in her father's footsteps in the department's more than 100-year history. There have been dozens of sons who have followed their fathers, but none like Lauren. "I am the first," she laughed. But it didn't come without concern. "I told her that you're going to see the worst of the worst," said Larry.