A Beverly Hills apartment building caught fire Wednesday, displacing residents and forcing a partial roof collapse. The Beverly Hills Fire Department responded to a call in the 200 block of South Rexford Drive around 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 9.

Residents evacuated safely, but multiple firefighters were injured, with two taken to the hospital, including one treated for heat exhaustion. High heat and humidity created significant physical challenges for crews battling the flames in heavy gear.

The fire forced residents out of the garden-style, multi-unit building and onto the street as flames shot through the roof. Neighboring homes were also impacted by the emergency response. Scott Prisland, a 30-year resident of one of the four units, evacuated alongside his wife, Marnie. Firefighters managed to pull photo albums from their home, along with a Tony Award Prisland recently won for the Broadway musical “Schmigadoon!”

“The Beverly Hills Fire Department did get us out and rescued the Tony, which is very nice,” Prisland said. “We lost a lot of other stuff, which is terrible, and I feel horrible for our neighbors.”

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During the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, first responders faced a number of problems. One of the most significant was a communications system that did not allow emergency workers from different agencies to easily coordinate with one another.

They all had unique radio systems with their own frequencies. That slowed responses in many instances at the World Trade Center in New York City, at the Pentagon and at the crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The federal 911 Commission, established to examine the attacks and the response, recommended the creation of an agency that would work on delivering a nationwide broadband network that would be dedicated to public safety. The network needed to be robust enough to provide interoperable communications between all responding agencies to a major disaster.

In 2012, Congress created the First Responder Network Authority, known as FirstNet, to oversee the buildout of the network. Through a public/private agreement, AT&T was selected to build, operate and maintain the network. Congress appropriated a $7 billion to start the buildout and purchase dedicated prime broadband spectrum capable of supporting public safety communications.

The initial buildout was completed in 2023. “It’s shocking that we went so long without it,” said Anne Arundel County Fire Chief and FirstNet Board member Trisha Wolford. “There’s two things that keep us safe: One is our SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) with our air, but the other thing is our communication,” she said.

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Fire crews on Wednesday were at the scene of a massive fire at the Lochmoor Club in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan.

Authorities urged residents and drivers to avoid the area and use an alternative route as crews work to address the fire. People were also urged not to approach the scene.

Witnesses tell CBS News Detroit that the fire appeared to have started in the kitchen and spread into the attic.

Officials say everyone who was initially inside the club escaped. It is currently unknown if any injuries were reported.

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VIDEO: As the country pauses this week to honor the victims of the 9/11 Terrorists Attacks, two former Syracuse fire chiefs are sharing their experience in New York City following the attacks.

A group of about 10 Syracuse firefighters went down one week after the attacks.

“When we were driving down there on the West Side Highway, people were holding up signs, ‘Thank you for your assistance and help,” said Former Syracuse Fire Chief John Cowin.

The firefighters wanted to help. Everyone had volunteered to go, but a group of 10 experienced firefighters were chosen to bring down their ambulance to supplement the medical crews at Ground Zero. Their other mission was clearing debris.

“The thing that struck me, the pile was two 110-story buildings and it wasn’t that high, maybe nine stories high,” Cowin remembers.

Cowin said they were there for a short period of time and they found one firefighter. “The whole scene stopped and went quiet,” Cowin said.

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VIDEO: The Westfield Fire Department is sounding the alarm after they say a stray bullet came through the roof and ceiling of one of its stations, narrowly missing a firefighter who was getting ready for bed.

“Thankfully, no one was injured, but this could have ended very differently,” the fire department said on social media.

This happened at the Westfield Fire Station 2 on Bentley Road. WFD said the bullet missed the firefighter by just two feet.

“Shooting a gun into the air isn’t just against the law… it’s deadly conduct with potentially deadly consequences,” WFD said. “If you hear what sounds like gunfire, call 9-1-1 immediately. One call can save a life.”

The fire department said shots fired into the air can travel up to three miles from where they were shot, damage home and vehicles, and cause serious injury or death.

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VIDEO: Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, fire and police departments say the lessons learned that day continue to shape emergency response, with a greater focus on specialized training, technology, coordination, and first responder safety.

At the Cherry Hill Fire Department’s Central Command, agencies from across Camden County regularly train together for special operations rescues, including building collapses.

“New York, Philly, they all had collapse training. Cherry Hill, we didn’t have any of that before 9/11,” said Lt. Sean Carlin of the Cherry Hill Fire Department. Rescue tactics and equipment have evolved significantly since then.

Teams now use respiratory protection during operations, and specialized tools help stabilize damaged structures. “These are aluminum struts. We use this in a variety of ways. We stabilize vehicles,” Carlin said. “But the bread and butter for this is structural collapse.”

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: Firefighters rescued one person and three dogs from an RV fire in West Oakland on Tuesday morning as flames were seen underneath the tracks of the West Oakland BART train rushing by. The fire started around 6:30 a.m. The plume of smoke from the RV was visible for miles, as the motor home went up in flames.

Firefighters could be seen wrangling three dogs after the large flames had been put out. Fire department radio traffic indicated one of them had been tied up when the fire started, but crews were able to rescue it along with the other two dogs.

The dogs appeared to be in good spirits, playing with firefighters who were on scene as crews worked to put out the flames. According to radio traffic, one dog suffered minor burns, but it’s unclear how badly it was hurt.

After the fire was out, one person wrapped in a blanket could be seen staring at the wreckage. It’s unclear if they were the person who lived in the RV.

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PHOTOS: Fire crews are at the scene of what was once a massive fire in downtown South Bend that sent flames high into the air. This is at the construction site for the new Stadium Flats Apartments near Four Winds Field.

The South Bend Fire Department was called out to the site just after midnight Tuesday, with several callers saying the building was engulfed and that a crane was also on fire. Firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading to the Diamond View Apartments and the South Bend Cubs Performance Center.

Residents in the Diamond View Apartments were evacuated. There is no word on what caused the blaze, as an investigation is underway.

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VIDEO: Arizona is currently home to about 100 solar farms, with several of those massive facilities operating right here in Yuma. While clean energy continues to expand across the region, fire safety experts warn that though solar-related fires are rare, they present intense, highly volatile hazards that can take days to control when they do ignite.

Just across the Arizona-California state line, firefighters battled a massive blaze Wednesday at the Mount Signal One Solar Plant. Local crews say fighting these unique electrical and chemical fires requires entirely different tactics compared to traditional structure blazes.

“Fires when they involve hazardous materials basically force us to slow down our stride,” said Cedric Cesena of the Imperial County Fire Department. “We have to ensure we are talking and looking with the technical experts who have the technical references that we can use.”

Many solar installations utilize lithium-ion batteries to store vast amounts of electricity. While highly efficient, that concentrated energy can become unstable. According to firefighters, these thermal runaway events can reach temperatures of up to 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit.

Lithium-ion battery failures have been blamed for a growing list of emergencies nationally, including golf cart, garage, car, airplane, and commercial building fires. When these chemical liquids are involved in a blaze, conventional firefighting methods do not work.

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An Auburn fire lieutenant is being praised for springing into action and driving a burning fire truck away from a gas station on Friday night. Shocking surveillance video shows the moment when Engine 4 caught fire around 7 p.m. at the Shell Station on Washington Street after a fuel line let go and sparked a fire in the engine compartments, according to the Auburn Fire Department.

That’s when officials say the lieutenant jumped into the driver’s seat and pulled the truck out from under the canopy and away from the building.

“The security video shows when he jumped out of the truck, fire followed him out of the cab,” the department said in a statement. “The other three members of the crew grabbed fire extinguishers from the gas station and extinguished the fire, as well as removing equipment from inside the cab of the truck.”

The statement continued, “The crew did a great job preventing damage to the pumps, the building, and our own equipment. One minor injury was sustained, but the member has been treated and will be OK.”

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Firefighters worked to put out a second-alarm fire that also caused multiple smaller fires Friday morning at an abandoned church building in north St. Louis.

The St. Louis Fire Department said the call came in around 1 a.m. and that firefighters responded in the area just two days ago to a small brush fire on the same property.

It’s believed that there were items in the church, such as clothes and other combustible things that may have been for donation, that contributed to the severity of the fire. The heat also played a role.

The department noted that no one was injured in the fire, and said one firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion. It took crews two hours to knock out the fire, and at least 60 firefighters were on the scene.

The First Responder Canteen was also on scene to assist in hydrating and cooling the firefighters. The church has not been active for some time.

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VIDEO: Sometimes the smallest member of the team can make the biggest impact. One local firehouse has a new member who’s already become part of the family.

It’s now been over a month since Rufus the dog found his new home at Liberty Township Fire Department.

“The girl was like, ‘Do we want to see another dog?’ and I was like, ‘Nope, this is the dog. We’re going to give him a shot,’” said Captain Philip Lucarell.

In that short time, he’s already become an important part of the crew. “He’s an ambassador for the fire department, and he’s our morale officer,” Lucarell said.

Rufus spends his days around the firefighters, becoming part of their routine and bringing a little something extra to the station.

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PHOTOS: The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) has identified the two people who were killed in a fiery plane crash Thursday morning.

The crash happened around 8:15 a.m. in a wooded area near U.S. 301 near the Southwest Florida Water Management District office, according to Hillsborough County Fire Rescue. Officials said multiple 911 calls came in reporting an aircraft had gone down. When firefighters arrived, they found the small plane fully engulfed in flames and were able to put out the fire in less than 10 minutes.

The pilot, who deputies identified as David Siambanes, 59, as well as the passenger, Dawn Stone, 53, were both killed in the crash.

Both victims worked in the medical and healthcare field. Stone was a nurse practitioner with AdventHealth, specializing in bone health for adults.

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PHOTOS: Multiple crews continue to be on the scene Thursday morning, September 3, after a massive fire in downtown Du Quoin.

Flames and smoke are still visible from where the fire started at the Home Lumber Co. on Wednesday afternoon. According to city leaders, the fire continued to rekindle throughout the night. The public is urged to avoid the Main Street area as crews continue to battle the fire.

On Wednesday, our crew on scene said the lumber company building is a total loss. According to Du Quoin Mayor Josh Downs, along with the lumber company building, BJs Garden Inn, Croessmann Wholesale Co. and an auto parts store were destroyed by the fire.

Mayor Downs is asking everyone to avoid downtown Du Quoin until otherwise notified. Governor JB Pritzker said his administration is continuing to monitor the ongoing fire. Mayor Downs went on to thank all of the fire, police and EMS crews from surrounding communities who responded to help.

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A recent state-of-the-art review in the journal Textiles by researchers at Oklahoma State University, USA, examines the use of nanotechnology to advance thermal protective clothing (TPC) for firefighters working in extreme thermal and hazardous environments.

The review highlights nanotechnology as a promising approach to developing lighter, multifunctional, and breathable firefighter clothing, while also addressing challenges related to scalability, durability, cost, and safety. Firefighters work in environments where intense heat, flames, steam, hot liquids, smoke, and toxic particles can cause severe injuries.

Thermal protective clothing (TPC) provides an essential barrier against these hazards, but conventional clothing often involves a difficult trade-off between protection and comfort. Increasing garment thickness or insulation can reduce heat transfer but also increases weight, limits breathability, and adds to physical strain.

In contrast, lighter and more breathable garments may provide less protection during intense thermal exposure. Nanotechnology offers new opportunities to address these challenges because nanoscale materials can provide high porosity, controlled surface chemistry, and tailored thermal and barrier properties.

Nanofibers and aerogels can reduce heat transfer, while inorganic nanoparticles can improve flame resistance and surface protection. Two-dimensional materials, metallic nanostructures, and phase-change materials can collectively provide functions such as sensing, infrared reflection, and thermal energy storage.

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A fire burned through a homeless camp on Fourth Way in North Fort Myers on Wednesday afternoon, according to the North Fort Myers Fire District.

Video from the scene shows smoke billowing from the lot. The fire was visible for miles across the area. North Fort Myers Fire officials said the flames were burning at approximately 1:30 p.m., and no people or pets were hurt. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office was on scene to assist.

The fire has since been put out, and the cause is under investigation. It has been ruled as accidental.

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PHOTOS: Crews are investigating after a seafood warehouse in Kent caught fire early Wednesday morning. Puget Sound Fire sent out the initial alert on social media at around 2:13 a.m., saying crews were on the scene of a two-alarm warehouse fire in the 20400 block of 80th Avenue South.

When firefighters arrived, flames were coming through the roof. Crews immediately set up a defensive approach, using three aerial master streams and portable monitors to control the flames.

“We would encourage people to give us the room that we need down here, because we do have fire hoses stretched across the road,” said Pat Pawklak with Puget Sound Fire. “Please adhere to those because of firefighter safety.”

No one was inside at the time of the fire and no one was hurt. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. Crews will continue to put out hotspots and then make the call if it is safe for an investigator to enter.

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While FDNY firefighters are continuing to perish from 9/11 related illnesses nearly 25 years after the terrorist attack, new Department data released on Tuesday shows that despite an insurmountable loss, there could be a silver lining.

The Fire Department suffered its greatest one-day loss in history on Sept. 11, 2001, when 343 members, including much of its leadership, were killed while responding to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

But in the nearly 25 years since then, they have also lost more than 600 other firefighters from illnesses they contracted due to their work in the rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero, the pile of rubble from the collapsed Twin Towers and nearby buildings. In that respect, as Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore noted, 9/11 “was not a one-day event for our department.”

“It is a day that continues to sicken our members, with many of them eventually succumbing to the disease related to the heroic work in the rescue and recovery efforts,” Bonsignore said during the Sept. 1 press conference at the Fire Department’s headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn. “Our members are still getting sick, and sadly, they are dying.”

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AI is already helping detect and monitor wildfires. Now, researchers are exploring how it could help fire officials decide where to deploy crews across multiple fires.

Studies show climate change is contributing to longer, more intense wildfire seasons, forcing officials to make high-stakes decisions about how to prioritize limited resources.

AI could help them process information to make those decisions faster. Jason Fallon, the U.S. Wildland Fire Service’s division chief for wildland fire intelligence, told Axios that AI is ingrained in many areas of wildfire management nationally, including monitoring, detection, information dissemination and data transfer.

• AI-powered cameras, satellite systems and weather-prediction tools are helping agencies in Western states detect wildfires and deploy crews sooner.
• For satellite data triage, AI can “help us quickly work through a workflow to separate noise from reality,” Fallon said.

Léonard Boussioux, an information systems professor at the University of Washington Foster School of Business, is part of a team researching how machine learning and optimization could assist fire officials in deciding where to send crews when multiple wildfires are burning.

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A fire broke out at Howard Industries in Laurel after a paint booth next to a tanker truck caught fire, according to the Laurel mayor.

The fire sent thick smoke into the air and prompted people near the plant to leave. A Facebook Live video posted by Brandon Herford Brewer shows flames burning at the facility as multiple fire trucks arrive. Several loud booms can be heard in the video as Brewer describes the situation escalating.

“Everybody’s gotta leave,” Brewer says. The video also shows people running from the area while firefighters work near the plant. At one point, Brewer describes the heat as unbearable.

“My face is melting,” Brewer says. “It’s Howard industry and I’m about to get out of here. I am sweating down.” Brewer later says the building had been cleared and everyone had gotten out.

The mayor said the fire started in the paint booth near the tanker truck. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured or how much damage the fire caused.

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