PHOTOS: An explosion and large plume of smoke at the Valero refinery in Port Arthur prompted officials to order west-side residents to shelter in place Monday, but the major fire was out by early Tuesday and the shelter-in-place order was lifted, Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick announced.

“As of 3:28 a.m. the major fire at Valero was out,” Branick said, adding that air monitoring performed by Valero, the EPA, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and others “did not indicate exceedances of safe thresholds at this point.”

Branick, who spent the night at the incident command center, praised the response to the blaze — noting it happened to fall on his birthday.

“Well, that was certainly the most interesting way I’ve ever spent a birthday,” Branick said. “I was impressed by the well trained and highly skilled emergency response personnel of Valero. They understood the processes, products and procedures and they worked together under the incident command and control framework in a collaborative and effective way.”

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PHOTOS: An Air Canada passenger plane smashed into a rescue truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday — killing two pilots and hospitalizing 41 others in the horrific crash that obliterated the front of the jet and forced the major travel hub to close for most of Monday.

The Bombardier CRJ-900 jet landing from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew members was landing shortly before midnight when it smashed into the truck responding to an unrelated emergency.

Audio caught an air traffic controller frantically trying to avoid the deadly smash, repeatedly crying out, “Stop, stop, stop, stop!” He was later heard admitting, “I messed up.”

Horrific images showed the front of the commuter plane obliterated and tilted up in the air, with debris and cables hanging from the mangled cockpit after the 24 mph smash. The pilot and co-pilot in the mangled front were both killed, sources told The Post, with many of the 72 passengers and four crew members on the landing jet also injured.

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PHOTOS: Following reports of a loud “boom” and houses shaking the Houston area on Saturday, a woman says a potential piece of the answer may have been what crashed through her roof. Social media was buzzing with questions about a noise sounding like thunder or an explosion shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Brenham Fire Department said they responded to reports of a possible explosion, but they did not find proof that one happened. Some speculated whether the noise came from a meteor or a sonic boom.

As the questions continued, a woman contacted FOX 26 claiming a meteorite crashed through her roof. Sherrie James says she contacted the Ponderosa Fire Department for help.

Fire Captain Tyler Ellingham confirmed that he responded to James’ call. The captain’s team found what they say is an unusual rock. Since there was no construction or trees nearby, the fire department believes the rock is a part of the alleged meteor that was heard around Houston.

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PHOTOS: A huge fire at the Fuyao Glass America plant in Moraine burned for hours Sunday night as crews battled weather conditions and high winds. The flames tearing through the roof of the automotive glass company’s production complex could be seen for miles.

The fire started around 8:30 p.m. at the plant on West Stroop Road and flames were still burning after midnight, Moraine Fire Marshal Doug Hatcher said. The fire started on the roof of the building, Hatcher said, but he could not say if there was damage within the building.

He said the fire struck a newer part of the Fuyao complex, where the company had been setting up new manufacturing lines. Fire crews had to suspend aerial ladders above the roof due to lightning strikes in the area. Hatcher said crews would continue working after the storm died down.

Multiple area fire departments assisted the Moraine Fire Department, although a Moraine dispatcher could not immediately say how many. Thousands of gallons of water were used to fight the fire.

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A massive fire destroyed a row of buildings in Midwood, Brooklyn on Thursday, and devastated countless livelihoods in the process.

FDNY officials say a fire was reported in a restaurant at 1021 Avenue H between East 10th Street and Coney Island Avenue around 4:40 p.m.

NewsCopter 7 was above the row of businesses as firefighters battled the fire on the roof. The restaurant shares a rear wall with the businesses on the street.

The fire penetrated through the back of a barbershop while customers were still inside. “Yes we was working because tomorrow we have a holiday that’s why we had too much client,” said barbershop owner Amjid Ysman.

“Crazy flames. We started looking over there, everybody got up,” said a barbershop customer named Shah. “At first, it was just smoke. We thought it was nothing, it was normal. But then when the flames started coming everybody got us and ran away.”

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The PulsePoint Foundation, a public nonprofit 501(c)(3) that develops applications supporting public safety agencies, announced an integration with Critical Response Group (CRG), the nation’s leader in critical incident mapping data. Through the integration, the nationwide catalog of CRG’s Collaborative Response Graphics® appear directly within PulsePoint Respond incident maps, equipping responding personnel with actionable intelligence for pre-incident planning and real-time response.

CRG’s critical incident mapping provides situational awareness for multi-agency response in complex structures and during large-scale events. Professional responders in more than 5,500 PulsePoint-connected communities now have access to these highly detailed standardized emergency response maps directly within the same application they rely on for critical information during incident response and coordination.

CRG’s 70,000+ mapping products support response operations across schools, healthcare facilities, commercial buildings, and other critical infrastructure environments, nationwide.

PulsePoint Respond is designed to provide responding personnel with focused, incident-relevant information including hydrants, highway cameras, live unit locations and real-time CAD narratives. CRG response plans extend this capability, improving situational awareness, supporting unified command, and helping all responders operate more safely and efficiently during complex incidents.

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VIDEO: Two firefighters were killed in a rollover wreck Friday morning in Goldsby, according to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. OHP says troopers responded just after 3 a.m. to an area near East Redbud Road and Southeast 12th Avenue after a reported wreck involving a fire tanker truck.

After arriving at the scene, OHP says troopers determined the tanker was traveling east on Redbud Road to respond to a structure fire in the area when the driver overcorrected after going off the roadway, causing the vehicle to roll over.

Two firefighters who were inside the tanker at the time of the crash were killed, although no names have been released. It is unknown if there were additional firefighters inside the vehicle when the crash happened.

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: A Howard firefighter was minorly injured while battling a fire Tuesday in Elk Falls, the rural fire department said. The fire broke out around 7:40 p.m. in the 100 block of 7th Street. Crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the building, and additional fire engines were called from Longton, Grenola, Moline, Howard and Cowley County Fire District No. 2 Atlanta.

During the fight, the Elk County Rural Fire Department said one Howard City firefighter was briefly trapped due to a ceiling collapse in the garage. He was able to free himself and sustained minor injuries. Other crews evacuated and fought the fire from the exterior. The department said the cause of the fire is still undetermined, and the building is expected to be a total loss.

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VIDEO: The San Antonio Fire Department just became the first fire department in the nation to be officially certified as a trauma-informed care agency.

Getting certified involves a long, rigorous process. We are looking closely at what goes into the process and what makes organizations so proud to acquire the title.

“A lot of people, when they’re going through a tough time, it can be really isolating,” said SAFD Peer Support Coordinator Lt. Ryan Westerhoff. ”It helps us understand each other as coworkers and gives each other a safe space, and when you have that in the work space, you can apply that to the citizens we serve.”

As part of the certification process, the Ecumenical Center in San Antonio followed SAFD for over a year as Westerhoff and SAFD leadership helped establish new policies regarding how staff interact with the public and with each other.

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VIDEO: A crash in Baltimore involving two cars and a MTA bus sent multiple people to the hospital, some with serious injuries early Thursday. According to the Baltimore City Fire Department, they received a call around 1:15 a.m. about a crash involving a bus and two cars at 100 Preston Street.

Emergency responders including a special operations team were needed for a complex extrication from one of the cars. A total of eight people were sent to hospitals in the area suffering from very serious to minor injuries. The area of East Preston Street and St. Paul Street has been closed as utility repair crews continue to work on downed traffic lights at the scene.

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PHOTOS: An early morning fire tore through a row of townhomes in Branchburg so quickly Wednesday morning, that it caused the roof to collapse on multiple units. The fire burned through the attached homes at The Red Rock Preserve on Old York Road just before 5:45 a.m.

NewsCopter 7 was over the scene as the gas-fed flames quickly spread through the cockloft. Families grabbed what they could in the terrifying early morning moments and ran out of the building, but say they are thankful that they escaped safely.

The fire gutted several townhouses, the building no longer has a roof, it melted away, and parts of siding were left dangling in the wind. As the fire burned, firefighters hit the blaze from every angle as the red and orange flames glowed in the dark early morning hours.

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Lt. Jason Brockmeyer has worked at Franklin Township Fire Department in Ohio for 20 years. Since he’s been there, his department was often called to fight highly dangerous flammable liquid fires.

“We were considered the experts in this field,” Brockmeyer said.

That’s because the township fire department had over 1,000 gallons of aqueous film forming foam, also called AFFF, given to them by nearby fuel storage facilities years ago. It’s a tool that firefighters have relied upon since the 1960s, which smothers flames with a heat resistant film.

The problem is that foam has high concentrations of PFAS, commonly called forever chemicals. PFAS come with health risks if humans are exposed.

Brockmeyer recalled a time when his chief asked him to figure out where to get rid of the foam.

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VIDEO: A dramatic apartment rescue in subzero Michigan temperatures. A wind-whipped house fire on the California coast. A Christmas Day blaze with a downed power line blocking the way. A fully engulfed camper in a crowded Pennsylvania campground.

These are the fires at the center of “American Inferno,” a new NewsNation YouTube digital series hosted by Lt. Bryan Mathiau of the Manchester, Connecticut, fire department.

“Fire doesn’t care who you are, it doesn’t slow down, and it never gives you the full story until you’re already inside,” Mathiau said. Mathiau, a combat veteran who served in Iraq and a former Connecticut Fire Academy instructor, has spent more than a decade in the fire service.

On the night of Jan. 19, 2026, the Wyoming, Michigan, fire department responded to a fire at the Crossroads Apartments. Crews found heavy smoke and fire on the back of the building when they arrived, moving quickly toward the roof, with three people trapped on the third floor.

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Crews battled a four-alarm fire at a pallet yard in Riverside as windy conditions made for a difficult firefight.

The blaze was reported at about 3:30 p.m. at a fence business on Main Street between Bartlett Avenue and Garner Road then spread to a pallet yard. At the scene, multiple pallets were fully engulfed in flames for reasons still under investigation. As a result of the firefight, Main Street was shut down.

“The conditions were very arduous for our firefighters; the prevailing winds, the high heat,” said Riverside City Fire Department Capt. Paul Seawright. NewsChopper4 was over the fire, where flames and large plumes of smoke were seen coming from the scene. Flames swelled into a nearby field, causing more difficulty for crews.

“The complexity of the incident was high on this, with it starting from one local building, spreading to the developing structures around that, such as the pallets and then the grass field, the vegetation,” Seawright said. “Our focus was on the vegetation field and constructing a perimeter.”

It’s unclear what sparked the fire. First responders have not said if any injuries were reported in connection with the incident.

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PHOTOS: Two firefighters are hurt after a crash between a fire truck and an 18-wheeler, according to the Madison County fire chief.

The crash unfolded on Monday at about 1:50 p.m. on E US Highway 90 at NE CR-255 in Lee, per Florida Highway Patrol troopers.

A Madison County Fire Rescue truck was heading north on SE CR-255 on the way to a fire possibly caused by a lightning strike, while a semi-truck hauling a flatbed trailer was traveling west on US Highway 90, according to FHP. The two vehicles crashed at the intersection of the highway and NE CR-255.

“The firetruck then overturned and the semi collided with a utility pole,” per an FHP press release. The firefighters were hospitalized in serious condition, according to law enforcement.

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VIDEOS: Four people are dead, including a child, after a multi-alarm fire ripped through a building in Queens on Monday afternoon. The four-alarm fire broke out just before 12:30 p.m. at a mixed-used building on College Point Boulevard between Avery and Pople avenues in Flushing.

Earlier on Monday, the FDNY confirmed that two adults and one child, a 3-year-old boy, were killed in the fire. Police later confirmed a fourth victim, an adult man, died on the way to the hospital. “We’re mourning the loss of four New Yorkers after today’s devastating four-alarm fire in Flushing. My heart is with their families, loved ones and every neighbor impacted,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a post on his X account.

In an update on Monday evening, NYPD officials said three people, a 44-year-old man, 59-year-old man and 67-year-old woman, are in stable condition at Jacobi Hospital. Four more victims, a 33-year-old man, 39-year-old woman, 40-year-old woman and 51-year-old man, are in stable condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Qeens.

“This is a difficult and tragic day. There were several victims of this fire. I can confirm for you at this point that there were three fatalities,” said FDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore during a press conference earlier on Monday.

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VIDEO: Fire crews rushed to a Brooklyn neighborhood early Sunday morning after flames tore through a home, leaving several people injured. When firefighters arrived at 124 Conklin Ave. in Canarsie, thick smoke filled the air as neighbors woke up to the sight of a house engulfed in flames.

The two-alarm fire broke out inside a three-story home, starting on the first floor and quickly spreading to the second. Vincent Dixon, who has been a member of the Canarsie Church of Christ next door for 25 years, says the sight was heartbreaking. “I woke expecting to come to church today and woke up to a bunch of messages and videos of flames, and it’s kind of like a shock,” Dixon said.

The church sustained only minor damage. “The church is doing okay; there are men over there fixing up the holes right now, so thankfully, there will be protection from the rain later,” Dixon added. Six people were hurt, four residents and two firefighters. Two of the residents suffered serious injuries and were taken to Brookdale Hospital.

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VIDEO: The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) has released a new documentary, “COVID: Coast to Coast,” featuring interviews with frontline workers and first responders about the first days of the pandemic and its aftermath.

The film, available to view on YouTube, includes accounts from fire departments in New York City, Boise, Idaho and West Barnstable, Massachusetts. The interviews were conducted in 2024.

The documentary reflects on the uncertainty and fear that marked the early stage of the pandemic. It also looks at how rapidly changing public health guidance affected day-to-day work. The film covers shortages of protective equipment, the spread of misinformation and the emotional strain carried into home life.

The documentary was produced by Cool Water and supported by funding from the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.

NFFF CEO Victor Stagnaro said: “The pandemic tested our firefighters in ways we could never have anticipated. “Our bravest were on the ground, every day, witnessing the devastating impact COVID-19 had on their communities.

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VIDEO: The Fort Myers Fire Department participated in a program to learn sign language, aiming to improve communication with deaf people during emergencies.

Audrey Rodriguez, a mentor at the Sally J. Pimentel Deaf & Hard of Hearing Center, grew up hard of hearing and eventually lost all her hearing. She highlighted the importance of clear communication, noting, “Not many deaf people read lips. It doesn’t matter how old they are; people can become deaf at different age.”

Amy Turner, executive director of the Sally J. Pimentel Deaf & Hard of Hearing Center, shared the center’s experiences, saying, “We have had every situation that you can possibly imagine, and each one is more heartbreaking than the next.”

The center’s lunch and learn program teaches first responders how to communicate with the deaf community, providing sign language instruction and materials tailored to their needs. “We bring a sign language instructor, an interpreter, and all the materials that the staff or that agency would need. And we teach basic sign language that pertain to that business,” Turner said.

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VIDEOS: A fire broke out at a LyondellBasell chemical plant near Pasadena Thursday night, sending thick smoke and flames into the air and prompting a large emergency response from multiple agencies.

No injuries were reported.

The fire was reported around 9 p.m. at LyondellBasell’s Bayport Choate site, a sprawling chemical complex located at 10801 Choate Road in Pasadena.

The Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office identified the facility as a Chemical Process Unit at Lyondell BayPort and confirmed that everyone present at the time of the fire was accounted for.

Officials said the fire burned for several hours overnight, with flames and thick smoke visible from miles away.

The La Porte Office of Emergency Management said the main fire was fully extinguished early Friday morning.

Officials said the scene was transitioned back to LyondellBasell between about 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., and city emergency crews returned to service around 2 a.m.

Activity in and around the facility may continue as the company manages the incident and monitors conditions at the site.

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