VIDEO: As America approaches its 250th birthday celebration, the Prattville Fire Department has found a creative way to turn trash into patriotic treasure.

An American flag made from old fire hoses hangs in the fire department as a symbol of gratitude and love of country. Instead of scrapping the decommissioned hoses, they decided to turn them into an art piece for what they call their home away from home.

“Just to walk in- it just give you a sense of pride in something that you say hey I did that 8 to 10 years ago,” said one firefighter. Captain Michael Weigel of the Prattville Fire Department said the idea began in 2015. “We decided we could make these unique wall art for our home and then at the same time be able to express our patriotism,” Weigel said.

Each flag is unique, carefully cut to a particular size and painted by hand. The most detailed work involves the stars. “Probably the most tedious part of this was each one of the stars- we use a stencil to do the stars…” Weigel said, “but each star in the end process is completely hand done.”

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VIDEO: Firefighters are getting ready for something that could save lives in a different way. Across Pennsylvania, first responders are taking part in Autism Awareness for First Responders, a training created by Orwigsburg Fire Department Captain Zach Kirsch.

“We’re doing Autism Awareness for First Responders,” Kirsch said. “It’s a program I wrote with the help of some others last year. It debuted last September, and it really took off.” The idea behind the training is deeply personal. “My son’s autistic,” Kirsch said. “I saw a need for it in the community. A need for responders to learn about the autism spectrum disorder, to make sure people are safe during emergencies and to spread awareness.”

Research shows emergency calls, with loud sirens, flashing lights, and sudden physical contact, can be overwhelming for people on the autism spectrum and their families. “You’ve got to slow down when you respond,” he said. “Find the caretaker. Know how to talk, rather than a run-and-gun method.”

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Firefighters battled a massive blaze at a Kansas City junkyard. The Kansas City Fire Department says it responded to the fire just after 7:10 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 21, near 13th and Kensington Ave. Crews say the fire started in a stack of tires and spread throughout large portions of the junkyard.

News crews on the scene reported roads closed, including 14th St., Jackson Ave. and Kensington Ave. while firefighters contained the scene. Crews also observed a power outage that may be connected. According to Evergy’s outage map, 457 customers in the area lost power due to an “unidentified” cause. Power has since been restored.

KCFD warned those in the area to avoid inhaling smoke from the fire at its height. “Hopefully everyone is okay down there,” said De’Shawn Evans, who lives in the area. “I actually use that junkyard sometimes for extra change here and there if I need it or I have scrap lying around. So if it’s a loss, that’s bad for the community because it actually comes through sometimes for a lot of people.”

No injuries were reported. KCFD stayed on scene throughout the night to oversee hot spots. Some significant areas of fire were deep-seated in piles of rubble and junk, requiring heavy equipment to uncover for extinguishment.

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VIDEO: When a building fills with thick, black smoke, visibility drops to zero. For firefighters, every second counts. But that reality is starting to change for the Corpus Christi Fire Department.

I got a chance to try on this helmet, part of a new QWAKE technology system designed to help firefighters see through smoke and complete darkness. “Built in infrared camera that’s into the helmet. That really kind of sees through smoke,” said David Zarate, assistant fire chief.

The technology gives firefighters an advantage in times where the naked eye can’t keep up. And it doesn’t just help the firefighters inside.

Firefighters in the truck can monitor exactly what the firefighter wearing the helmet is seeing, giving staff real-time visuals during a fire.

Fire Captain Loosemore says before this, searches were often done without being able to see what was right in front of them.

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PHOTOS: Images of firefighters at work, along with a Bald Eagle, American flag and stars are featured in a mural designed and painted by Warren County artist Daniel Guevara which adorns the side of Hawtree Volunteer Fire Department in Wise.

In the center of the design is the image of a Hawtree fire truck with flames behind. The mural also salutes the fire department’s place in the Warren County community as Station No. 8.

For Guevara, the mural is meant to show everyone now and for years to come that firefighters, like members of Hawtree Volunteer Fire Department, are heroes. “The most important element of the design is the fire truck,” he said. “It is a great honor to show people that heroes are here.”

Guevara has completed several artistic projects in the Warren County community. The first large mural was one he completed at Mill Hill Brewery in Warrenton three years ago in tribute to Hillmon Poythress. In the middle of 2025, he completed a mural on the back of the Bragging Rooster Beer and Mead building.

After he completed the Bragging Rooster mural, he told the newspaper that the art he has created in Warren County represents a renaissance, or re-energizing of his lifelong talents and interest in art that began shortly before he immigrated from Colombia several years ago.

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PHOTOS: Video shows Wyoming firefighters carrying a small child to safety and helping two adults escape a third-floor apartment during a fire Monday night.

The Wyoming Fire Department is still investigating what caused the fire, which broke out around 8:45 p.m. at Crossroads Apartments on Clyde Park Avenue SW near 44th Street SW. When crews arrived, they found smoke and heavy flames that were moving toward the roof. Then, they learned there were people trapped on the third floor.

Helmet video released by the fire department Tuesday shows crews hurrying to put a 35-foot ladder up to the window of the apartment where the people were. “Do not jump,” firefighters can be heard telling a woman in the apartment. “There’s a ladder coming up.”

“Help me,” the woman said as she handed a child out of the window to a firefighter. “Thank you. Thank you guys. My baby, please, my baby.”

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VIDEO: At a UPMC training center in Lemoyne, Cumberland County, EMT Matt Warner counts out loud with elbows locked and pushing hard and fast. Teaching strangers how to save a life is what he does for a living. Last year, though, Warner became the one who needed saving.

“[During the] Farm Show [in] 2024, I was working in our first aid office. I was perfectly fine that morning, and then, next thing I know, I’m on the ground looking up,” Warner said. Co-workers rushed in, starting CPR and grabbing an AED.

“They did chest compressions on me for about three or four minutes. They delivered one shock and continued chest compressions for another minute or so, and then I woke up there,” he said. At the hospital, doctors discovered a blockage in his heart and put a stent in the then-43-year-old.

Warner says survival often depends on who’s nearby. Bystander CPR saves lives, but research shows only about 20% of people actually step in during an emergency. He says this is, in part, because of fear and myths they potentially see on TV.

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PHOTOS: Firefighters at the Great Jones Street firehouse in Lower Manhattan, New York, were in the midst of a shift change on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.

By the end of the day, 10 of the 14 firefighters from the station that houses Engine Company 33 and Ladder Company 9 would be killed, and the cab of Ladder 9’s truck would be crushed by falling debris.

Nearly 25 years later, the truck Ladder 9 firefighters used to rush to the scene of the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history is being restored at 10-8 Emergency Vehicle Service in New Holland.

For Jon Bredbetter, a service technician at the company that sells, repairs, and customizes emergency vehicles, the work has become a passion project. The U.S. Marine Corps veteran said he was excited by the idea of helping restore a piece of history.

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PHOTOS: Approximately 85,000-86,000 chickens died in a fire that consumed an industrial chicken coop in the late-night hours of Jan. 17 and early-morning hours of Jan. 18 in Cherokee County. Valleytown Fire Department Chief Justin Hyde told News 13 that crews were called to Andrews Valley Poultry Farm at 617 Taylors Creek Road in Andrews at 9:18 p.m. on Jan. 17.

Hyde said the owners of the facility told him there were about 85,000-86,000 chickens in the building at the time of the fire. No staff were in the facility, and all the chickens died, Hyde said. “It was a 60 feet by 600 feet commercial structure. When crews arrived, the fire was 50% involved. We requested a county-wide response for tankers,” Hyde said.

“It took us about six hours to put out the fire. Crews were there until about 3 a.m. Saturday morning.” Hyde said the cause of the fire is still under investigation and that the fire caused an estimated $5 million in damages. “No people were in the building at the time of the fire. No firefighters or any other personnel were injured in the fire,” Hyde said.

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: The Southwest Fire District has teamed up with Harvester Homecoming Inc. to revive a piece of local history. The Southwest Allen County Fire District announced in a press release that it is collaborating with Harvester Homecoming Inc. to restore a 1941 International K-7 fire truck, the first fire truck that the department ever purchased.

Formerly the Wayne Township Fire Department, Southwest Fire purchased the truck from the Fort Wayne International Harvester Truck Works and used the workhorse vehicle until the mid 1960s, when it was auctioned off. A gentleman from Arkansas reached out to the fire department in 2007 after he purchased the pumper truck at an auction in Texas.

He tracked down the department by the name painted on the doors and asked if they wanted the historic truck back, and they did. Since bringing the truck back home again in 2007, officials have weighed what to do with it and how to get it back in working order. Recently, Southwest Fire District Chief Donald Patnoude and Assistant Chief Thomas Goodwin met with Harvester Homecoming CEO Ryan DuVall, and the restoration is already underway.

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VIDEOS: Four Baltimore firefighters were injured when a firetruck crashed on an icy road late Sunday night, according to department officials. The firefighters were taken to a hospital as a precaution and later discharged, officials told WJZ.

Officials said the crash occurred around 11:30 p.m. as the crew was responding to a single-box alarm. At Chesapeake Avenue and Maude Avenue, the firetruck slid on an icy patch of road and hit a parked box truck, officials said.

Four firefighters were evaluated for minor injuries and taken to local hospitals, according to officials. As of Monday afternoon, the firefighters had been discharged. The cause of the accident remains under investigation. The crash happened as parts of Maryland were experiencing icy road conditions and dangerously cold temperatures following light snowfall over the weekend.

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PHOTOS: Multiple fire departments worked to put out a massive fire at the closed Georgia-Pacific plant in Emporia. The heat from the blaze on Thursday night could be felt across the city according to residents online. Residents were also encouraged to check on their own properties as embers blow in the wind.

The plywood plant at 634 Davis Street abruptly closed last May. A former employee familiar with the building tells 12 On Your Side the fire started on the side of the building after a leftover pile of materials caught on fire. The Greensville Volunteer Fire Department got to the facility around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Volunteer fire departments from Emporia, Dolphin, Lawrenceville, and more worked overnight to calm the blaze. Fire Chief Jeff Rowlings of the Greensville Volunteer Fire Department said among their biggest concerns were the propane tanks around the facility.

Although several propane tanks did explode, crews did not have to evacuate, according to Rowlings. The blaze also caused brush fires along Highway 58 near the plant’s blaze. Rowlings said there were around 10-12 brush fires crews had to put out, stretching as far as two miles away from the plant.

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VIDEO: Lee Ryan and Will Grow met about 16 years ago as research volunteers at the Fireman’s Hall Museum in Old City. They are united in their mission to preserve the past. “We go all the way back to Ben Franklin and the Union Fire Company,” says Will Grow, volunteer researcher for the Fireman’s Hall Museum.

And by their brotherhood in the fire service. “I was a volunteer firefighter in Oaklyn, New Jersey,” says Lee Ryan, volunteer researcher with the Fireman’s Hall Museum. “I’m the vice president of the fire department.” He’s been a member of the Oaklyn Fire Department for 59 years, serving in various roles, including chief in the 1980s. Grow was a Philadelphia firefighter for 30 years, retiring in 2016 as a lieutenant.

“I spent most of my career at Engine 16 over in West Philly. I got promoted and then every three years rotated to a different company,” says Grow. Their work is important to the museum’s overall mission. “We are not only giving positive fire prevention messages, but we’re telling the history of the fire service,” says Brian Anderson, firefighter and curator at the Fireman’s Hall Museum. “We tell the story of firefighting in Philadelphia.”

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The flames die down. The sirens fade. Firefighters peel off their gear, thinking the danger has passed. But in the quiet aftermath, another enemy lingers, an invisible film of “forever chemicals” clinging to jackets, pants and masks.

Researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, have developed a way to see what the eye cannot. A simple wipe test reveals per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on protective gear without damaging it.

Published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the study, completed in partnership with senior co-author Natalia Soares Quinete, Ph.D., a researcher at Florida International University, offers a practical tool to help firefighters reduce exposure to chemicals linked to cancer.

“Think of it as turning on a blacklight in a dark room,” said Alberto Caban-Martinez, Ph.D., D.O., M.P.H., deputy director and investigator at Sylvester’s Firefighter Cancer Initiative (FCI). “Suddenly, you see what’s been hiding all along.”

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Crews responded to a large apartment fire early Thursday morning in north Houston near Greens Road, close to Bush Airport. According to officials with the Houston Fire Department, the fire started just after 3 a.m. and was upgraded to a second-alarm fire, prompting additional firefighters and resources from neighboring departments to assist.

Fire officials said the flames have been knocked down, but crews will remain on scene monitoring for hot spots. Two ladder trucks were still positioned at the complex as a precaution, though no water was actively being sprayed. Authorities said about 10 apartment units were a total loss. It is unclear whether all of those units were occupied at the time of the fire.

The Red Cross was on scene assisting families who were displaced. Fortunately, fire officials said no injuries or fatalities were reported, and residents were able to get out safely. Investigators are still working to determine what caused the fire. Officials said it is not yet known whether the fire was intentionally set or if it may have been related to a heating source.

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PHOTOS: Ever since the sixth-generation Ford Bronco debuted for the 2021 model year, The Blue Oval has been keen to use it to help give back to the U.S. Forest Service and other entities that help out in terms of preventing forest fires, preserving the wilderness, and conducting search and rescue missions. It has done this via the Bronco Wild Fund and by creating some special Broncos outfitted for such purposes, including the Bronco Filson Wildland Fire Rig Concept and the Bronco Wildland Firefighting Command Rig.

Now, Ford continues those efforts by announcing a new collaboration with the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), dubbed Bronco “Answer the Call.” This new initiative is designed to help close the resource gap for volunteer rescue teams in the U.S. by identifying and donating three upfitted Ford Bronco SUVs to deserving search and rescue operations. The donated vehicles will be Ford Bronco Badlands models equipped with the Sasquatch Package, purpose-built to handle everything from high-altitude peaks to dense, mud-laden forests.

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VIDEO: A local firefighter is back at home recovering after a stroke paralyzed half his body. His journey to walk again hasn’t been easy. Some recoveries are about learning how to live again, but for Paul McNabb, his recovery journey is about fighting his way back to the life he already loves, as a firefighter in both Guilford and Alamance Counties and a paramedic in Alamance County.

It started on a quiet drive home, fresh off a 24-hour firefighting shift, when a body trained to save lives suddenly sent a warning of its own, “I instantly knew I was having a stroke,” Paul McNabb said. McNabb didn’t hesitate. He turned around and drove to the nearest hospital, seven minutes away, racing the clock before the damage could set in, “an entire side of your body going numb? Not normal. At all. Ever.”

What followed were days in intensive care, therapy and uncertainty, and somehow, even there, moments of lightness, “I could still speak, but you couldn’t understand much of what I was saying.” Through it all, he never lost his laugh. But for a moment there, the man who runs toward emergencies couldn’t walk at all, “honestly, when it happened, I didn’t think I was gonna walk again. I didn’t think I was gonna do anything again.”

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Crews from multiple departments responded overnight Tuesday after an intense fire destroyed multiple modular structures in Cahokia Heights. The fire broke out a little before 2 a.m. on the 3900 block of Mississippi Avenue. The incident involved an abandoned business and several construction site trailers.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, they encountered an active fire in one of the buildings that had begun to spread. At least two double-wide trailers and a single-wide trailer were burned in the fire.

According to officials, crews faced multiple challenges while trying to put out the fire, including the lack of nearby hydrants and windy conditions. At least nine fire departments responded, with operations extending over a extended period.

The fire is out and an investigation into the fire is ongoing. Officials have labeled the fire as suspicious due to there being no electricity near the abandoned business or trailers. At this point, no injuries have been reported.

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VIDEO: The Ogden Fire Department has a new tool to help meet people in the unsheltered community where they are. This week, the department launched a mobile outreach clinic to give immediate medical care to people experiencing homelessness.

“In our hearts, we need to love them and care about them,” said Ogden City Fire Chief Mike Slater. “And that’s the approach we took. We just want to help people get the right health care, and what we do know is taking someone to the emergency room is not always the best care for that individual.”

It started off with a new initiative last year. Slater said most of the calls for service to the fire department come from the Lantern House homeless shelter. So, through state grants, the department hired a medical advocate to be on-site full-time and help with triage, medication and setting people up with the right medical care. The department said it has been successful so far.

“It’s been a huge relief, especially to our staff and the clients,” said Lauren Navidomskis, the executive director of the Lantern House, “knowing that more than those service workers and the law enforcement agencies, like, there’s a community that’s wrapping behind them.”

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VIDEO: The Rapid City Fire Department’s Cadet Program has been providing firefighter training to high school students for a couple of years. Each year, around 10 high school students from the Black Hills get to experience what it is like to be a firefighter both in the classroom and in the field.

“Before we started the cadet program, we didn’t have a good way to engage high school students; it just didn’t exist for us. So this has been a great opportunity,” RCFD Firefighter EMT & Cadet Mentor Jim Bussell said. While this is an introductory program, learning to react like a professional is the goal.

“A smoky burning building, you know, with a mask on your face, you’re always having to communicate and let others know what’s going on around you. So that was one of the biggest takeaways for me was communication. It really just opened up a lot of career paths for me. One of the biggest ones being Wildland, that’s something I think I want to do after college,” 2024 cadet graduate Carson Bussell said.

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