VIDEO/PHOTOS: The Smokey Bear Historical Park will celebrate its 50th year May 1-2, 2026, in Capitan, New Mexico, birthplace of Smokey the Bear.

The free, two-day festival will also celebrate Smokey the Bear’s birthday with fire prevention and conservation exhibits, a parade, the annual firefighter challenge, food, vendors, game, and family-friendly activities.

Events are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at the park, 118 Smokey Bear Blvd., Capitan, about 166 miles from El Paso.

Smokey Bear was the living symbol of fire prevention for more than 25 years. The American black bear was orphaned during the May 1950 Capitan Gap Fire in Capitan. The months-old cub was found and rescued by U.S. Forest Service workers.

The Capitan Gap Fire started May 4, 1950, likely from a carelessly tossed cigarette, and burned for a week. Authorities said 14,000 acres of mostly federal land burned in the fire.

The original reporting of the bear cub’s story referred to him as Hot Foot Teddy as in this May 12, 1950, article: “Hotfoot Teddy,” the almost well-browned brown bear cub, is going to be all right.

HFT, about a month old, was flown here Wednesday in a private plane after Forest Service men found him on a rock slide, all four of his tiny feet badly burned in a forest fire on Capitan Mountain.

Dr. Edwin J. Smith, Santa Fe veterinarian who carefully bandaged HFT’s blistering paws, said the cub will be hospitalized until his seared footpads heal, then turned back to the Forest Service. Eventually, Hotfoot Teddy is expected to be released in some wilderness area.

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PHOTOS: Santa Fe Drive was closed in Littleton as firefighters with South Metro Fire Rescue extinguished a fuel tanker fire Monday morning.

The fire began around 5:30 a.m. Monday in the 4800 block of South Santa Fe Drive, according to Littleton Police. That’s near South Santa Fe Drive and West Belleview Avenue.

South Metro Fire Rescue said the fire involved a fuel tanker on northbound Santa Fe Drive, just north of Belleview. The fire involved a potential hazmat component and a hazmat team was on scene, according to South Metro Fire.

South Metro Fire Rescue said they were letting the fire burn out, but monitoring to ensure the fire did not reach any structures, including a U-Haul business.

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Six firefighters were injured, including one seriously, while fighting a blaze in Queens on Thursday. FDNY officials say the fire broke out around 6:45 p.m. in a vacant, two-story rectory, then spread to a vacant church next door. Both are over 100 years old.

Officials say 84 units and 270 fire and EMS personnel responded to the five-alarm fire. A thick wall of smoke swallowed the neighborhood as the firefighters tried to knock down the raging flames, but the flames were relentless.

Debris rained down on top of New York’s Bravest after part of the roof collapsed. Six firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including a firefighter who was struck in the head by falling debris from the collapse. He is conscious and alert, and is expected to be OK.

“Once the fire gets into these old churches behind the walls and into the roof space, it’s very difficult to extinguish, and there was major collapse danger to our members,” said FDNY Chief of Fire Operations Kevin Woods.

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VIDEO: A North Carolina diver found a firefighter’s gold necklace after he lost it in Myrtle Beach. Firefighter Marshall Marler and his wife, Shannon, were on their annual trip to Ocean Lakes Family Campground earlier in April.

Marshall took off his necklace to put on some sunscreen, but he forgot to put it back on before leaving the beach. “I called her, and I was like, ‘You didn’t, by chance, happen to put my necklace in your bag, did you?’” Marshall said. “She was like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So, I was like, ‘Well, it’s probably in the sand.’”

So, Shannon posted in an Ocean Lakes Facebook group, hoping someone would find the necklace. “I put it out there, just in hopes,” Shannon said. “He was just like, ‘It’s gone. I’m done. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m sad.’ I just felt like, ‘Hey, it’s worth a shot.’”

Recovery specialist John Connor, who loves diving and metal detecting for what he calls “treasure,” saw that post. He drove all the way from Calabash, North Carolina, to Myrtle Beach to help Marshall.

Connor searched for hours, in the middle of the night and into the morning, until he went closer to the water. “Right at the water’s edge, it was just a dusting over,” Connor said. “Anybody could’ve kicked it, and it would’ve shined right out into the sun.”

Marshall said he is grateful Connor found the necklace, especially because his parents gave it to him almost 30 years ago.“It was a gift from my parents for making the commitment to wanting to join the fire department,” Marshall said. “So, my mom even called me the other day, and she was pretty excited about me getting it back.”

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PHOTOS: A fiery crash shut down southbound U.S. Highway 281 near Evans Thursday evening. All southbound lanes were closed, but have since reopened.

One driver was pulled from a vehicle and taken to University Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The other driver was pronounced dead at the scene after their vehicle caught fire.

The crash happened just before 7 p.m. Investigators believe alcohol may have been a factor. A police sergeant at the scene said a truck towing another truck was traveling in the far-left lane when it struck a safety barrier, causing both vehicles to overturn and catch fire.

Witnesses reported hearing honking moments before the crash and told authorities they believe road rage may have played a role.

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VIDEOS: Huge plumes of smoke blanketed swaths of the Southeast on Wednesday as crews battled rapidly growing wildfires that destroyed more than 50 homes in Georgia and forced hundreds to flee the drought- and wind-fueled flames.

Some of the biggest blazes were near Georgia’s coast, while others were popping up in northern Florida, a state facing one of its worst fire seasons in decades.

It was not yet clear how the wildfires started, but the bottom half of Georgia is perilously dry and the conditions prompted the state’s forestry commission to issue a burn ban for the first time in its history.

Southeastern Georgia has seen just 11 inches (28 centimeters) of rain since the beginning of September — almost 15 inches (38 centimeters) below normal, the National Weather Service said.

The fires spread so quickly in that area that residents received no warnings or alerts. “I wish that I had knew something more,” said Brianna Elliott, who left home Tuesday only to find her route back blocked by the fires 90 minutes later.

“I would have turned around in that moment and gone home and got my animals before anything.” She now fears that her home and her dogs are gone.

Georgia’s two biggest wildfires together have burned more than 53 square miles (137.3 square kilometers), and crews responded Wednesday to 34 smaller fires newly burning across the state, the state’s forestry commission said.

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The names of 204 firefighters who died in the line of duty will be added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial during the 45th National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, May 2–3, 2026, as families, fire service leaders and communities across the country gather to honor their lives and sacrifice.

The congressionally established National Fallen Firefighters Memorial, located on the campus of the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, serves as the nation’s official monument honoring firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

Newly honored firefighters are permanently added to the memorial each year during Memorial Weekend. Hosted by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF), the annual Memorial Weekend brings hundreds of Fire Hero families, fire service leaders, government officials and supporters together for ceremonies of remembrance, reflection and national tribute.

“The loss of these 204 fallen firefighters is felt most deeply by the families and loved ones left behind. They were parents, partners, colleagues and friends who will forever be remembered for their bravery and their devotion to duty,” said National Fallen Firefighters Foundation CEO Victor Stagnaro.

“During the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, we will add their names to the National Memorial, ensuring they are remembered by a grateful nation.” This year’s honorees, known as the Roll of Honor, include 97 lost in 2025 and 107 from previous years.

“For 45 years, this weekend has allowed us to collectively pause to reflect and remember those who always answered the call to protect our communities without hesitation,” said Troy Markel, Chair of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Board of Directors.

“As we honor their lives, this moment is also about giving their families and departments our unwavering support. We stand tall beside them with gratitude and respect. Their Fire Hero will never be forgotten.”

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Orange County fire crews battled a three-alarm fire in Stanton Wednesday afternoon that started at a row of detached garages before spreading to an apartment complex.

Residents were evacuated from the complex, and no injuries were reported.

According to Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Greg Barta, the fire was first reported at 11:15 a.m. in the 750 block of Katella Avenue.

Sky5’s Rich Prickett was above the scene shortly after noon as units burned. Capt. Barta said the fire started somewhere in the garage area behind the apartments before spreading to units.

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Two people were killed and thirteen others injured after a fire swept through a five-story building in the Bronx on Tuesday afternoon. Twenty-four children and 53 adults were displaced and registered for emergency assistance by the American Red Cross.

The FDNY was called to a five-story building at 660 East 187th St. between Belmont and Cambreleng Avenues in the Belmont section of the Bronx on Tuesday afternoon. The three-alarm fire prompted a response from nearly 200 fire and EMS personnel, according to officials.

The fire was upgraded to a fourth alarm just before 3 p.m. and a fifth alarm just after 4 p.m. Officials say there was extensive fire damage throughout the building, including a collapsed roof, damage to the rear and front facade, and structural damage to the interior staircase.

Officials determined that the building was not safe to occupy and ordered a Full Vacate Order. A Partial Vacate Order was issued for the rear yards of two neighboring buildings; however, this only impacts the use of the rear yards, according to the Department of Buildings.

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VIDEO: A fire truck and a car collided head-on in Milwaukee, leaving two people hospitalized and the fire engine destroyed by flames.

The crash happened around 2 a.m. at the intersection of 13th Street and Layton Avenue, near the airport. According to Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski, the fire truck was traveling south on 13th Street, returning to headquarters from a call a few blocks away, when a car heading north crossed the center line and struck the fire truck head-on.

The collision caused the fire engine to burst into flames. Firefighters inside the truck were able to escape before the fire engine caught fire and immediately assisted the two occupants of the car. One person was removed using the jaws of life.

Both car occupants were taken to the hospital. Their condition remains unknown. The fire chief emphasized how the fire engine’s structure protected his crew.

“I’ve seen some pretty bad hits, you know, the out-of-control drivers and whatnot. I will tell you this much. You can look, you can look at that fire engine right there. You can look at that other vehicle. If our members were in any other vehicle, they are probably dead right now,” Lipski said. “So the structure of this fire engine probably saved our members’ lives tonight.”

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PHOTOS: Fierce flames erupted in a furniture store off McKinley Avenue in Mishawaka. Flames and smoke were seen rising from the store for several hours as firefighters battled the blaze.

“This looks so crazy. Like, I ain’t never seen nothing like this before,” Said Lovon Hopper, bystander. “We just started to hear booming, and then saw the smoke in the air. You could literally smell it, taste it, almost,” said Brandon Varda.

“We saw everyone just making a detour by the fire department. So we parked to see what was going on, and we saw just the big flames, and we just heard it all come crashing down,” said Megan Martinez, bystander.

Massive flames rising from an AAA Mattress and furniture just before 5:30 p.m. during a heavy thunderstorm. Multiple units responded, including Mishawaka, South Bend and Clay Township.

Those at the scene said it was not just the sight but the sounds that were concerning. According to firefighters, there was a large storage of lithium-ion batteries in the building, potentially the source of the booms people were hearing.

Those nearby said they had no idea what the noise was. “When we got close, we just started hearing like a lot of booms, like fireworks. Sounded like some gunshots, but it was this,” said Ethan Martinez, bystander.

According to police, while they do not know if anyone was in the building when the fire broke out, they said no one was hurt, and employees stopped anyone from getting hurt by calling 9-1-1 right away.

“They did the right thing. Called us out, and we were able to mitigate the problem. It’s definitely noted that to get out and let us take care of it, not to go in and try to solve the problem,” said Josh Courtney, Mishawaka Fire Department battalion chief.

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PHOTOS: Law enforcement responded to a reported blowout at an oil well drill site in rural southern Nacogdoches County.

According to the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office, the fire was reported before midnight Tuesday in the 15000 block of Farm-to-Market Road 226, north of Etoile.

Around 11:17 p.m. Monday, law enforcement said there were multiple reports of a loud explosion. A KTRE viewer’s drone could spot the flames glowing in the sky from 20 miles away in the city of Nacogdoches.

Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the Texas Division of Emergency Management, Texas Dept. of Public Safety, the Nacogdoches County Sheriff’s Office, Etoile Volunteer Fire Dept., Nacogdoches Fire Depart., and multiple other fire crews.

“There is currently no danger to local residents from the fire, and air quality in the area is being monitored as well,” said Kevin Meyer, the incident public information officer from the City of Nacogdoches.

Sheriff’s deputies met with workers at the oil well who evacuated after the fire. No injuries were reported. “Deputies met with workers at the oil well site who had evacuated from the scene with no injuries reported,” the sheriff’s office said.

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When wildland firefighters are on prescribed fires, they’re breathing the same smoke and facing many of the same hazards found on wildfires, but they don’t get the same hazard pay. That could soon change.

Resolving that disparity has been a longstanding demand of wildland firefighters. Last week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management proposed to do just that, and acknowledged the real dangers of prescribed fire.

“Prescribed fire duties expose employees to open flame, radiant and convective heat, smoke, unstable terrain, fire-weakened trees, and other physical, chemical, and biological hazards during ignition and patrol phases,” the recent Federal Register notice read. “Safety practices and Personal Protection Equipment…reduce—but cannot eliminate—these risks.”

“The hazards of a prescribed fire are very similar to the hazards of a suppression fire,” said Max Alonzo, secretary-treasurer of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a union that represents many federal wildland firefighters and has advocated for this change.

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PHOTOS: Fire crews from multiple towns battled a fast-moving overnight fire that damaged three homes in Ridgefield Park. The fire broke out around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday in the rear of a home on Brinkerhoff Street and quickly spread to two neighboring houses, according to fire officials.

Flames fully engulfed portions of the homes, and a vehicle in a driveway was also destroyed as the fire intensified. All of the residents inside the homes were able to get out safely, the fire chief said.

Several firefighters suffered minor injuries during the response. They are expected to be OK. Assistant Fire Chief Michael Alberque said crews faced challenges as the fire spread from one building to multiple structures.

“When it went into the second and third structure, it becomes an issue,” Alburque said. He said crews had to stretch water supplies from multiple hydrants because of the size of the fire and nearby trees.

By about 5 a.m., the fire appeared to be under control as crews began winding down operations. There was no immediate word on how the fire started.

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Dozens of people are without homes after a massive overnight fire tore through several buildings in Newark’s Ironbound neighborhood, injuring six firefighters and displacing nearly 60 residents.

Firefighters spent hours battling the blaze after it broke out late Friday night in a commercial building on Jefferson Street before quickly spreading to at least three neighboring multifamily homes.

Video from the scene showed heavy flames shooting through windows as crews worked to contain the fire.

“I started seeing smoke coming out of the building,” witness Jose Marte said. “As soon as I went over there, there were families and dogs coming out. There were a lot of kids.”

Officials said the fire began around 10:30 p.m. More than 100 firefighters responded as flames rapidly moved through multiple structures.

Neighbor Douglas Gamez said the fire spread fast, breaking windows and engulfing floors within minutes.

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VIDEO: April 18, 2026, was the 120th anniversary of the great 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, memorialized and remembered at 5:14 a.m., the exact time when the earthquake struck.

Proceeded by a foreshock, the magnitude of the incident, which occurred before monitoring and scaling became standardized, is often debated as a 7.7 to 8.3 magnitude event lasting 42 seconds. Perhaps most remarkable, it was reportedly felt from Los Angeles to Oregon to central Nevada. The earthquake occurred on the San Andreas fault, impacting some 280 miles of the fault line and impacting multiple communities.

Over the years, fatality estimates have been revised for the entire region. It is now believed that some 3000 people were killed, placing this earthquake in the top 10 most catastrophic, deadliest and destructive events in the nation, slightly above the 2,974 victims of the 9/11 who died in the terrorist attacks on New York City in 2001.

While San Mateo County miraculously reported no fatalities, it did sustain significant damage to many structures. Locally, in Menlo Park and Atherton, significant and major structural damage and collapse was visible at Saint Patrick’s Seminary, Sacred Heart School and Duff and Doyle’s Mercantile Emporium Store, but fortunately all were spared from fire, despite being heavily damaged.

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VIDEO: Pennsylvania State Police say one woman and six children died in a house explosion early Sunday morning in Clinton County.

Police identified the victims as 34-year-old Sarah Stolzfus, an 11-year-old boy, a 10-year-old boy, an 8-year-old girl, a 6-year-old girl, a 5-year-old boy, and a 3-year-old boy.

Emergency crews said they were dispatched around 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning to the home on Long Run Road in Lamar Township.

They say when they got there, the home was already fully engulfed in flames. State police said the victims were trapped inside the home.

According to investigators, the explosion was caused by a propane leak in the home. The Pennsylvania State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit in Montoursville is now investigating.

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VIDEO: A fire was tearing through a townhouse apartment complex in Woodbridge, New Jersey Friday morning.

The fire broke out on the third floor and was seen shooting through the roof of Woodbridge Center Plaza on Plaza Drive just before 5:45 a.m.

Residents were evacuating as firefighters arrived. Firefighters initially battled the blaze from the inside but were forced to turn it into an exterior operation due to the heavy flames. No injuries have been immediately reported.

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Rodney Marshall will be Boston’s first Black fire commissioner, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Thursday. He will take over when current Commissioner Paul Burke retires at the end of the month.

“I’ve seen firsthand his steady leadership, sound judgment, and commitment to our mission,” Burke said of Marshall. “He is a good choice by the Mayor—and he will be a great commissioner.”

Wu commended Marshall for his “quick thinking and bravery” and explained he had “earned trust every step of the way” in his 35 years with the department.

“As a lifelong Bostonian, he knows our communities, has demonstrated his leadership on the job, and has devoted his career to serving and protecting our residents. It’s my honor to appoint him as our next Fire Commissioner,” Wu said in a statement.

Marshall, a Dorchester native and Boston College graduate, will become the 45th fire commissioner in the city’s history. He is currently the Deputy Fire Chief and Chief of Operations.

“I love this department, and I love this city,” he said.

He explained that the job is all about “teamwork” and emphasized the importance of firefighters’ place in the community. Marshall vowed that all firehouses will be open in the summer.

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VIDEO: In an effort to combat the high rates of cancer and chronic stress inherent to the profession, fire departments across the Phoenix metropolitan area are increasingly adopting “Recharge Rooms,” specialized wellness suites designed to accelerate physical and mental recovery for first responders.

What began as a pilot program in Gilbert has expanded rapidly. In just two and a half years, the concept has grown to reach 21 cities across six states, offering a 33-minute recovery circuit that includes red-light therapy, saunas, and cold plunges.

The initiative targets a grim reality for firefighters: members of the service are 9% more likely to develop occupational cancer and 15% more likely to die from the disease than the general population. For veterans like Capt. Joe Sperke, a 28-year veteran of the Gilbert Fire Department, the rooms have been life-altering.

Before the program, Sperke said he woke up in pain nearly every day and relied on medication to sleep. “I don’t wake up in pain. I don’t take sleep medication anymore,” Sperke said. “It was a huge benefit for me. I utilize it every day and we encourage people to use it as often as possible.”

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