VIDEOS/PHOTOS: Thirteen people were injured after an explosion was reported at a manufacturing building in East Providence on Wednesday night.

Police said they responded to Aspen Aerogels on Dexter Road at 8:14 p.m. for a report of an explosion and fire inside the facility.

Officers said they located multiple people with minor injuries inside and outside of the building. There are no reports of major injuries. Fire officials said the back of the building suffered significant damage.

“There is a process they do in the building, they do super insulation, as part of that process, the insulation is dried in basically an oven. And during that process is when the explosion happened,” said Chief Michael Carey.

It is unclear what caused the explosion. The Office of the State Fire Marshal is investigating.

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PHOTOS: Crews battled a massive fire in a 24,000 square foot mansion in the elite Los Angeles neighborhood of Beverly Crest Tuesday. L.A. City Fire started battling the blaze in the 300 block of Delfern Drive, north of Sunset Boulevard, at approximately 1:45 p.m. About 150 personnel were on scene, LAFD said. By 5:30 p.m., firefighters appeared to be getting the upper hand on the fire.

Sky5’s Gil Leyvas was over the fire at 5:30 p.m., where white smoke could be seen rising from the roof of the massive home, which was under construction. One chimney reportedly partially collapsed. Firefighters were ordered off the roof around 4:30 p.m. and operations had continued from the exterior of the structure due to safety concerns, according to LAFD.

Access to the home was slowed due to the home’s heavy construction, officials said. Firefighters worked to salvage items like artwork and other valuables from the water, smoke and flames. The fire didn’t appear to spread to any of the brush in the area or any neighboring homes. No injuries have been reported to any occupants or workers in the home, officials say. Everyone on the property is accounted for.

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VIDEO: A new interactive tool developed right here in Cincinnati is helping teach kids how to stay safe during a fire—using something many already love: video games. It all started with a visit to the Cincinnati Fire Museum.

“We went to the Cincinnati Fire Museum,” said D’Arcy Smith, director of the University of Cincinnati’s Digital Performance Lab. “It’s got a really interesting mix of both historical things to look at in terms of firefighting in general.” But during that visit with his kids, Smith noticed something missing. “My kids… there wasn’t a ton of interactive things for them to do,” he said.

So Smith, a professor at the University of Cincinnati, decided to build something himself. He teamed up with student Tyler McCall to create Fire Escape, an interactive video game designed to teach kids what to do in a house fire. “We coded maybe how to jump, and you do the rest,” McCall said. “Everything else—the house itself, every item in it, the character models, all of it.”

The team even brought the game to life by voicing characters themselves, alongside students from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College.

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Within months of becoming chief of Double Creek Volunteer Fire and Rescue in November 2025, Jimmy Brown received sobering news: His station’s well water was contaminated with PFAS at levels that exceeded federal limits.

The station in Pinnacle, northwest of Winston‑Salem near Pilot Mountain, is one of 392 rural fire departments across the state whose wells were tested for PFAS in a recent study.

Since the revelation in 2016 that PFAS, or per‑ and polyfluoroalkyl substances, were being released into the Cape Fear River by the Fayetteville-based Chemours, awareness of the chemicals has risen across the state.

PFAS have come to be known as “forever chemicals” since they resist breaking down in the environment. They also have been linked to multiple health risks.

The study was conducted by the North Carolina Collaboratory, a research group formed in 2016 by the General Assembly. The collaboratory harnesses the expertise of university researchers to address state and local government issues.

Jeff Warren, executive director of the collaboratory, which is based at UNC Chapel Hill, said researchers initially focused on collecting and destroying containers of PFAS‑laden firefighting foam under a legislature‑funded Aqueous Film‑Forming Foam Take‑Back Program.

Building on that work, collaboratory researchers decided to test wells at rural fire departments and later shared a list of stations with elevated PFAS readings with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

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PHOTOS: Firefighters battled a massive six-alarm blaze that investigators believe was intentionally set in San Bernardino County early Tuesday morning.

Multiple agencies responded around 12:30 a.m. to a fire reported at the approximately one-million-square-foot Kimberly-Clark warehouse near South Hellman Avenue and Merrill Avenue in Ontario.

Video from the scene showed flames ripping through the roof of the warehouse as first-arriving crews immediately called for a second-alarm response to bring in more firefighting resources.

The fire, fueled by paper products stored inside the facility, eventually escalated to a six-alarm incident. Units from several neighboring departments assisted the Ontario Fire Department, according to San Bernardino County Fire officials.

As of 5 a.m., firefighters had shifted to a defensive strategy, pouring water on the hours-long blaze from ladder trucks positioned around the warehouse.

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VIDEO: Some New Hampshire firefighters have started the first phase of a new medical screening program that aims to catch cancer before it becomes deadly.

Officials said they believe the state’s comprehensive approach will set a new nationwide standard. “Firefighters are conditioned to take care of everyone else first,” said retired Nashua Fire Chief Glenn Telgen. “These exams are about ensuring we also take care of our own.”

Telgen is battling pancreatic cancer. He’s urging his fellow career firefighters to participate in a new, state-funded comprehensive cancer screening program that launched Monday. Gov. Kelly Ayotte and fire service leaders from across the state gathered Monday to announce that the first firefighters started receiving their cancer screenings under the new program that morning.

Lawmakers passed a $5 million appropriation in 2024 to fund the initiative, which runs firefighters through a battery of tests, including CT scans, full-body ultrasounds and extensive blood work.

“It’s historic, because it’s the first state or province in our international union across two great countries to do something with CT scans, the diagnostic ultrasounds and the blood tests, that trifecta … is going to save lives,” said Jay Colbert, IAFF district 3 vice president.

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: Multiple couches, hay bales and other furniture met an early demise as students lit more than 40 fires across Ann Arbor after Michigan basketball’s national championship win Monday night.

Hundreds of students took over South University Avenue and nearby streets shortly after 11 p.m., April 6 to set off fireworks and climb anything they could find: light poles, shoulders, trees and fences, included.

The Wolverines‘ title, clinched in a 69-63 win over Connecticut in Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, is the second in program history and their first since 1989.

Celebrating throngs quickly moved outward into surrounding neighborhoods, dispersing into groups of students darting across darkened streets to the next party. And it didn’t take long for a soundtrack of cheering coeds and jovial car honking to have a new instrument join the medley – the wail of fire trucks.

One of the first fires came roughly 20 minutes after the Wolverine win. By 12:30 a.m., students showed no signs of slowing down, per Mike Kennedy, chief of the Ann Arbor Fire Department.

Firefighters blared their horns at cars and pedestrians alike as they rushed from one intersection to the next. Most of the fire appeared to be pieces of furniture.

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Crews battled a massive fire at an abandoned chemical factory for several hours overnight in Paterson, New Jersey. Smoke continued to pour out of the rubble throughout the day Saturday.

The flames, which began around 11:30 p.m., burned through the old facility on Piercy St. near Presidential Blvd. and the Passaic River, also damaging power lines that caused some people nearby to lose electricity.

“I was about to go to bed and looked out the window, saw the flames, felt the heat,” neighbor Ramon Pacheco told NBC New York, about the fire that also threatened nearby homes. “Just woke the wife up and the kids, and you just got out (of) the house before anything happened.”

Paterson Deputy Fire Chief Michael Cleenput says the factory has likely been abandoned for about two decades. “We had one operational hydrant and severe low water pressure. So, that took a while to really overcome and get an effective firefight here,” he said.

Other fire departments were called in to help battle the 5-alarm fire. “We were surprised to find out that after all the years of this building being vacant, that there was a live gas feed,” said Cleenput. Crews were eventually able to shut down the gas feed.

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: Two fire chiefs who were searching for a missing Berks County woman while riding on a UTV were struck and killed by a man who was driving under the influence, police said.

Fire Chief Jeffory L. Buck and Assistant Fire Chief Robert R. Shick, Jr., of the Walnuttown Fire Company, were driving in the UTV northbound on the shoulder of Kutztown Road in Richmond Township, Pennsylvania, shortly before 6 p.m. on Saturday when a Toyota Camry was seen by witnesses swerving while going southbound, police said.

Officials said the Camry swerved off of the road and hit the UTV head-on. The two firefighters died from their injuries, according to police. “You don’t really prepare yourself for an incident like this,” Walnuttown Fire and Rescue Lieutenant Ryan Tyson said. “Let alone two at the same time.”

NBC10 crews at the scene saw a red-colored off-roading vehicle on its side in the middle of the roadway and a gray-colored sedan with extensive damage off the side of the road.

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A truck driver was critically injured overnight after the 18-wheeler he was driving crashed, knocking down power lines before catching fire, police said.

Officers responded to a crash around 1 a.m. on Sunday, April 5, at a Valero gas station located at 13900 Trinity Boulevard, the Fort Worth Police Department said in a press release. The crash involved a car and an 18-wheeler carrying 9,000 gallons of gasoline, the release states.

Powerlines were knocked over in the crash, causing the 18-wheeler to catch fire, police said. The driver of the 18-wheeler attempted to stop gasoline from leaking and draining in the gas station parking lot, but the fire spread to the gasoline, causing it to ignite, police said. The driver was taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to the press release.

The fire burned for hours overnight as fire crews worked to spray the tanker with water to keep it cool, the release states. Firefighters also used foam to fight the fire, and sand trucks were used to prevent the foam from running off, police say. Crews fought the fire for six hours, leaving the scene at 7 a.m., according to the release.

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There’s heavy equipment across every corner of the Fire Engine and Motorcoach Museum in East Windsor. “We have a collection of 15 antique firetrucks and eight vintage buses,” said museum president John Gasper. As the country is recognizing its 250th birthday, Gasper is quick to point out that the collection at the museum plays a vital role in firefighting history and, additionally, Connecticut history.

“The engines are like apple pie, it’s Americana. A lot of people relate to the stuff here,” said Gasper, who then laughed, “Who doesn’t love a firetruck?” Gasper noted that the museum collection dates back 100 years, to one engine from 1926 to the most “recent”: a firetruck from 1975.

“We want to preserve the state of Connecticut firefighting and bus service, and also fire safety for kids, and bring these vehicles to kids in the community so they can get exposed to the history,” he said. Aside from visitors seeing the engines and vintage buses, the volunteers at the nonprofit museum also bring their treasured keepsakes to events like parades and public events.

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PHOTOS: Two adults and one child died in a house fire in the Sugar Creek neighborhood in Greer, South Carolina. Firefighters were called to the house on Sugar Creek Lane at 9:30 p.m. Thursday. They said two women and a child were found dead in the home. The names of the victims have not been released. The Greenville County Coroner’s Office, Greenville County Sheriff’s Office and law enforcement agencies are investigating.

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El Paso’s fire protection system has been recognized among the best in the country, with the El Paso Fire Department earning an ISO Class 1 rating from the Insurance Services Office.

The designation is the highest classification ISO grants, and fewer than 1 percent of the more than 30,000 fire departments in the United States hold an ISO Class 1 rating.

The department also continues to maintain international accreditation through the Center for Public Safety Excellence’s Commission on Fire Accreditation International, a distinction held by only 334 agencies worldwide. Only 12 fire departments in the country serving populations over 500,000 hold both recognitions.

Officials said the distinctions reflect exceptional performance in emergency response, fire suppression, communications, training, fire prevention and water supply.

This rating affirms what the El Paso community sees every day: a fire department that is fast, professional, highly trained, and ready to respond,” Fire Chief Jonathan Killings said. “It reflects years of strategic investment, accountability, and the dedication of our personnel to protecting lives and property.”

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After an electric car crashed into the Bedford tolls and burst into flames Tuesday, fire departments in New Hampshire said they have several methods to handle EV fires.

Officials said each fire is handled on a case-by-case basis, depending on the best fire suppression method. Litchfield Fire Chief Doug Nicoll said there were roughly 8,000 battery cells underneath the vehicle involved in Tuesday’s crash.

He says once one battery catches fire, the rest can quickly ignite through a process known as thermal runaway. “Thermal runaway starts a chain reaction that moves through the batteries, overheating them until they combust,” Nicoll said.

Nicoll responded to the Bedford fire and said his department is still working to determine the best ways to contain and extinguish EV fires.

“They used a fire blanket yesterday. There are pros and cons to everything,” Nicoll said. “The fire blanket worked. However, there are also other methods, like using copious amounts of water.”

After the fire blanket was applied, the vehicle was removed to Bailey’s Towing auto yard in Merrimack. Officials said the wreckage and batteries could continue burning for several weeks. In the meantime, the blanket remains on top of the car.

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The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) will attend and participate in the annual Fire Department Instructors Conference (FDIC) International in Indianapolis from April 20-25. This year’s conference carries special significance as the nation prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11.

In recognition of that milestone, the NFFF will host events to honor the firefighters who risked and lost their lives on September 11, 2001, honoring their legacies and sacrifices.

“The courage, dedication, and leadership of our nation’s firefighters inspire us every day. As we gather at FDIC International, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation is proud to honor those whose experience and training prepared them to lead on one of our nation’s most unimaginable days,” said National Fallen Firefighters Foundation CEO Victor Stagnaro.

“The training at FDIC helps ensure today’s fire service is prepared with that same level of leadership when it is needed most. From the Night of Honor to the Whelen Challenge and the 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, this week reflects our mission in action, honoring our fallen heroes, supporting their families, and working to prevent future tragedies.”

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VIDEO: After years of fighting fires, Hamburg Fire Chief Jarrod Emes recently decided to no longer focus on fires, but family.

“I wrapped up a twenty-eight-year career. The tail end of it was just a refocus on family. It’s been a long time serving the organization and community,” said Emes.

For his replacement? Well — he decided to focus on family there, too. “A lot of family history here. Departments across the county and the region, there’s a lot of family involvement and the time it takes for organizations to grow and develop,” Emes said.

Not someone above or below him, but right by his side helping the community. “We could look to each other when we knew a particular job needed to get done,” said Chief Bethany Thren.

His sister Beth is taking the helm as chief of the Union Fire Company No. 1 of Hamburg. They say there’s no sibling rivalry here, just a focus on putting out the flames. “She’s always kind of looked up to me. I think it’s really proud to pass it on,” he said.

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PHOTOS: Explosions and a large fire prompted a large response in Lebanon. Firefighters spent hours putting out flames at an industrial building off State Route 48m by Turtlecreek Union Road. The Lebanon Fire Department says it was an explosive battle, contained to an industrial garage located at the back of the property.

It happened at the R.W. Long Lumber and Box Company. Crews say the fire broke out around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night and kept crews busy for hours. Winds overnight made that even more challenging, with wind speeds around 15 mph, along with 25 mph gusts.

Officials say there were semi-tractor trailer and pallets inside the building, leading to explosions, though it is unclear what exactly was inside. Fire crews described the challenges they faced.

“With something like this, a house would be a whole lot easier,” Asst. Chief Derek Harper, with Lebanon fire, explained. “This takes a lot of manpower, it takes a lot of guys, it takes a lot of water, it takes a lot of time. We had to bring in front loaders to dig through all the debris, tear down some of the walls, dig through the pallets so that we could finish putting the fire out.”

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PHOTOS: On March 30, 1925, a fire swept through Mammoth Hot Springs that destroyed a number of buildings and a fleet of Yellowstone National Park (YNP) vehicles.

As park officials were preparing for the summer season, an oil furnace exploded in the blacksmith shop located within the Yellowstone Park Transportation Company’s maintenance building. Buses of Yellowstone Preservation Trust, a Montana-based historical organization and museum, posted to its social media account on Monday recounting the devastating fire that took place 101 years ago and destroyed over 80 vehicles.

“The explosion quickly scattered burning fragments all over the shop,” the post reads. “Fanned by a strong wind from the south, the fire spread quickly and completely destroyed a large number of park vehicles and the garage in which they were housed as well as machine, paint and top shops, and several homes with one being that of F. E. Kammermeyer, Transportation Superintendent. All were destroyed within an hour.”

According to the Preservation Trust, no fatalities occurred, and some mechanics who tried to save the garage and vehicles received only minor burns. The following vehicles were lost in the fire, totaling $500,000 in replacement costs: 22 White touring cars, 27 White TEB buses, 26 White model 15-45 buses, six trucks and several other vehicles that belonged to the Yellowstone Park Camping Company.

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Families were forced out of their homes after a fire broke out early Wednesday at an apartment complex in southeast Oklahoma City. Flames could be seen shooting out of the roof of a building at the complex near Southeast 44th Street and Sunnylane Road. Fire crews told KOCO 5 that at least eight apartments were involved, and at least two families are now without a home.

Authorities are working to determine how many people were inside the units when the fire started. “Initially we had a report from the on-scene security that the father said his daughter was missing, and we searched for her,” Battalion Chief Shane Williams said. “Did a primary and secondary (search) with negative results on both of them. We’re uncertain where she is at this time.” An investigation into what caused the fire is underway.

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VIDEO: The San Bernardino County Fire Department tested new technology on Monday designed to help suppress fires by using sound waves. The live demonstration, which was conducted with Sonic Fire Tech, showcased the cutting-edge system that was developed by former NASA acoustics engineers.

“This technology works without water or chemicals, creating a protective zone that can stop ignition in milliseconds while avoiding the collateral damage often seen with traditional suppression methods,” a news release from SBCoFD said. “From autonomous early detection to rapid suppression, tools like these have the potential to reduce fire damage before it starts, especially in wildfire-prone areas.”

Remington Hotchkis, the Chief Commercialization Officer for Sonic Fire Tech, said that all fires need oxygen to burn, and that their technology breaks it up instead of completely removing it, which could end up being dangerous.

“We vibrate the oxygen at a rate where fire can’t consume it, and it breaks the chemical reaction,” Hotchkis said. “We use infrasound, which are sound waves that are inaudible to the human ear.” Firefighters said that the technology can also be applied inside homes and businesses and could help stop fires like kitchen or appliance fires in their earliest stages.

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