firefighters

Cuban firefighters are working with special teams sent by Mexico and Venezuela as they battle for a second day to control a fire blazing at a big oil tank farm. The area’s governor says efforts Sunday are focusing on preventing the flames from spreading further. Authorities say one firefighter is dead and others are missing since lightning struck a storage...

Firefighters are battling a blaze in central California which has already burned nearly 17,000 acres and was only 10% contained as of Monday morning.

President Joe Biden has signed off on giving federal wildland firefighters a hefty raise for the next two fiscal years. The move announced Tuesday affects more than 16,000 firefighters and comes as much of the West braces for a difficult wildfire season. Pay raises for the federal firefighters had been included in last year’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill, but they...

Attorney General Maura Healey is joining the nationwide tsunami of lawsuits against companies that manufacture ubiquitous forever chemicals contained in firefighting foam in hopes of getting the chemical companies to “pay back every last dollar our state has spent on their products to clean up the contamination.” Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made chemicals that do not break down…

An ambulance was hit by a pickup truck while driving to the scene of another car crash on I-93 Wednesday morning in Wilmington, Massachusetts. The crash occurred near Exit 35 around 4:30 a.m., the Wilmington Fire Department said. Wilmington Fire and EMS were heading to a car crash on I-93 southbound, north of the Route 125 exit. The ambulance was…

Over 1,000 firefighters backed by bulldozers and aircraft battled the largest active wildfire in the U.S. on Saturday after strong winds pushed it across some containment lines and closer to a small city in northern New Mexico.

Firefighters responded to a brush fire that spanned across two acres in Southbury Saturday morning. The blaze happened in the area of South Flat Hill. Responding crews extinguished the fire with the help of mutual aid. The fire department said the area was thoroughly wet down. No injuries were reported. There’s been a high fire danger over the past...

Firefighters returned to a multi-family home in Lynn, Massachusetts early Sunday morning to manage billowing smoke after the home was destroyed by a fire on Saturday. Several people are without a home after flames completely engulfing the 2.5-story wood-framed residential building on Broadway and sparking a brush fire in the woods behind it that encompassed multiple acres. The house fire…

The fire on Broadway Street started around 11:30 a.m. Saturday.

Firefighters encountered serious water issues Saturday as they battled a massive blaze that destroyed a multi-family home in Lynn, Massachusetts, and sent one firefighter to the hospital. Flames broke out around 11:30 a.m. and spread fast, completely engulfing the 2.5-story wood-framed residential building on Broadway and sparking a brush fire in the woods behind it that encompassed multiple acres. All…

Firefighters are sounding the alarm about potentially cancer-causing chemicals in their turnout gear and the foam they use to fight fires

Fifteen retired and active-duty firefighters from Massachusetts say in a federal lawsuit filed against two dozen companies that so-called “forever chemicals” in their gear and in firefighting foam manufactured by the businesses contributed to their cancer diagnoses. The firefighters from the Worcester, Norwood, Brockton, Fall River and Boston departments allege in the suit filed Tuesday that the class of chemicals…

As fire and EMS departments across Vermont and the country struggle to attract and retain personnel, the issue is getting high-level attention from the chair of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. “I think it’s going to require a combination of federal, state, and local efforts,” observed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who held a roundtable discussion on the issue this...

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, said he was especially concerned about the issue in rural areas that depend on volunteers to respond to emergency calls.

Winston-Salem firefighters warned that chemicals at the site could cause a large explosion.

A Colorado firefighter jumped in to help a dog who’d fallen through ice into a frigid pond.

Fire officials investigated high carbon monoxide readings in an elementary school Monday morning in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The Duxbury Fire Department was called to Alden Elementary School, at 75 Alden Street, for a possible gas leak. The Alden School custodial staff made the call after noticing an odor in the gym Monday morning, Duxbury Interim Superintendent Danielle Klingaman said in a statement....

Baltimore’s fire chief says three firefighters were killed and a fourth was injured when part of a vacant home collapsed while they were battling a blaze

The fire started at a unit on the third floor. The residents were vacated out of the building around 5 a.m.

A house fire in Nahant, Massachusetts, has left two people hospitalized and a firefighter injured. Firefighters responded to the house fire, where people were trapped inside, on Maple Avenue around midnight Friday morning, Christmas Eve. They were able to rescue two victims, according to Nahant Fire Chief Austin Antrim. A man in a wheelchair was found in a bathroom and…