VIDEO: Large fire burns house boats at marina in Arizona

Fire crews have put out a large fire that engulfed several boats at the Lake Powell marina on Friday afternoon. The blaze started at the B Dock at Wawheap Marina. Video shows heavy black smoke and flames covering some boats docked and several floating in the water. Officials say between 10 to 12 boats have burned so far. It’s unclear what sparked the flames or if anyone was hurt. Robert Wilkes, the owner of Skylite Houseboat Management, said the fire began in the early afternoon and grew for about an hour and a half. Wilkes, a trained firefighter, used a garden hose and worked with park rangers, who he said arrived soon after the boats ignited, to help put out the fire. “I started pulling boats off the dock trying to create a gap so it didn’t act like a tree line,” he said.
KTVK-TV CBS 3 & KPHO-TV CBS 5 Phoenix (AZ Family)

Texas fire department trains as sumo wrestlers with Shogeki Sumo

PHOTOS: Firefighters have to keep up with their training and the Atascocita Fire Department decided to try out a new training method to improve their performance: sumo. On Sunday, firefighters took to the ring with Shogeki Sumo Wrestlers to hopefully learn new techniques to apply when fighting a fire. Sports teams do the same thing to help with their performance. For example, athletes try cross-training, football linebackers try ballet for their agility, and basketball players use yoga for flexibility. "It’s definitely a little outside of the box. When you think of firefighters or sumo wrestlers, you wouldn’t normally consider their skill sets linked, but in fact, the forces acting upon the athlete or firefighter are very similar," said LT Keith Sagray, who organized the training event.
KRIV-TV FOX 26 Houston

Volunteer firefighters, emergency service workers in New York county get a tax break

Niagara is the latest county to provide property tax breaks as a way of attracting volunteer firefighters and emergency service workers. The county legislature approved a new law allowing a 10% property tax exemption on property owned by a member of a volunteer fire company, fire department or voluntary ambulance service, or spouse of a member, at its May session. “Members of volunteer fire departments and ambulance corps provide valuable services to the people of Niagara County,” the law states. “In order to be certified and recertified, such volunteers must undertake numerous hours of training on their own time and often their own expense.” State real property tax laws were amended in 2022 adding a provision allowing for the exemption to combat low volunteer first responder rates.
Niagara Gazette - Metered Site

Remembering the plane fire in Ohio that claimed 23 lives 40 years ago

VIDEO: On June 2, 1983, 23 passengers died in a fire onboard Air Canada Flight 797. The flight was coming from Dallas, Texas, and heading to Toronto, Canada, when the cabin crew discovered smoke in a rear lavatory. According to the aircraft accident report, the crew attempted to extinguish the hidden fire before contacting air traffic control and declaring an emergency. As smoke filled the plane, pilots made an emergency landing in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. The fire disabled virtually all cockpit instruments, forcing the pilots to land the plane while flying blind. The airport's fire department immediately began firefighting operations after the plane landed. Passengers and flight attendants quickly exited the forward doors while the captain and first officer exited through their cockpit sliding windows.
WXII-TV NBC 12 Winston-Salem

‘Bit of a mystery’: 7 Arizona firefighters test for elevated levels of arsenic

Firefighters in Casa Grande received concerning test results when nearly half of a hazmat team tested for elevated levels of arsenic during their annual heavy metal testing. None of the seven firefighters knew they had high levels of the naturally occurring chemical that can cause cancer. Six of the seven are stationed at the same firehouse in Casa Grande. “That was our immediate concern that something in the station was doing this,” said Casa Grande Fire Department Chief Dave Kean. Kean said he gave bottled water to the team and paid an independent lab to test the water at the firehouse. The results obtained by Arizona’s Family came back clean. Now, he’s trying to find the link between firefighters with arsenic in their system. “We are doing some, lack of a better term, contact tracing,” he said.
KTVK-TV 3 & KPHO-TV CBS 5 Phoenix (AZ Family)

Rising from the ashes: Why an antique fire truck in Colorado was worth restoring

VIDEO: There are currently about 45 fire trucks and engines in service with the Denver Fire Department. But one engine in particular, that no longer fights fires, holds a job that might be comparable in importance. And there was a time that it might have been lost forever. “If it could talk, it would be a bedtime story that would last a decade,” retired Denver firefighter Dan Farley said, smiling when referencing his 'passion' for nearly 15 years. Farley is the director of the Denver Firefighters Museum. Part of his job includes the upkeep of several antique fire trucks that call the museum home. The centerpiece of that collection is Engine Number Four. “It was used for public relations for the museum,” he explained. The so-called ‘rig’ is from the 1950s, and was used by the museum until one day in May of 2012.
KMGH-TV ABC 7 Denver

North Carolina firefighter survives 8th heart attack, saved by fellow firefighters while responding to call

VIDEO: Firefighters save lives. But Friday night, the team at Chesterfield Fire Rescue in Burke County had no idea they’d be saving one of their own. A call came in sending firefighter David Hart to a camper trailer fire on Bristol Creek Avenue this past Friday. Hart was first to arrive and was preparing the water pumps when he noticed he didn’t feel right. When he collapsed, his fellow firefighters rushed to help him, immediately starting CPR and using a defibrillator to bring him back to life. “It was under five minutes, but it felt like eternity,” Amanda Buff, who first performed CPR on Hart, said. “This is like an everyday thing for us. We respond to cardiac arrests all the time, but it feels more personal when it’s one of your own people.” Hart said Friday’s scare was his eighth heart attack, and said he was dead for almost five minutes before his team resuscitated him.
WBTV CBS 3 Charlotte

Texas firefighter proclaimed ’World’s Strongest Firefighter’

Firefighter Andrew Burton won the title of 2023 World's Strongest Firefighter at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, Ohio, competing against firefighters from as far away as Great Britain and the Czech Republic. "Firefighting and being a strongman are both important to me," Burton said. "I don't only want to identify with my work. I feel like I am both a firefighter and a strongman. Both are about moving efficiently. Being a firefighter and strongman complement one another." During the two-day event, Burton competed against more than 120 men and women to earn the title of "World's Strongest Firefighter." As a seasoned strongman competitor, he came into the competition with a winning strategy: Have a good time. "You don't need to blow all your energy in the preliminary competition," he said.
Red Lake Nation News