Authorities say three men are hospitalized with injuries after a house under construction exploded in East Bethel on Monday morning, trapping them inside.
One man was transported by air ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center, two by ground ambulance. Their conditions are unknown, Anoka County sheriff’s office Lt. Bill Jacobson said in a statement.
Deputies and East Bethel firefighters were called to the scene in the 2800 block of Viking Boulevard Northeast just before 8:30 a.m. and discovered that the three men were trapped in the house. Rescue operations began with assistance of the North Metro Special Rescue Team. Allina paramedics and Life Link EMS also responded to the scene.
The cause of the explosion is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office, Anoka County Fire Investigation Team, Anoka County Sheriff’s Office and East Bethel Fire Department.
A massive fire broke out at a Chicago Heights warehouse on Monday morning.
Multiple departments have been dispatched to assist with the in the south suburb, ABC7 reported.
Roads in the area have been closed.
According to FOX 32, the fire broke out around 6 a.m. at Big Daddy Scrap Yard at 1111 Washington Ave., and spread to Arsco auto repair shop and a furniture manufacturer Morgan Li.
It was upgraded to a two-alarm fire around 7:30 a.m.
The Gresham community is mourning the loss of a veteran firefighter.
On Friday, Firefighter Brandon Norbury collapsed during a training session. Despite immediate treatment by fellow firefighters, he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital.
He had been with the department since 2008. Prior to that, he was with the Gresham Police Department, according to KATU.
Feb. 5—A Maui firefighter died Saturday morning from injuries suffered when he was swept into a storm drain Jan. 27 while responding to flooding in Kihei.
A Maui firefighter died Saturday morning from injuries suffered when he was swept into a storm drain Jan. 27 while responding to flooding in Kihei.
Maui County officials announced the death of 24-year-old Tre’ Evans-Dumaran in a news release that included a comment from his mother, Chelsie Evans.
“We want to thank the entire community for the outpouring of love during this time. My heart tells me that Tre’ wants to say thank you for loving his family, his fire ‘ohana, his friends during this time. He’d want people to keep giving blood, to keep doing your part as a hero, in the way he lived every day on Earth, ” her statement said.
Evans-Dumaran and other Maui Fire Department personnel were responding to calls about flooded residences in South Maui amid heavy rain along windward areas of the island from Haiku to Hana in East Maui and on the southern slopes of Haleakala that funneled runoff down to the Kihei coastal area.
Evans-Dumaran was caught in a 4-foot-wide storm drain and swept approximately 800 yards to where it empties into the sea. Firefighters found him unresponsive on the shoreline. They began administering CPR and were joined by an American Medical Response ambulance crew before Evans-Dumaran was transported to Maui Memorial Medical Center in critical condition.
Fighting severe lung damage and other complications, Evans-Dumaran had been on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit. Early updates from his family on a GoFund Me.com webpage set up for the firefighter indicated he was making progress toward recovery, including responding to commands to open his eyes and giving a thumbs-up once taken off sedation. However, his condition worsened late last week.
As of Saturday afternoon, over $123, 000 in donations had been made via GoFund Me.com.
Evans-Dumaran’s family and friends also continued to urge supporters to donate blood through another website, , which provided a link to make an appointment with the Blood Bank of Hawaii.
Maui Fire Chief Brad Ventura called news of the firefighter’s death “devastating.”
“The amount of support from throughout our community and beyond Maui has been incredible, ” Ventura said in the county news release Saturday. “We’ve all felt the depth of aloha and it makes all the difference. Tre’ loved being a firefighter and he loved those he worked with. Serving the community came naturally to him because he was so happy to serve people.”
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. offered his condolences to Evans-Dumaran’s family and acknowledged the daily risks faced by emergency responders as they serve the community.
A decade after five Virginia Beach firefighters battled the flames after the crash of a Navy FA-18, they have something else in common — cancer.
The fire was dubbed the “Good Friday Miracle” as all the souls aboard as well as those in the apartment complex the jet hit survived.
While no one can say for sure that the crash is the culprit behind the cancer diagnoses, the toxic brew that filled the air and littered the ground that day was extremely hazardous, according to an investigation conducted by 13NewsNow.
“There is a handful of us who have developed some type of cancer and we’ve all been to the jet crash and that’s pretty eye-opening,” said Capt. Chris Isdell, who was also diagnosed with non-invasive follicular thyroid cancer in September.
Surgery successfully removed the cancer in the 31-year-old, who was a rookie at the 2012 fire.
“It was taken care of with just surgery, didn’t have to do any kind of treatment, it’s just going to be constant monitoring and scans,” he said.
Virginia Beach Chief Kenneth Pravetz told reporters: “When things burn, it’s a whole different game. You know, the chemicals were there when it started, but when things burn, the carcinogen effects of the chemicals and the burning and the meltdown, it creates complex new chemicals that you really don’t understand.”
Capt. Matt Chiaverotti, 44, was diagnosed last summer with late-stage anaplastic thyroid cancer, a rare disease making up 1% to 2% of thyroid cancer cases.
It’s taken its toll and sometimes he doesn’t have enough energy to get out of his recliner.
The department has been spearheading safety improvements in the years since the crash, “We’ve gotten second sets of turn-out gear. The hoods we wear now actually have a barrier in them now to protect our necks,” Chiaverotti said.
Virginia Beach Professional Fire and EMS president, Max Gonano, who has been leading the charge for changes, has become the department’s resident expert on the jet crash and the hazardous agents it produced. Over the years, he’s been in touch with everyone from the military to scientists and officials at the Department of Defense.
“The Virginia Professional Firefighters, which is our state affiliate, has designated naming thyroid cancer, melanoma, bladder and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to the named cancers for presumptive benefits for firefighters. We have a lot of friends in Richmond and we’re hoping that we can get this legislation accomplished but we’re not going to stop until we do,” Gonano told the reporters.
The state list right now includes leukemia, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, throat, ovarian, breast, colon, brain or testicular cancer. And there is promising news.
State Sen. Bill DeSteph, whose district covers a portion of Virginia Beach, has vowed his support behind expanding the list of presumptive cancers. “It’s directly related to their line of duty, and it should be covered,” he told reporters.
A bill that expands the workers’ compensation presumption of compensability for bladder and thyroid cancers is making its way through the General Assembly, having already passed the Senate unanimously.
Six hazardous chemicals were present at the jet crash, including hexavalent chromium, the contaminant featured in the 2000 movie, “Erin Brockovich.”
Other hazards include but weren’t limited to Americum-241, Xylene, Triphenyl phosphate, jet fuel and cadmium.
Chief Pravetz said the focus now is to increase screenings for cancer and for levels of poly-fluoroalkyl (PFAS) among the firefighters. PFAS, linked to cancer, is present in turnout gear as well as foam used to quell flames.
A judge ruled the City of North Las Vegas can be held responsible in the lawsuit filed on behalf of the family of Tiffany Slatsky, the late wife of a former firefighter.
She died of a drug overdose three years ago, and Christopher Candito, her husband, was criminally convicted in her death, according to KVVU.
The city wanted its name removed from the lawsuit. However, the judge ruled that even though Candito wasn’t on duty, taking her to the fire station meant he was working under his duties as an EMT.
Instead of calling 911, Candito took her to his fire station 23 miles away from their Henderson apartment and administered Narcan, documents showed.
“Candito’s access to the fire station and the supplies with which he treated Tiffany was under the City Defendants’ control. The Court thus finds that Candito was acting in a way related to the performance of his official duties,” Judge Daniel Albregts wrote.
In the lawsuit filed in 2022, attorneys claim fire station 51, “had a reputation of being a ‘party station’ with numerous employees engaged in the purchase, sale, trade, and/or use of steroids and illicit drugs.”
The suit also alleges city superior officers and NLVFD employees failed to take actions.
Candito, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter was released on parole in November after serving 16 months.
Firefighters rescued 115 dogs from a doggy daycare after a dryer caught fire in the building, according to Washington fire officials.
The Seattle Fire Department responded to The Dog Resort on Lake City Way in northeastern Seattle just before 11 a.m. on Feb. 1 and found multiple dogs trying to escape the smoke-filled building, according to the department.
The fire department called Seattle police and animal control to help corral loose dogs and prevent them from running into the road, the department said in a statement. Nearby businesses helped provide temporary shelter for the dogs.
Seven people evacuated the building, and paramedics treated a 19-year-old, the statement says. She was in stable condition and didn’t go to the hospital.
Firefighters searched the facility for all remaining dogs. Four dogs suffered smoke inhalation, and crews used specialized oxygen masks to give them air while performing CPR, a spokesman said. They were taken to a veterinary hospital.
The doggy daycare later said that it had accounted for all 115 dogs that were staying at the facility, according to the spokesman.
BowWow Fun Towne asked owners picking up their dogs to be patient because its staff were assisting with the emergency.
Fire department investigators later determined that the fire had started in a dryer and spread to the back of the building. It caused about $300,000 in damage, according to the department.
It was a time-consuming rescue operation that involved crews from three departments.
Their patience and coordination paid off as Indy, a retired police K-9, was hoisted from the 60-foot hole.
Chula Vista’s Urban Search and Rescue Team was joined by crews from Bonita and San Miguel fire departments.
Rescue crews attempted a number of maneuvers, including sending down a number of different specialized hooks to Indy.
“But because of the way the hole was, nothing was long enough to make it down,” Ken Gilden of the San Diego Humane Society Emergency Response Team told CBS8.
In the meantime, another firefighter tried lowering a lasso to secure the frightened canine, as time kept slipping by.
“And nothing was happening, and then right at the end, the dog lifted his head and the firefighter who had the lasso was able to get it around his neck,” Gilden added, “and as soon as he did, they pulled it tight and we just brought him right up!”
Rescue crews say Indy was not hurt by the rescue procedure. However, he did have bruises and cuts from the ordeal.
