PHOTOS: The Wrangell landslide happened in an instant. Somewhere high on a hillside above Zimovia Highway, the slope started moving. In a matter of seconds, a river of mud fanned out and ran for nearly 4,000 feet, crossing the beach and spilling into the water. On its way, it tore up more than 37 acres of land. People living there had little warning — just the sound of the slide. It buried two houses, leaving five people dead and one still missing. According to state geologist Barrett Salisbury with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, it's extremely challenging to give warning for disasters like this. "We're always going to be surprised by a landslide event," said Salisbury. "We could give you an estimate of where we think the hotspots for future activity could be — would be — but there's no guarantee."  

Two people were seriously hurt after flames ripped through a building in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Just before 1:30 a.m., firefighters responded to a multi-unit apartment complex in the 4700 block of South Wolcott Avenue. Heavy smoke poured from the front door and windows on the first floor. Flames reached the second floor of the complex. A 47-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy were taken to Stroger Hospital with burns. The woman is in critical condition and the teen remains in fair condition. A resident said he was able to escape in less than three minutes. "I was asleep, I woke up to commotion around 1 or 1:30, I wasn't sure what was going on," Juliano Rivera said. "Flames just kind of came out of the window, I got whatever I could and got out." The Red Cross will arrive later this morning to help displaced residents.  

PHOTOS: On a hot September day in Texas Hill Country, the fire picked up, its flames popping the Jeep's burning tires and airbags like plastic chip bags. Thirty or 40 feet away, a crew of firefighters, law enforcement, and forensic anthropologists watched the burning wreckage from the safety of a white canopy, while a firefighter in full protective gear waited, his hose at the ready. Inside, a figure sat motionless in the passenger seat. Until the fire began, the crew's choreography — setting up temperature-gauging thermocouples, readying cameras, unspooling the firehose — evoked a buzzing film set. Now all was still but the melting car. After several minutes, a thermocouple on the Jeep's ceiling read 1,100 degrees, triggering a timer. At that temperature, termed a flashover, heat becomes so intense that anything capable of catching on fire does.  

VIDEO: Two Grand Rapids firefighters are being credited for finding a case of human trafficking while attending a conference in Traverse City. Battalion Chief Ed Brayman and Equipment Operator Nate Bazen were at an EMS instructor conference in March when they saw a woman who needed their help. "It was much like today. Kind of cold, snowy out and she had a very light jacket, spring jacket on. Kind of in the corner of the front entrance of the hotel. Duct tape on her shoes," Bazen said. They did not immediately suspect human trafficking but quickly came to that conclusion after speaking with the woman, who was hesitant to talk. "We just let her know that we were Grand Rapids firefighters, that she didn't have anything to worry about, that if somebody needed help, we're there to help," Brayman said.  

A creative holiday-themed video by the Red Wing Fire Department has officially gone viral. As of Monday, December 18, the Facebook video has been seen more than 2.1 million times.