An industrial fire southwest of Mansfield near Lillian sent balls of fire and plumes of smoke into the air Thursday. The fire was reported after noon along the 12500 block of Farm-to-Market Road 917, about 2.5 miles west of Business U.S. Highway 287. Several large balls of fire were seen bursting through the roof of the building in the industrial park. It's unclear what started the fire or what materials were in the building. No injuries have been reported.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: The Corpus Christi Fire Department has arrived on North Beach with boats in tow, ready to evacuate flood victims. According to Fire Chief Kenneth Erben, the Fire Department started conducting welfare checks Thursday morning. Several parts of North Beach are underwater after Wednesday's tropical storm, and several people are seen walking through knee-high water. According to one resident we spoke with, he's lived at the Harbor Apartments on North Beach for seven years, and this is the worst flooding he's ever seen. Overnight, several people from North Beach were evacuated from their homes due to the high waters. Five of them were taken to a shelter set up at the Natatorium on Saratoga, the rest found other accommodations.  

VIDEO: The Smyer Volunteer Fire Department is running out of space to store its lifesaving equipment. It's hosting a cornhole tournament this weekend, to raise money for a larger station. Chris Bradberry has been the chief at the Smyer VFD since 1997. He's been volunteering, though, since 1988, and says since then, the department has grown. "We're hoping to expand, we've got some things going on. Right now, we're just out of room, and the biggest problem is we're landlocked," he said. The fire department with three truck bays shares a building with City Hall, so Bradberry says space is tight. Lifesaving equipment like an 8,000-gallon water tanker, which serves multiple communities, is having to sit outside. "We have a mutual aid with Lubbock County, Terry County and Hale and Cochran County, pretty much anybody that needs us, we can bring water," Bradberry said.  

An industrial fire southwest of Mansfield near Lillian sent balls of fire and plumes of smoke into the air Thursday. The fire was reported after noon along the 12500 block of Farm-to-Market Road 917, about 2.5 miles west of Business U.S. Highway 287. Several large balls of fire were seen bursting through the roof of the building in the industrial park. It's unclear what started the fire or what materials were in the building. No injuries have been reported.  

VIDEO: When Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Theresa Kinstle joined her first fire station at 27 years old, she was the only woman on the fire truck; she never thought she would end up as a chief down the road. "I didn't originally think that I wanted to be a firefighter until I started EMT school," Kinstle told First Coast News. "And I had another instructor that said, 'Hey, what about fire school?' Once you came in, it was a big family. And the guys treated me just like anybody else." Kinstle's 20-plus year career in firefighting has led her to now become the division chief of training, thus making her the highest ranked woman with JFRD. "With fire rescue, everything's different," Kinstle mentioned. "Every call you go on is different. You have to use your mind, you have to figure out what's going on with the patient and how you can help them, and that sparked an interest for me. And I've loved it ever since."  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Longtime firefighter Dan Steffensen picks up the brightly colored orange book, holds it in his hands, flips through the pages and lands on a spot to read aloud. "I had to remind him that he was strong," Steffensen said. Those were words said to him at a critical time in his recovery in the summer of 2021 when he was badly burned while fighting the Harris Hill fire north of Joliet. That day, the winds changed, and he was met with a wall of fire. He was rushed to Salt Lake City to recover from his extensive burns, learning to eat and walk again, healing mentally as well as physically. Fast forward three years later, and his story now lives in the pages of a book titled "Burned Over! The Survival of Montana Firefighter Dan Steffensen". It took 21 months for Steffensen and Montana author A.J. Otjen to tell it.  

VIDEO: The destruction from a massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, spread far beyond the initial wreckage site, spewing "hazardous" pollution across 16 states, according to a newly released study. On Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine -- a village on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania -- sending toxic chemicals into the air, soil, creeks and lakes in the region, according to the study published in Environmental Research Letters on Wednesday. In total, the pollution from the wreckage and subsequent controlled burn of several of the train's cars spread over 16 states in the Midwest, Northeast and Southern U.S., reaching 540,000 square miles or 14% of the U.S. land area, according to the study.