VIDEO: Officials believe that a fire that destroyed a home on the west side of town may have been intentionally set. San Antonio firefighters responded to the 600 block of Torreon Street near Guadalupe Street around 1:15 a.m. Tuesday for reports a home on fire. When crews arrived at the home, it was completely engulfed in flames. The home was determined to be a total loss due to a collapse on one side of the home and burning throughout. Firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading to homes on either side of the burning structure and no injuries were reported. Officials say the homeowner was at the scene during the fire and they believe the fire may have been intentionally set, but they will still investigate because their proof is circumstantial at this time.  

The Central Fire Station of the Killeen Fire Department is a full-purpose building designed for long shifts. The kitchen area, with different refrigerators for firefighters working various shifts, the sleeping areas and even fitness equipment donated by Planet Fitness all showcased the unique and embedded qualities of being a firefighter, which is that it is not a 9 to 5 job. Perhaps that is why it is no surprise that family members who watched their parents grow up as firefighters feel drawn to the job. Recently, Jacob Ables became a full-fledged Killeen firefighter and had his badge pinned on him by his mom, Toni, who is also a firefighter with Killeen Fire Department. In an interview with the Herald on Friday, Toni described fondly the memories she has of raising her son Jacob, who himself graduated from the academy and started working as a firefighter in August at the age of 19.  

VIDEO: The war in Israel continues to rage on presently. However, one firefighter in Midland got a first hand experience of the conflict. His name is Preston Wright, a captain at Midland Fire Station 3. Wright was volunteering as part of the nonprofit "The Emergency Volunteer Project." There, he learned how the Israeli Fire Department worked while helping where he could as part of a combined training mission. While it wasn't his first time there, it would become a trip he wouldn't forget. "May of 2023, Gaza attacked Israel with some rockets," Wright said. "We deployed over, we went into the south, we went into Ashdod and Gan Yavne, to those two towns, and helped them out while we were being attacked." An app on Wright's phone warned him of incoming rockets while he was asleep in his motel.  

Fire damaged a historic hangar early Tuesday at the former Tustin Air Base in Orange County. The fire was reported at about 1:30 a.m. near Valencia Avenue and Armstrong Road, where flames were shooting through the roof of the towering wooden hangar. Parts of the roof fell to the ground, and firefighters took up positions outside the hanger, which is typically empty, due to the threat of collapse. The fire authority called in a helicopter to help fight the fire, something fire officials said was unheard of. The Chinook helicopters are used to fight wildfires. Details about a cause were not immediately available. No injuries were reported. "We have determined the most operationally sound method is to allow the structure to collapse, at which point ground crews can move in closer, and aggressively work to extinguish the fire," the Orange County Fire Authority tweeted.  

VIDEO: The long-awaited North Little Rock Fire Station No. 8 is officially up and running following years of work and months of setbacks due to the March 31 tornado. NLR voters approved a half-cent sales tax back in 2017 to fund this new fire station, and it was almost complete prior to the spring tornado. Now, months later, it is finally up and not only in a convenient spot for the city, but it is said to also be better for firefighter health. The new station has all the bells and whistles, with two drive-through bays and one back-in bay to store additional fire trucks and response vehicles. Fire Chief Gerald Tucker said it also comes with some potentially life-saving features. "This station's designed with three zones: the hot zone, which we're in now, the warm zone and the cold zone, which keeps carcinogens in this area," he explained Monday.  

VIDEO: On this day in 1996, one of the country's worst-ever distillery fires began. At the Heaven Hill warehouses in Bardstown, Kentucky, a fire started in the afternoon on Nov. 7 that eventually destroyed nearly 100,000 barrels of bourbon. A storm was brewing in the afternoon, with winds clocking in at 70 mph. The fire began in one of the dozens of wooden warehouses that stored thousands of barrels of aging bourbon. Once it had started, the fire became almost impossible to stop. The fire jumped between warehouses, incinerating the wooden holds fed by their extremely flammable contents. Hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene to be met with walls of flames 20 stories high, which quickly gave way to an 18-inch deep river of burning bourbon. The weather conditions seemed just to enrage the fire, with the wind acting as a blowtorch.  

The Central Fire Station of the Killeen Fire Department is a full-purpose building designed for long shifts. The kitchen area, with different refrigerators for firefighters working various shifts, the sleeping areas and even fitness equipment donated by Planet Fitness all showcased the unique and embedded qualities of being a firefighter, which is that it is not a 9 to 5 job. Perhaps that is why it is no surprise that family members who watched their parents grow up as firefighters feel drawn to the job. Recently, Jacob Ables became a full-fledged Killeen firefighter and had his badge pinned on him by his mom, Toni, who is also a firefighter with Killeen Fire Department. In an interview with the Herald on Friday, Toni described fondly the memories she has of raising her son Jacob, who himself graduated from the academy and started working as a firefighter in August at the age of 19.