Firefighters who rescued five people from a Sunday morning apartment fire described the moments they pulled a family to safety as flames destroyed the building.

Christopher Carter – a Chatham County firefighter – said he saw people hanging out a window when crews arrived around 4 a.m. “I literally just set up the ladder right here and prepared for rescue,” Carter said.

Body camera footage captured the family’s cries for help, met with calm but direct directions from Chatham County Police officers. The fire destroyed the entire building and left families without their belongings. Each family however, says they are thankful no person was majorly injured.

Joshua Anderson – Chatham County Fire’s Safety and Training Chief, said he watched Carter and captain John-William Farrell develop throughout their careers.

“Assigning them those tasks to do, I had the confidence in them to do it,” Anderson said. “That’s what we prepare for, for situations like this. The crew that actually made the rescue out the window were all back there, we were doing this same scenario at 2 o’clock that afternoon before.”

Two county police officers and two county firefighters worked together to make a complete rescue. Every neighbor affected by the fire has been offered a new room. Stephen Frazier, who saved his dog Dutchess, was moved to a one-bedroom unit in another building.

WTOC-TV CBS 11 Savannah

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VIDEO: Many volunteer fire departments rely on members who’ve grown up in their community. But for the Factoryville Fire Company in Wyoming County, some helping hands came from across the pond.

“We just said, ‘Oh, so how’s the fire service work here?’ Then, he said, ‘ Oh, it’s all volunteer.’ We were like, could we volunteer? And he was like, yeah. And so we did,” said Former Factoryville Volunteer Firefighter Alex Boirand.

While playing soccer and pursuing a degree at Keystone College in 2007, Alex Boirand and Jamie Ellis of England became volunteer firefighters.

“It was something I always wanted to do when I was younger is be a fireman before we came over here. So coming to college and then having seen it, we had an opportunity to do it here,” said Former Factoryville Volunteer Firefighter Jamie Ellis.

Nearly two decades later, the two men came back for an alumni soccer game at their alma mater and to take a quick tour of a newer Factoryville fire station.

WNEP-TV ABC 16 Scranton

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VIDEO: A morning fire in an electrical room at Boston Medical Center in Brighton prompted hospital officials to evacuate dozens of patients to other hospitals on Wednesday, officials said.

Fire officials say the fire was first reported in an electrical room around 1:30 a.m. but has since been brought under control. There were no reported injuries.

Because the fire knocked out power to some parts of the hospital, 26 patients were being transferred to other hospitals, including Boston Medical Center’s main campus. Twenty-four of those patients were in the Intensive Care Unit, two were transferred from the emergency room.

Family members of those who were transferred to other hospitals have been notified. The hospital is currently being powered by a generator while repairs are being made and it is operating under a Code Black, which means no ambulances are bringing patients in but people can walk in if they need help.

As a result of the incident, some planned elective procedures and outpatient appointments are being rescheduled. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

WHDH-TV 7 Boston

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VIDEO/PHOTOS: Dozens of cars burned Saturday afternoon in Cahokia Heights at a tow lot fire, creating a large smoke plume visible from St. Louis. ‘We had the whole back lot of a tow company on fire,” Cahokia Fire Department Deputy Chief Jordan Simmons said.

“They were moving vehicles around with heavy equipment and struck the battery on a hybrid vehicle which caused the fire.” “A lot of smoke. You can actually see it from in the far distance, so I came down to see what was going on and just a lot of flames,” witness and former Kinloch fire deputy Se’an Whiteside said.

According to the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, the cars were on fire at Patterson Towing LLC at 499 N. 73rd St. At least 10 fire departments responded to the scene, including Midway, Camp Jackson, Cahokia, East St. Louis, Prairie Du Pont, Church Road, Alorton, Hollywood Heights, Millstadt and Villa Hills.

Deputy Chief Simmons said it took crews at least 8 hours to extinguish the flames. “The hydrant wasn’t enough to supply the amount of water that we needed at the time. We had to call in tankers, and in doing so, we’ve flown 60,000 gallons of water. About 20 trips, tankers in total,” Simmons said.

The owner of the tow lot said an electrical issue sparked the fire and damaged at least 100 cars. The owner told 5 On Your Side that the tow lot mainly contained junk cars being scrapped. Despite the fire, he plans on reopening the business soon.

KSDK-TV NBC 5 St. Louis

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Two Lexington firefighters have made and continue to make world history in the Firefighter Challenge League. Both Sarah McGill and Andrew Cook received awards in the 2025 Firefighter Challenge Championship Series.

The Firefighter Challenge League is an official sporting league designed for firefighters across the nation, regardless of their experience or status, to receive recognition for their emergency services.

Each year, the league hosts the Firefighter Challenge Championship Series, a set of competitions allowing firefighters across the nation to compete with each other in different obstacle courses. Participants in each challenge are timed based on how fast they can complete the criteria for each specific obstacle course.

According to the Firefighter Challenge League, both firefighters are members of the Firefighter Challenge League Lion’s Den, an award and honor for athletes who can meet a certain amount of criteria.

In 2021, McGill received the award for a female to have a run-time less than or equal to three minutes. In 2022, Cook received the award for having a run-time less than or equal to 100 seconds.

WTVQ-TV ABC 36 Lexington

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