VIDEOS: Four people were injured, including two firefighters, and 14 residents were displaced after a massive house fire spread to two neighboring buildings Thursday morning on the city’s Southwest Side.

Firefighters responded to a large fire at a home on Laflin Street near 45th Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. The fire spread from the original home to two neighboring buildings before crews were able to bring it under control around 6:45 a.m.

Two civilians and two firefighters were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, and a total of 14 people were displaced.

Just under 100 firefighters responded to the scene. Fire officials credited them with preventing even greater damage.

“The crews here did a phenomenal job,” a fire official said at the scene. “Their quick actions protected the exposure buildings from being complete losses, and again, if it wasn’t for their quick action, we would have had a much bigger incident here.”

WFLD-TV FOX 32 Chicago

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VIDEO: Every year, thousands of firefighters are deployed across the Wild-Urban Interface (WUI) to battle wildfires.

In this zone, where homes and communities meet or intermingle with undeveloped wildland, are more than 40 million homes at risk.

Recognizing the growing need for education and awareness surrounding WUI fires, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) has released a new Safety INSight video designed to educate both the fire service and the public on these fires and the advances being made to prevent future destruction.

Safety INSight first launched in 2021 as an educational video series to bring awareness to fire safety advancements, lessons learned, and best practices across the fire service industry. The goal of the series is to reduce risk, prevent injuries and fatalities, and ultimately save lives.

“At the NFFF, an important part of our mission is prevention—both firefighter injuries and line-of-duty deaths,” said Victor Stagnaro, CEO of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF).

National Fallen Firefighters Foundation

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PHOTOS: The heads of several firefighters poked out over the edge of the highest roof of Intermountain Health St. Mary’s Regional Hospital, above the 12-story patient tower, Tuesday morning looking down at the sheer brick wall below them.

Throughout the morning, those firefighters practiced anchoring ropes to the building, attaching safety systems and ultimately throwing their legs over the edge of the building and rappelling down it.

These were the first group of Grand Junction Fire Department firefighters to go through a specialized training this week to prepare local first responders for rescues on the side of a building.

“We’re doing rope rescue training called pickoff rescues,” Grand Junction Firefighter Paramedic Josiah Brown said. “We’ll be going off the top of St. Mary’s using rope systems to lower a rescuer part way down the building to access someone that is suspended from the side of the building either from ropes or on scaffolding — whether they’re doing window washing, maintenance work, installation, things like that.”

These types of rescues are considered “low-frequency, high-risk incidents,” Brown said, which makes training for them important. He said they often practice the necessary skills, but rarely at the height of the St. Mary’s building.

Grand Junction Sentinel

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PHOTOS: A fire that broke out late Tuesday night at a condominium complex in north east Bellevue forced firefighters to withdraw from the structure after part of the roof collapsed, a fire department official said. Fire crews responded just after 11 p.m. to reports of a condo fire in the 1700 block of 159th Avenue NE, according to Bellevue Fire.

When crews arrived, they found heavy fire coming from the roof of two units. About 30 minutes into the firefight, the roof collapsed, prompting firefighters to exit the building for safety. The fire was finally brought under control shortly after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. All occupants evacuated safely, and no injuries were reported, the department said.

KOMO-TV ABC 4 Seattle

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Fire crews battled a house fire in Lynnwood Tuesday evening, extinguishing it in 15 minutes with no serious injuries. South County Fire Department firefighters responded to a fully involved fire on the 6900 block of 190th Street Southwest in Lynnwood around 7:48 p.m.

When they arrived, the blaze had fully engulfed the house, according to South County Fire officials. One resident of the home self-evacuated and was treated for minor smoke inhalation, but not transported to a hospital.

The house had “many items” that initially made the firefighting response challenging, but crews tackled it in about 15 minutes. However, the house was seriously damaged. The cause of the blaze is under investigation and Snohomish County Fire Marshals will investigate.

KING-TV NBC 5 Seattle

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