Trains come through downtown Spokane every day hauling cargo like grain, airplane fuselages, and crude oil. Depending on the cargo, a derailment could range from minor to catastrophic, but it's something local first responders prepare for. Freight transportation by railroad is statistically an extremely safe way to transport the goods that fuel our economy and feed our nation, and in some cases, the world.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KHQ-TV NBC 6

Elderly people escaped after a fast-moving fire broke out inside a detached garage in Kennewick early Friday morning. According to Battalion Chief Tod Kreutz with the Kennewick Fire Department, the fire was first reported around 1:15 a.m. near Perry Street and Kennewick Avenue. It sparked inside a garage attached to an apartment where no one was living at the time.
- PUB DATE: 1/3/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: YakTriNews.com

A house fire in the Old Evergreen Highway neighborhood late Thursday morning displaced two people, according to the Vancouver Fire Department. Firefighters were dispatched at 11:35 a.m. to 1500 S.E. 79th Court for a report of a residential structure fire. The first arriving crew found smoke billowing from the front of a single-story residence, Vancouver firefighter-paramedic Bryan Fredrickson said.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2020 8:07:20 PM - SOURCE: Vancouver Columbian

The number of people who died in fires fell by 25% last year, even as emergency crews responded to a record number of medical emergencies, the FDNY said Wednesday. Sixty-six people died in fires across the five boroughs in 2019, 22 fewer than the 88 victims in 2018, officials said. Yet the number of medical emergencies jumped by more than 2,300, bringing last year’s total to 1,531,870 — the second highest in the FDNY’s history, officials said.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News

A Birmingham firefighter who says the conditions at an East Birmingham fire station made him sick has now filed a lawsuit against the City of Birmingham and Mayor Randall Woodfin. Michael Horsley who started with Birmingham in 2006 claims he, former and current employees of the City of Birmingham Fire Department ("BFD") have been forced to work in dangerous conditions at Fire Station 27 in the Huffman area.
- PUB DATE: 1/2/2020 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WBRC-TV