Charlotte-Mecklenburg is hosting its second annual diversity, equity and inclusion conference, and the opening speaker is no stranger to breaking barriers. Synthia Kearney never remembers seeing a female firefighter when she was growing up, but today she is the first female battalion chief for the Gastonia Fire Department.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSOC-TV ABC 9 Charlotte

VIDEO: It started like any other November day at the Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown until disaster struck in 1996 and a wooden warehouse went up in flames. WHAS11’s Sky11 chopper raced to the scene as smoke billowed above. Water did little in the fight against burning bourbon and within minutes, the first warehouse was a total loss.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WHAS-TV ABC 11 Louisville

Mental health continues to be a growing concern among first responders. Molly Doyle never knows when that call is going to come. None of them do. It's the nature of being a firefighter. "My job is to drive the engine to whatever call that is," said Doyle, who is a firefighter with the Unified Fire Authority.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KSL-TV NBC 5 Salt Lake City

The crowd deaths at a Houston music festival added even more names to the long list of people who have been crushed at a major event. Tragedies like the one Friday night at the Astroworld Music Festival have been happening for a long time. In 1979, 11 people died in a scramble to enter a Cincinnati, Ohio, concert by The Who.
- PUB DATE: 11/8/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WLS-TV ABC 7 Chicago

VIDEO: It took 100 firefighters about an hour and a half to get the upper hand on a blaze that gutted a Koreatown karaoke bar and pool hall at 207 S. Vermont Ave. on Thursday. The Los Angeles Fire Department said they were actually able to get crews inside the building at first, but the intensity of the fire grew in the attic.
- PUB DATE: 11/5/2021 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KCAL-TV CBS 2 Los Angeles