The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has authorized federal funds to help crews put out the Gray Fire and the Oregon Fire, currently blazing through Spokane County. FEMA approved Washington's request for a federal grant for the Gray Fire on the morning of Aug. 18, and the Oregon Fire request followed just hours later.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2023 9:34:45 PM - SOURCE: KCPQ-TV FOX 13 Seattle

Multiple fire agencies knocked down a brush fire in Otis Orchards that broke out Wednesday around noon. The Spokane Valley Fire Department says a vehicle fire on North Campbell Road caused the brush fire, which spread to about 2 acres. Five homes in the area were evacuated as a precaution, and after about an hour and a half, the homeowners were allowed to return to their property.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2023 4:54:00 PM - SOURCE: KXLY-TV ABC 4 Spokane

Police arrested a man and a woman from Tacoma on Monday accused of dressing as firefighters and burglarizing evacuating homes, according to the Spokane Police Department. The department said Detective Lynch went to a reported burglary in the 20100 block of West Thorpe Road in Medical Lake. Detective Lynch said a family member of the homeowner told him a suspicious man and woman arrived at the house in a blue Audi.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2023 1:58:00 AM - SOURCE: KIRO-TV CBS 7 Seattle

PHOTOS: Several firefighters were injured Tuesday afternoon when a fire destroyed a large vacant factory near the Jackson County Fairgrounds. Fire crews responded at about noon Aug. 22, to the commercial building near the intersection of W. North and Hamilton streets, north of the Armory Arts complex, in the city of Jackson.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2023 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: MLive

Understaffed 911 call centers across the country field non-emergency calls about stray animals or noise complaints on top of their workload of answering serious reports of medical emergencies, crimes and even death. Officials in Charleston County, South Carolina, however, are now leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline non-emergency calls in an effort to free up 911 operators to focus on getting first responders to the scene of emergency incidents as quickly as possible.
- PUB DATE: 8/23/2023 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FOX News