Volunteer firefighters are essential to putting out fires in Fairbanks. While all stations have at least one paid staff member, many stations around Fairbanks rely on volunteers to help keep the facilities fully staffed. Chief Jeff Conner with the Ester Volunteer Fire Department said they have five paid staff, and the rest are volunteers. At the Ester station there are five live-in volunteers, and 23 other volunteers who come to the station a few times a month to spend the night and help out on any calls. At Chena-Goldstream Fire and Rescue, Robert Willard was taking his physical fitness test to become a volunteer firefighter. He said he has never done firefighting before but, "Hopefully with this department I will be able to learn and hopefully build a career through EMT and firefighting." Conner said it isn't just people who want to have a career in firefighting who do the job. Some of the volunteers at Ester are aircraft mechanics, car mechanics, or university employees.  

The failure of the state of North Dakota's ladder truck has left Jamestown Fire Chief Jim Reuther worried about the department's ability to fight fires and make rescues from taller buildings in Jamestown and the North Dakota State Hospital. The ladder truck is owned by the state of North Dakota under an agreement where the JFD provides fire protection to the State Hospital. Many of the buildings at the State Hospital are multi-story and would require a ladder truck in the event of a fire or rescue situation. That agreement was canceled by the state of North Dakota when the truck failed inspections after attempts to repair the ladder system. The truck is currently stored at the State Hospital and will likely be sold as surplus property, Reuther said. The absence of the truck has created a big problem for the JFD. "We have nothing to fill that need," Reuther said.  

VIDEO: A shortage of water hampered firefighters' efforts Friday to save a historic 120-year-old home in Concord which was originally built for the prominent descendant of a U.S. President. The fire at 240 Fairhaven Hill Road burned a 6,500-square-foot home that was built in 1899, according to records. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom mansion is valued at approximately $2.9 million. Advertisement By 2 p.m., the stately home had been reduced to a smoldering shell. Historical records show the home was designed by Boston architect H.D. Hale for Charles Francis Adams III, a great-grandson of President John Quincy Adams. It was one of the first two large country estates not associated with farming in the town. Charles Francis Adams III was an 1892 graduate of Harvard Law School, a treasurer for Harvard University, the fourth mayor of Quincy and the 44th Secretary of the US Navy.  

When the call comes in for an opiate overdose, Akron Fire District Chief Joseph Natko said paramedics drop everything and respond as fast as they can. But four to six minutes can pass from the time someone dials the phone to when a paramedic treats the patient. When people overdose, Natko said they can seem intoxicated or unresponsive. And sometimes, they stop breathing. "If they're not breathing, they're dying," Natko said. If the patient or someone close to them has the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, the patient could receive a life-saving dose sooner than waiting for paramedics, Natko said. "If they have the Narcan in hand, maybe they can change the outcome," Natko said.  

Jamie Dukes tried the door handle, throwing his weight against the small metal door that led to the outside of a North Charleston industrial facility. It wouldn't move. Inside the structure, pallets of polyester were stacked more than 6 feet high. A plastics warehousing firm was moving in, and Dukes, a North Charleston fire inspector, was on site to sign off that the property was up to code. The door worried him. It had to be fixed that day, Dukes told a project manager. An exit from the building couldn't be rendered useless. Each year, Charleston-area fire inspectors carry out thousands of visits at new construction sites and existing buildings. Buoyed by a strong economy, area development has expanded at a rapid pace over the past decade and fire departments are faced with a challenge — keeping up with the increasing inspection workload.  

VIDEO: The Newark Division of Fire now has a permanent way of remembering its fallen heroes. The department recently installed a memorial for firefighters killed in the line of duty. "It's a real risk and our new wall reminds folks of that," Newark Lt. Neal Murphy explained. The tribute consists of eight plaques with names, dates and a short description of each of the eight men killed since the fire department's inception. The glass markers were installed and a ‘thin red line' was painted on a wall in the main corridor of Station One near downtown Newark. "A lot of those people on the wall, none of us have ever met. They're from the early 1900s, 1800s," said firefighter Kevin Garwick. "But they're still part of our fire department family and part of our history."