The Valley Cinema in Wasilla was evacuated and closed Saturday after a fire started in the building's tool room, according to the Mat-Su Borough. The fire started sometime around 12 p.m. Saturday according to Malinda Beiler, a customer who says she was there when the theater was evacuated. Beiler says she saw at least 75 people evacuated by emergency responders. The theater reopened on Sunday. MSB Emergency Services Director Ken Barkley says they have cut off power to the tool room and as far as he knows there is no other safety threat at this time. "The sprinkler system did as designed," Barkley said. "The only damage is water damage. The fire department got there and secured the sprinkler system, shut it off, and really that was all they had to do." A Valley Cinemas recorded message said the theater would honor the movie tickets of anyone evacuated Saturday. "If you have purchased a ticket for Saturday, or if you were here earlier in the day when the fire alarm went off, we will still honor that," the recorded message said, "as long as you have the booking collection code or the ticket stub."  

VIDEO: Karina Figueroa and her family likely lost everything in a Sunday morning house fire that claimed the life of a metro firefighter. Right now they are not thinking about themselves. "We can start over again, the firefighter's family can't. All they have left is the memories," Figuroea said. Officials have identified the West Peculiar firefighter who was killed as 30-year-old Chuck McCormick. The fire started shortly after 11 a.m. at a home near Deer Run Road and 221st Street / Peek Road in Peculiar. Grandview Fire Chief Ron Graham says McCormick fell through the floor near the front door of the home as firefighters entered the home. McCormick fell into the basement and was critically hurt. He was airlifted to the hospital where he died. Officials said McCormick was a husband and father of three young boys, ages 4, 5 and 7-years-old. He died responding to what would normally be considered a fairly routine call.  

When Carol Brown joined the Boulder Fire Department in 1991, she was one of roughly a dozen female firefighters. Today a shift battalion chief, Brown is one of seven. Though Boulder was among the earliest to admit females to its force — the first two women were hired in 1978, according to Brown — the number of women in the city's firefighting force has fallen over the years as older employees have retired. Their ranks have not been refilled due to a dearth of new recruits, leaving just seven females among 99 firefighters. Boulder will have to more than triple that figure if it hopes to reach its goal, recently added to the fire master plan update: that one-quarter of city firefighters will be women by 2030. "Seven percent is not good," said Michael Calderazzo, Boulder's fire chief. "In the '80s we were cutting-edge. Over time, we've sort of drifted backwards."  

In 2009, when Fire Chief Tom Burgasser was told to cut 20% of his budget, he knew exactly what to do. Transporting patients to the hospital instead of handing them over to a private ambulance company seemed like a no-brainer, the chief recalled more than 10 years later. It cut out the middle man. It would decrease the department's spending while increasing revenue. It would save the residents money. The Massillon Fire Department reached its 10th anniversary of transporting patients at the beginning of the year. In a decade, the Fire Department generated more than $7.3 million in revenue and saved residents nearly $2.8 million in EMS fees. "We did everything," Burgasser said. "We treated the patient. We responded to the scene. We did all of those things. The only thing we didn't do is put them in the back of the ambulance and take them to the hospital."  

As he stood in the third-floor corner room that served as his office from 2000 to 2009, retired Hartford Fire Chief Charles Teale reflected on some of the more historic moments that had taken place at the Pearl Street headquarters during his tenure. He recalled firefighters coming into the room after the 9/11 attacks and dumping piles of money they had collected for the 343 firefighters who perished at Ground Zero out onto the long conference table that dominated the room. Teale also remembered the meetings held in the aftermath of the 2003 Greenwood Health Center fire that claimed the lives of 16 people. Investigators concluded the fire was started by a resident with a history of mental illness and substance abuse who had been playing with a lighter in her bed.  

VIDEO: An internal investigation has been opened to look into the procedures and training protocol of the Saint Joseph County Dispatch Center. ABC57 is still following the New Year's Eve tragedy that killed four-year-old James and his sister, two-year-old Natalie Kleven and left mother, Brook, and her 3-month-old son in critical condition. Now the question is did the 9-1-1 confusion cost precious minutes--and possibly lives. Looking into the scanner recordings from that afternoon, you can hear that the first call about a black Toyota minivan sinking into a retention pond on East University Drive in Mishawaka, came into the Saint Joseph County Dispatch Center at 2:46 p.m. Sound from the Saint Joseph County Police and Fire scanner, "Fir and University Drive at the City Center see if a vehicle has gone into the pond Fir and East University Drive at the City Center."