PHOTOS: The Makanda Township Fire Department received a new apparatus on Wednesday. Orin Snodgrass with the Dinges Fire Company brought the Toyne Fire Apparatus to the station on Wednesday. Makanda fire officials will now work to get the apparatus in service. "We look forward to having this truck serve Makanda Township for many years," wrote the Fire Department on Facebook. Snodgrass says he will return to Makanda soon to host orientation for the Makanda fire officials. "One of my favorite things about this gig is pulling in on delivery day and seeing so many people there to welcome home their new apparatus," said Snodgrass. The new apparatus is a 2025 International with a 1,000 gallon tank and 1,500 GPM Waterous pump.  

Firefighters across the Stateline get critical training on how to handle fires in areas with limited access to water. On Wednesday, six local fire departments took part in water supply training exercises. Firefighters practiced relay pumping and establishing long-distance lines for supplying water. Many rural areas in the Stateline lack access to fire hydrants, meaning fire crews rely on pumping water from trucks. Beloit Fire Department Battalion Chief Bill Hyde said the day was a chance to teach and learn. "We have experienced people with over 30 years of experience and in fact today we put one of our newer people in one of the hot seats and made him do most of the pumping to train our newest people," said Hyde.  

PHOTOS: A fire broke out at a boat anchored to a Wildwood, NJ, fuel dock that had the fire department working on the scene for three and a half hours. Firefighters were dispatched to a 42-foot vessel engulfed in flames, and the fire partially spread to the dock. The boat eventually sank from the large amount of water used to put out the fire, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.  

VIDEO: An Inglewood woman was arrested after she was seen on video yelling and swatting at a Los Angeles County firefighter in Gardena before crashing her car into the firefighter's. It happened around 1 p.m. Wednesday. Frank Rojas said he heard an argument outside his Gardena home before he took out his cell phone and started recording. In the video, the woman, who police identified as 36-year-old Jessica Chavez, was seen yelling at the firefighter. The Gardena Police Department said this all started when the firefighter, who handles mental health cases in the area, saw Chavez in "an altercation" with a man, and went over to help her. In Rojas' video, the firefighter is heard saying "we're with the fire department, but we called the police."  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: From Hurricane Beryl to the wildfires in the Panhandle, Texas has experienced the impact of natural disasters in 2024. During large-scale incidents in the Big Country and beyond, the Abilene Fire Department has the right vehicle for the job. An ambulance bus known as an Ambus has been stationed at Station 4 since 2021. The Ambus is 43 feet long and 11 feet high, and it can accommodate 20 to 27 people. Aaron Maxwell, AFD EMS Coordinator, said the bus is particularly useful in rural areas like Abilene. "There's a limited number of ambulances here in Abilene as well as in other counties, and then the other jurisdictions around here are all small and may only have one ambulance available," Maxwell said. The Abilene Ambus service operates alone within a 100-mile radius, with the next closest vehicle located in Fort Worth, Lubbock, or El Paso.  

VIDEO: The Northwest Allen County Fire Department held a safety training session on Wednesday, providing multiple area fire departments the opportunity to observe how to respond to a hot air balloon crash. For the safety training session, the Northwest Allen County Fire Department reached out to a hot air balloon pilot with more than 30 years of experience to provide education on specific hot air balloon safety measures. The training was led by experienced hot air balloon pilot Chris Smart and included a simulated hot air balloon crash where first responders with the Northwest Allen County Fire Department treated weighted mannequins. "A lot of people have not been around ballooning, let alone a balloon accident. I thought it'd be a good training program, and I decided to help them out," Smart said.