VIDEO: A chaotic scene in Dallas overnight after a house in the Little Forest Hills neighborhood catches fire and explodes. Officials with Dallas Fire Rescue say a neighbor who called 911 around 1:00 a.m. after hearing a "loud bang" and looking outside to see the house across the street, in the 8700 block of San Leandro Drive, on fire. Officials say when firefighters arrived they could see heavy fire coming from the house and flames threatening a neighboring home. There was one person, a woman in her 70's, inside the neighboring home; but she was not injured and her home only suffered minor damage. It took about an hour for crews to extinguish the fire. Between the flames and a partial roof collapse the house suffered significant damage. The structural instability of the home initially made it impossible for fire crews to get inside.  

It has been five years since the deadly 2017 wildfires raged across the Panhandle. These 2017 wildfires burned across parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas. In the Texas Panhandle, more than 500 thousand acres burned taking lives, property and land with them. Cody Crockett, Sydney Wallace, Sloan Everett and Cade Koch all died from the fire. Crockett, Wallace and Everett were all killed trying to save cattle, while Koch died trying to get home to his pregnant wife. Texas A&M AgriLife estimated the damage at over $25 million in losses of livestock, structures and land across the Panhandle. Fire officials marked these fires as a ‘Southern Plains Wildfire Outbreak' because of the weather conditions at the time. "With winds sustaining from 50 plus mph, we can see these fires could carry going 5 to 10 mph moving a football field a minute," said Juan Rodriguez, WUI coordinator, Texas A&M Forest Service.  

A 69-year-old man who died in a house fire on the West Side has been identified by the Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office. Jesse Phillips Jr. died of thermal injuries and smoke inhalation, authorities said. The fire broke out at the home in the 5100 block of Grovehill after 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday. San Antonio firefighters said they arrived to find heavy smoke and flames coming from the single-story home. Neighbors had already rescued a 94-year-old woman and her 76-year-old daughter from the house. They tried to rescue Phillips, but were unable to because that section was already heavily involved in flames. "We heard him asking for help. We heard him twice. We tried to get in. We tried," neighbor Gena Garza said. "We couldn't get back in to get him. The fire, the smoke was too much for me and my neighbor."  

Firefighters responded to a church fire Friday in northwest Houston, according to the Houston Fire Department. The fire was reported at 1198 W. Mount Houston at Deer Trail. A defensive attack was being performed by firefighters to extinguish the fire. No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire is unknown Houston Fire Department asked residents to avoid to the area due to heavy emergency traffic.  

Firefighters have responded to a possible fire at an apartment complex on Old Bullard Road. Thursday night's call came from the Dodson Apartment Complex, located at 3900 Old Bullard. Four fire trucks were at the scene as of 8:30 p.m. Tyler Fire Marshal Paul Findley said that the call came from someone who said smoke was coming from the roof of one of the buildings. A woman tells KLTV she was headed to work when she noticed smoke coming from the top of her apartment. She called 911 to be safe. Tyler firefighters searched the roof. Deputy Fire Chief Randy Lee said it was a smoldering electrical fire, and it was contained in about 15 minutes. No damage was done to any other apartment. No one was injured, fire department officials say.  

A Sullivan County firefighter is recovering from his injuries after he was forced to dangle from a window during a fire at a senior living complex - and it was all caught on camera. The Liberty volunteer firefighter is seen in the viral video clinging for safety to a fifth-story window Tuesday night. Raging flames inside a unit at Buckley Garden Apartments forced the rescuer to make a desperate, split-second decision that could have gone wrong at any moment. "We went to go out, and I couldn't see, I couldn't breathe," says Chris Dennison. Firefighters were inside the senior living facility on North Main Street evacuating more than 50 elderly and disabled residents when the flames became too much. People there say that firefighter was dangling from the window for several minutes before his fellow rescuers could get a bucket ladder up to save him. "He got burnt, and there was another fireman in the apartment, and he got burnt, too," says Bruce Dennison, of Liberty.  

VIDEO: KWWL news is currently on scene of a fire at the Lost Island Theme Park, currently under construction at the south edge of Waterloo, near the Isle Hotel and Casino, on the south side of Shaulis Road. The fire began between 7-8 p.m. There are no injuries. Eric Bertch, owner of the Lost Island, says an approximately 1500-square foot queue shelter building caught on fire at the far southwest edge of the park. It's one of the areas where Lost Island Theme Park customers will stand in line, waiting to board a ride. Queue-style fencing is often used in those areas as a crowd barrier for park-goers waiting in line. Bertch says the building will be a total loss. He says it appears some temporary heating caught a blanket on fire. The fire spread quickly, and could be seen from quite a distance, as it burned out of control. The building's roof eventually collapsed. Eric Bertch says nothing will be left, except the building's foundation.  

A Lafayette firefighter was injured after being forced over the ledge of an overpass when a semi-truck hit a nearby firetruck. The Lafayette Fire Department was on the scene Thursday night of a crash on Interstate 10 westbound near the Interstate 49 split. The firetruck was parked on the road while fire personnel helped with that crash, said Lafayette Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Robin Green. The driver of an 18-wheeler hit the parked truck at about 9:30 p.m. while firefighters were standing nearby. While trying to escape the impact of the firetruck, one firefighter was forced over the ledge of a nearby overpass, Green said. The firefighter was taken to a nearby hospital. He sustained severe injuries, Green said. The 51-year-old driver of the semi-truck was arrested and charged with failure to yield to an emergency vehicle, open alcohol container, operating while under the influence - first offense and vehicular negligent injuring.  

The St. Louis Fire Department is creating a software database that will track the condition of vacant buildings. Thousands of vacant buildings lie in the city, and they often pose a threat to firefighters. But assembling the information for a database is a process. While the program has been in the works for years, recent events pushed it to the forefront after vacant building fire claimed the life of St. Louis firefighter Benjamin Polson, 33. On Jan. 13, Polson was killed when the roof of a vacant building collapsed on him. Another firefighter was injured. Fire officials would like to arm their first responders with information while they're still in the safety of the firetruck. The vacant building database will have information first responders can use when they're deciding whether fighting a fire in a vacant building – when no one's life is at stake – is worth the risk.  

Another new COVID-19 variant has been detected. The World Health Organization has confirmed that the new variant, dubbed Deltacron — a combination of Delta and Omicron — has been detected in the France, Denmark and the Netherlands. "The hybrid genome harbors signature mutations of the two lineages," said IHU Méditerranée Infection's Philippe Colson in a study published Tuesday. While evidence of the new variant has been observed, cases are few. According to Reuters, researchers have identified 17 confirmed instances in both Europe and the United States. The IHU study also noted that more cases would need to emerge for researchers to be able to effectively detect the severity of the variant. In a Wednesday media briefing, WHO COVID-19 technical lead Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove said of Deltacron, "We have not seen any change in the epidemiology with this recombinant. We haven't seen any change in severity. But there are many studies that are underway."