VIDEO: Crews knock down massive commercial building fire in California

PHOTOS: Firefighters battled a massive fire that broke out at a large commercial building in Adelanto. The fire started Wednesday afternoon at a commercial courtyard near the intersection of Baldwin Street and Bartlett Avenue, just east of Highway 395. The San Bernardino County Fire Department was the lead agency battling the fire with help from the Apple Valley Fire Protection District and the Victorville Fire Department. A knockdown was reported around 8:27 p.m. AIR7 HD captured video of the building engulfed in flames. Crews were also spotted trying to repair power lines, which also caught fire and caused a brief outage. It's unclear what the building houses. The courtyard is located near several homes and a strip mall.
KABC-TV ABC 7 Los Angeles

Texas Firefighter Loses Half Her Body Weight

Weight loss is a common new year resolution. If making the pledge has proven easier than achieving it, a Collin County woman’s weight loss journey might serve up some inspiration. For Penny Leaver, looking back at photos of some of the more memorable moments of her life makes her cringe. “I hate the way I look and it makes me remember how horrible I felt also,” Leaver said. The 43-year-old says she began gaining weight in college then started working nights. “I just started picking up some really unhealthy habits I would eat right before I went to bed, we would eat whatever food because it was fast, it was whatever was open at that time,” Leaver recalled. At her heaviest, she says she weighed 350 pounds. It took a serious health scare for her to get serious about getting healthy.
KXAS-TV NBC 5 Fort Worth

REELZ announces documentary about Rhode Island’s 2003 Great White club fire

REELZ has announced the network’s original documentary America’s Deadliest Rock Concert: The Guest List premieres Sunday, February 20th at 8 pm ET/ 5 pm PT presenting the deeply personal stories of lives forever altered by the tragic Station nightclub fire that left 100 people dead, more than 200 injured, and devastated the tight-knit community of West Warwick, Rhode Island. It is also a story of the triumph of the human spirit, as seen in a community’s resilience and the recovery and rebirth of Joe Kinan, who was the last survivor pulled from the fire and the most severely burned. On the night of February 20, 2003, more than 400 music fans packed into the small Station nightclub. Just seconds after 80s sensation Great White took the stage, pyrotechnics ignited a fire that raced up the walls and across the ceiling of the packed venue. In less than 90 seconds, most of those who hadn’t already made their escape would be trapped inside.
The Music Universe

19 states have fewer than 15% of ICU beds left as health care staffing shortages complicate care

As a record number of Americans are infected with Covid-19, largely due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, some states' health care systems are beset with nearly full intensive care units. Nineteen states have less than 15% remaining capacity in their ICUs. Four of them have less than 10%: Kentucky, Alabama, Indiana and New Hampshire, according to data Wednesday from the US Department of Health and Human Services. The other states are: Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont, according to HHS. Nationally, the number of people hospitalized in the US with Covid-19 has reached a record high -- 151,261 as of Wednesday. And as infection spreads, states and health care systems nationwide are handling shortages of available medical workers, who face a greater chance of Covid-19 exposure and must isolate after testing positive.
CNN Health

16 units damaged in 2-alarm apartment fire in Texas

VIDEO: Fire crews had their hands full with a two-alarm apartment fire in southwest Houston Tuesday night. This happened around 8 p.m. at the Amritta Apartments located in the 7800 West Airport Boulevard just west of Fondren. Fire officials said it took at least 50 firefighters about an hour to get the fire out. Sixteen apartment units were damaged by the fire, 10 by the fire itself, and the remaining six by smoke and water. All of the residents in the complex were able to make it out safely. Fire officials said they are speaking with one resident who said the fire started in his apartment. HFD said the fire sparked on the first floor of this two-story apartment building. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
KHOU-TV CBS 11 Houston

Brewing company’s Firebrick sales to benefit Minnesota firefighters

August Schell Brewing Company is bringing back its Firebrick for Firefighters program, donating a portion of sales from every case and keg of Firebrick Vienna Lager sold in 2022. “Giving back has always been part of our DNA here at Schell’s,” Ted Marti, president of Schell’s said in a press release. “I believe in our community. It’s been good to us, so we want to be good to them.” To bring more awareness to the program and highlight firefighters’ sacrifices, Schell’s worked with fire departments to source decommissioned fire helmets to rest on retail displays. Schell’s gift shop is selling Firebrick for Firefighters branded apparel and drinkware with a portion of those proceeds to be given back to local fire departments as well. The brewery and its distributors are donating funds to MnFIRE, the Minnesota Firefighter Initiative and the St. Paul Fire Foundation to help firefighters throughout Minnesota as well as other organizations within their six-state sales region.
The Free Press

Coast Guard Issues New Rules in Response to Fiery ‘Conception’ Disaster in California

The chain of events that led to the tragic deaths of a young crewmember and all 33 passengers aboard the Conception dive boat in 2019 are directly addressed in new rules from the Coast Guard, which are proposed to take effect March 28, 2022. The 33 divers were on a Labor Day weekend trip to the Channel Islands, having chartered the Conception out of Santa Barbara Harbor’s Truth Aquatics. Unknown to them, and revealed in subsequent investigations, training records were lacking to show the crew had practiced emergency response or fire suppression, fire or smoke detectors were not interconnected throughout the ship, the emergency escape hatch was fatally inadequate, the ship’s electrical wiring was a snake’s nest of power-strip cords, and, crucially, the captain did not set an all-night watch.
Santa Barbara Independent

’Cook Like a Mother’: Company delivers load of pasta sauce to Oklahoma firefighters

The Tahlequah Fire Department took delivery of a hefty amount of Ragú pasta sauce on Tuesday, Jan. 11. Tahlequah firefighters on Red shift were at Station 1 as the FedEx driver pulled up and unloaded 792 jars of the sauce. That shift caught the attention of the national company after crew members posted a video of them cooking while on duty, using Ragú sauce. “The definition of Tahlequah is ‘Two is enough,’ and evidentially Ragú didn’t think two was enough; they thought 792 would be,” said Assistant Fire Chief Mark Whittmore. Ragú’s recent on-air ads have shown people using its sauces and saying, “Cook like a mother!” Firefighter Anthony Margarit boasted in the video that he is, in fact, cooking like a mother.
Tahlequah Daily Press

Red Cross declares 1st national blood crisis; says donations urgently needed

The national blood supply is so low as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the American Red Cross has declared its first ever national blood crisis. In the hopes of encouraging people to roll up their sleeves to donate, the organization is offering up a trip to this year's Super Bowl. The Red Cross said Tuesday it's seen a 10% decline in the number of people donating blood since the pandemic began. The decline coincided with the emergence of the delta variant of COVID-19 followed by the omicron variant now. Donor turnout is down, blood drives have been canceled and there have been staffing shortages, the organization said. The Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies said in a joint statement Monday that blood centers nationwide have reported less than a one-day’s supply of some critical blood types in the past few weeks.
WFAA-TV ABC 8 Dallas