Firehouse.com

Sept. 04--The air above a wildfire is fraught with danger. There's heat, smoke and a fleet of helicopters and air tankers all trying to slow a fire without running into each other.

Those who take to the air have tough jobs -- from the physical demands they feel to the emotional heartbreak they see -- and their skills are critical, including in three recent Kern County fires.

Sept. 06--A bobcat climbing up a power pole resulted in a small brush fire near Piru that was contained in several hours Monday morning, according to Ventura County Fire Department officials.

"It looked like he was climbing up a pole to chase an owl or another bird," said Capt. Dan Preston. The animal apparently hit the power wires, caught on fire and fell to the ground, Preston said. That ignited the brush.

Sept. 06--Several people, including two children, were rescued this morning from a blaze in a sparsely occupied Bronzeville condo building where conditions were described as "pretty bad" by a Chicago Fire Department spokesman.

A firefighter was treated at the University of Chicago Medical Center for burns to his ears, said Chief Kevin MacGregor, a Fire Department spokesman.

DENVER --

A wind-driven wildfire broke out in the rugged Colorado foothills and quickly spread across 4 square miles Monday, destroying some homes and triggering evacuations of as many as 400 others.

No injuries were reported. Authorities could not say how many structures burned down, but they said at least some of them were houses.

The fire started in Four Mile Canyon northwest of Boulder, and erratic winds gusting to 45 mph spread the flames both to the west and northeast.

Sept. 04--An East Farmingdale firefighter was hospitalized Saturday after the roof of a burning building in Lindenhurst collapsed, burying the firefighter underneath, the department's fire chief said.

Eight fire departments responded to the fire at about 2 a.m. inside a commercial building on Gear Avenue, off Wellwood Avenue, in Lindenhurst, East Farmingdale fire chief James Yearsley said. As firefighters tried to enter the building, the roof and front wall of the building collapsed, he said.