Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded around 4:40 p.m. to the crash involving a motorcycle and a sedan.

Investigators said the motorcycle traveled west on Columbia Road toward the intersection as a Honda Accord sat on North Old Belair Road facing south while the driver waited to turn left onto Columbia Road to head east.

Deputies said the driver of the Accord failed to see the motorcycle and turned left, and the front of the car hit the right side of the motorcycle. The impact knocked the motorcycle onto its left side and ejected the rider, investigators said.

Authorities identified the rider as Frank Lanier, 58, of Appling, Georgia. He rode a 2006 Big Dog motorcycle, according to deputies.

Lanier was a longtime firefighter with the Augusta-Richmond County Fire Department and previously served as a battalion chief at Station 1, officials say.

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Captain Kevin Prater oversees all eight of Houston County’s fire stations in areas outside city limits.

He said the department’s response process looked different before the staffing increase.

“We’d have to wait on a volunteer to respond to the station to pick up a truck,” Prater said.

Today, all eight fire stations have at least one firefighter on call 24/7.

Houston County Fire Chief Chris Stoner said the change came after the millage rate increase was approved last year for residents in unincorporated areas.

“Those nine firefighters that we were able to hire, enabled us to put somebody at every station 24/7,” Stoner said.

Stoner said the goal was to improve response times to emergency calls, and Prater said crews have already seen the difference.

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The attack forever changed Atlanta.

As the world watched the chaos unfold, 911 dispatchers were on the front lines, answering frantic calls, sending help and guiding people through one of the city’s darkest moments.

Now, those dispatchers are sharing their memories.

At the time, they were the calm voices on the other end of the phone.

Inside the 911 center, dispatchers remember the confusion, the fear and the moment they realized Atlanta was facing something unimaginable.

“The person behind me was the one who got the call,” said Linda Gray, an E-911 senior dispatcher.

“You could see people in real time running, and I saw a bunch of smoke and lights,” said Kristie Woods, an E-911 training coordinator assistant.

For the dispatchers working that night, July 27, 1996, the memories remain vivid.

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Fire crews were on scene in the 1000 block of Marion Street, where the incident began with a vehicle fire before extending into two adjacent buildings.

Officials urged people to stay away from the area while crews worked to mitigate the scene.

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The chemical fire and toxic gas release happened in Conyers in Sept. 2024, according to the 148-page report.

Investigators said at least 17,000 people in the surrounding community were forced to evacuate. More than 90,000 people in the Atlanta metropolitan area were advised to shelter in place.

That shelter-in-place order was in effect for nearly 20 days for those closest to Bio-Lab.

Porch’se Miller is a neighbor of Bio-Lab. She is one of many who said the fire damaged their lungs.

She read the report released Tuesday.

“It’s not really surprising it didn’t have to happen,” said Miller.

At the time of the fire, Bio-Lab was storing more than 14 million pounds of chemicals used to treat water used for pools and spas, according to investigators.

That’s more than Bio-Lab told Rockdale County it would store when it obtained a permit to open a warehouse near Interstate 20 in Conyers in 2019.

“Well over two times the amount originally planned to be stored at this facility,” said Stephen Klejst.

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Fire officials said crews were called to Turner Hill Road in Lithonia at around 1:55 a.m. to a reported vehicle fire.

Once on scene, firefighters quickly deployed hose lines and worked to extinguish the flames.

No injuries were reported in this incident and no other vehicles were involved.

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A national television crew was recently in Savannah to interview several members of each department about their dedication, professionalism, and commitment to serving their community.

Chatham County Fire Department gave shoutouts on social media to Chiefs Joshua and Michael Mayers, Captain John William Farrell, and Firefighter Christopher Carter for their courageous actions during the Georgetown apartment fire rescues earlier this year where a mother threw her two young daughters from a third-story window to escape a fire back in April.

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A portion of the competition’s proceeds will go toward smoke detectors for families in need.

Dustin Portillo, director of culture at Built Different Brands, said the event was about giving back to the community.

“Of course, we have Augusta’s finest out here, but really an incredible day with a huge give back to Augusta Fire,” Portillo said. “The men and women are out there busting their butts every single day. And if we can do a little bit of good in the community to give back to our families out there who really need it, man, that’s what it’s all about.”

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Fire officials said firefighters were called to the 3000 block of Landrum Drive SW for a working fire.

Once on scene, they were met with heavy fire conditions extending from a first-floor apartment into the attic, fire officials said.

Crews rescued three people, including residents trapped on upper-floor balconies. At the same time, firefighters battled rapidly spreading fire and protected nearby apartment buildings, according to Atlanta Fire.

They were able to get the fire under control and searched the building for other victims. Officials said one firefighter was evaluated for heat-related symptoms.

The Red Cross shared that about 16 units were damaged in the fire. The organization is helping nearly 30 people impacted.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.

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Cherokee County fire crews rushed to a home just before 6:30 p.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of a residential fire.

When firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke and flames pouring from the property.

Crews immediately launched an aggressive attack on the flames while simultaneously searching the home to make sure no occupants were trapped inside.

Firefighters quickly brought the blaze under control, and emergency officials reported no injuries to residents or first responders.

The two adults who were displaced by the fire are currently receiving emergency assistance.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. The Cherokee County Fire Investigations Team is looking into the incident in accordance with standard protocol, but details on what sparked the blaze are unavailable.

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The course is part of a FEMA-funded program called Active Shooter Incident Management Training, or ASIM.

Officers and first responders use laptops and walkie-talkies to move through simulations and communicate back to a command post.

ASIM instructor Mark Rhame said the course is designed to align law enforcement, fire and EMS under a single response plan.

“We can’t have law enforcement have a game plan going this direction, while fire and EMS has a game plan going this direction — it doesn’t work,” Rhame said.

Rhame said the scenarios they simulate are not common, but added: “The bottom line is that they do occur.”

Rhame referenced mass shootings at Sandy Hook High School and the Pulse nightclub during the training.

“All of these places had significant mass casualty events because of an active shooter, they probably said the same thing — ‘we thought we were prepared, but we probably weren’t,’” Rhame said.

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Grills for Guardians, a nonprofit that supports first responders, donated the grill.

Lt. Matt Johnson, a Columbia County firefighter, said the donation marks an improvement over what the station previously had available.

“It’s an upgrade for what we currently have…some of the grills that we have are just personal grills that somebody’s brought up here,” Johnson said. “This actually belongs to the station now.”

Firefighters said having a dedicated, station-owned grill makes it easier to cook together, build camaraderie and be ready to respond when the next call comes in.

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