Carbon Hill Volunteer Rescue Squad

10/03/2025

The work continues...

10/03/2025

📢Fire Danger Advisory Issued by the AFC📢

As drought conditions worsen, due to the recent lack of precipitation and high temperatures, the Alabama Forestry Commission is issuing a Statewide Fire Danger Advisory. Until the state receives sufficient rainfall to alleviate the severe dry situation, especially in central Alabama, this elevated fire danger will persist for the foreseeable future.

Mitigation measures should be considered to protect lives and property from wildfire damage. If possible, refrain from burning until fire danger has diminished. Always obtain a permit for prescribed burns, and ensure adequate equipment and personnel are present. Never leave a fire until it is safely extinguished. Conduct post-burn patrols for several days to ensure that reignition has not occurred and firebreaks have not been compromised. In residential areas, be sure to have a water hose prepared and adjacent to the burning area. After burning debris piles, it is necessary to thoroughly soak the area until cold.

As this advisory continues and potentially escalates, it is essential to maintain situational awareness. Burning debris piles can continue to smolder for multiple days, eventually spreading out of a previously contained area. Under these critically dry conditions, chances of embers igniting outside of the main burn area are increased. Fires in areas with deep duff (layers of decaying vegetable matter covering the ground under trees) can also continue to burn for extended periods of time, potentially causing tree mortality. Driving vehicles into tall grasses, as well as equipment use such as bush-hogging, hay baling, or mulching, can spark ignition.

The Alabama Forestry Commission will continue to monitor the strengthening drought and wildfire statistics across the state. The agency will evaluate if further restrictions are needed in the coming weeks.

08/23/2025

BIG THANK YOU to the folks from THE HOME DEPOT for helping us with the renovation of our meeting room at the Rescue Squad building. This room is used for meetings and training and was very outdated and in need of repairs. The Home Depot Foundation provided supplies and material for the project and with the help of volunteers from Jasper's Home Depot we got off to a great start on the project.

06/04/2025

The Carbon Hill Rescue Squad is sad to announce the passing of one of our longest serving members. Delores Richardson was a member of the Rescue Squad for over 45 years. Please keep her family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Delores Jean Richardson, age 68 of Carbon Hill, passed away on Monday, June 2, 2025 at her residence. Graveside services will be Saturday, June 7, 2025 at 1100 a.m. at Spring Hill Cemetery. Mrs. Richardson was preceded in death by her Husband-James P*e Wee Richardson Mother-Verdeal Eadie Father-Heyw...

05/22/2025

WVTM 13... Still showing the wrong video of I-22 fire. 🚨

05/22/2025

Don't know where WVTM 13 got the footage of what they say was the HazMat fire on I-22... But that was not the fire we saw. They need to vet their sources.

05/22/2025

05/20/2025

NWS BIRMINGHAM WEATHER RADIO OUTAGE - WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: 5/19, 6:40pm:

Due to a scheduled months-in-advance major software update that is taking place at our office, all NWS Birmingham NOAA Weather Radio transmitters will be offline through May 21st. Those transmitters include: Winfield, Oneonta, Birmingham, Anniston, Tuscaloosa, Demopolis, Selma, Montgomery, Auburn, and Texasville. We know you're probably asking a bunch of questions and may have some concerns about this outage, so we'll try to answer some of those for you here:

YOU MEAN MY WEATHER RADIO WON'T GO OFF FOR A WARNING TUESDAY NIGHT?!
In most cases, unfortunately that's correct. Therefore, you need to have multiple alternative ways to get warnings, and make sure that WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS are ENABLED on your smartphone. TV, internet, weather apps, and county emergency notification subscriptions are just a few alternative options that you may be able to use during the outage. With the potential severe weather expected mostly during nighttime hours Tuesday night, finding alternative warning options will be more important.

WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PERFORM A MAJOR SYSTEM UPDATE WHEN YOU KNOW THERE'S A CHANCE FOR SEVERE WEATHER AND NOT RESCHEDULE?!
Unfortunately this update, which has been scheduled months in advance across the NWS, was mandatory and there was no option for our office to postpone. Many other NWS offices across the U.S. have already completed this critical update, and it just happened to be our turn on the schedule. Trust us, we're just as frustrated as you may be about the situation, as there's never a good time for an outage of critical alerting systems when it comes to all the bad weather we see around here.

WHAT SHOULD FOLKS DO THAT MAY NOT BE TECH SAVVY, AND SOLELY RELY ON WEATHER RADIO TO GET THEIR WARNINGS?
If you have a friend or family member that primarily uses NOAA Weather Radio for their warnings, you can BE THE HERO and help them monitor the weather situation. You can give them a phone call or text as a heads-up if something is headed their way. Also, having them keep an eye on local TV broadcasts if they have that ability would be another good way to stay on top of where storms may be headed.

IS NWS BIRMINGHAM COMPLETELY DOWN? CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT IS WORKING??
Although warning transmission through weather radio won't be available, our office and our staff will still be issuing Watches, Warnings, and Advisories as we normally would. Warnings will be sent through all other means such as weather apps that you may be subscribed to for alerts, and our broadcast media partners will continue to see our warnings and communications. Our office social media feeds here on Facebook and also on X will continue to be updated and sent from our office. Radar data is unaffected by this outage.

WHAT ABOUT SURROUNDING OFFICES?
Our neighboring NWS offices (Huntsville, Mobile, Peachtree City Georgia, Memphis Tennessee, and Tallahassee Florida are unaffected. Weather radio transmission and alerting will be available in those coverage areas.

Hopefully that answers a bunch of your questions! Anything else you want to ask? Let us know in the comments. Stay weather aware Tuesday afternoon through Tuesday night!

05/20/2025

05/13/2025

Earlier today... luckily there were no injuries.

03/14/2025

02/17/2025

Members of the Carbon Hill Rescue Squad and Townley Fire Department work to stabilize a wreck vehicle and remove the driver.