Clay County Fire & Rescue crews responded to two separate residential structure fires within roughly 10 hours on Thursday night and early Friday morning, April 23–24, 2026. The first incident was reported around 6:00 p.m. in the Shooting Creek Fire District. Firefighters arrived to find the home heavily engulfed in flames. Due to the advanced stage of the fire, crews switched to defensive operations to protect nearby wooded areas and neighboring structures. During the respons

Ozone-generating machines, often marketed as air purifiers or odor eliminators, can cause rapid and severe respiratory distress in both animals and humans when used improperly. A recent incident in Clay County underscores these dangers: On the afternoon of April 21, K-9 “Luca,” a 7-year-old drug-detection dog assigned to Investigator Steven Smith, was accidentally exposed to an ozone machine that had been inadvertently turned on while he was crated inside the Clay County Sher