The state of Texas is using lessons learned from hurricane response efforts to combat COVID-19, and UT Health EMS crews are training to be part of the state's solution. On Thursday, UT Health EMS provided training at its headquarters for their employees and Hopkins County EMS crews, both of whom are part of the state's Rapid Assessment Quick Response Force. "The state asked if we would do it and I immediately said, ‘Yes, we're here to help,'" said John Smith, CEO of UT Health EMS. The governor's plan to open Texas, which was released last week, includes the Rapid Assessment Quick Response Force in its recommendations for nursing homes. Aimed at quantifying the extent of infection immediately, it involves deploying teams to provide rapid response and medical triage at facilities across the state if needed. "They put teams together to go into a facility that has an outbreak, what we call a hotspot. It's a team effort throughout the whole state," said Roy Langford, regional director for UT Health EMS, who is part of the response force.  

Dallas firefighters responded to a 2-alarm apartment fire at the Pleasant Drive Apartments Thursday morning and extinguished it within an hour. It happened on Pleasant Drive near U.S. Highway 175. Flames and smoke were showing when crews first arrived on the scene just before 11 a.m. Reports from the 911 caller indicated that the fire started in an apartment and quickly made its way into the attic. As a result of those developments, it wasn't long after firefighters arrived at the two-story apartment complex that Command requested a second-alarm response. The quick actions of firefighters resulted in the fire being extinguished in just under an hour. There weren't any reports of injuries.  

A company called Genesis PULSE has created an online tool for first responders to be aware of where in the community positive COVID-19 cases are present. KLTV's Dante Nuñez explained what the program is and how it informs first responders via a map whenever they are called into action. "The more information you can give a first responder before they get there, the more context they have for the call, in general, the better," said Jim Nipp, the president of the Genesis Group. "With this pandemic, the more visibility that the emergency operation center sees or the county or the district health department can see, the more information we can put into the state, and then they can begin plotting it."  

Hidalgo County confirms an employee with the fire marshal's office has tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday. According to a county news release, the employee worked at the office located at the 1900 block of North Knights Drive in Pharr. Health officials are working to determine who the employee may have had contact with at the office and what public areas they might have been. The office is being completely sanitized and will remain open to the public, according to the news release. On Tuesday, county leaders voted to make face coverings mandatory at public buildings, including its parking lots.  

On April 23, members of the Williamson County Rapid Response Viral Strike Team worked an outbreak in a Round Rock nursing home. Images show team members wearing white protective gear while in the building. The scene was like walking into a wildfire or into a natural disaster. "We built a dam very quickly," said team leader Amy Jarosek, who spoke to FOX7 Thursday about the effort to control the situation. "It all happened very rapidly which is scary and also reassuring in how our team was able to go in there and get that done as quickly as we could." The outbreak happened at the Trinity Care Center in Round Rock, operated by Caraday Healthcare. Jarosek said she was at the center only to deliver new safety orders, but everything changed when the manager told her a resident had tested positive for COVID-19.  

Early numbers show how significantly the coronavirus is devastating states' revenue streams — and could force choices between raising taxes or gutting services and laying off public employees. Why it matters: Even as some states move toward reopening, the economic ramifications of having shut down will haunt them far into the future. When states can reopen, and how quickly industries are able to bounce back, could either worsen or improve projections. What to watch: Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) plan to introduce bipartisan legislation as soon as next week that would create a $500 billion fund designed to help struggling state and municipality budgets in the wake of COVID-19. "If there was another way to do this, I'd rather do it the other way," Cassidy tells Axios. "But what I don't want to happen is all this money spent for families and for employers to go to waste because cities cannot provide essential services."  

The state of Texas is using lessons learned from hurricane response efforts to combat COVID-19, and UT Health EMS crews are training to be part of the state's solution. On Thursday, UT Health EMS provided training at its headquarters for their employees and Hopkins County EMS crews, both of whom are part of the state's Rapid Assessment Quick Response Force. "The state asked if we would do it and I immediately said, ‘Yes, we're here to help,'" said John Smith, CEO of UT Health EMS. The governor's plan to open Texas, which was released last week, includes the Rapid Assessment Quick Response Force in its recommendations for nursing homes. Aimed at quantifying the extent of infection immediately, it involves deploying teams to provide rapid response and medical triage at facilities across the state if needed.  

PHOTOS: High winds on Thursday spread fire and embers across a pallet factory, vacant homes, occupied buildings and a bus garage in downtown Detroit, requiring 60 firefighters to battle flames for seven hours and injuring one on the crew. Then, power was knocked out in the area as the fire raged. Dave Fornell, deputy fire commissioner for the Detroit Fire Department, said the fire started Thursday in a palette factory near Pulford and Beaufait. Fornell said the Fire Department was dispatched to the scene at 11:30 a.m. and found a pallet yard, about half a block wide and two stories high, totally involved in flames. Firefighters remained on the scene at 7 p.m., extinguishing hot spots. "Fire spread to a vacant house and garage to the east, a vacant commercial building across Beaufait, the roof of a building on Bellevue Street one block west, to a bus storage yard on Bellevue Street, where it involved a bus and two trailers, and embers set fire to a vacant building at Helen and Mack, four blocks east," Fornell said.  

Artist Dwight White II has seen a nurse who lives in his University Village apartment building coming and going recently at late hours. He's talked to her from opposite sides of the elevator, pleasantries mostly, but never got her name. She has no idea she's the inspiration for a mural White just painted on the side of Lulu's Hot Dogs, 1000 S. Leavitt St., in which she's dressed like Captain America. "She sparked my inspiration, medical workers are kind of the glue holding the world together right now," said White, 26. The artwork is part of Murals for Medical Relief, a campaign that's tapping local artists to paint murals on buildings near the Illinois Medical District on the Near West Side honoring medical workers and first responders. The campaign's website has a map showing where each mural is located.  

When minutes could mean the difference between life and death, first responders and public service agencies require access to the latest offerings in technology and wireless equipment to close that gap. Adding to a diverse list of products and services, Sourcewell has awarded contracts to AT&T and Sprint in its Wireless Voice and Data Services category; meaning participating agencies can purchase from these world-class vendors for voice, data, and messaging. Contract Administrator Dave Duhn said this category includes products and services tailored specifically for public safety, including FirstNet – a communications platform dedicated to first responders – providing a wireless, broadband network that delivers information more quickly when timing is critical. Additionally, the category includes smartphones, cell phones, tablets, Wi-Fi devices, chargers and accessories, and related services for all Sourcewell members.