Police are investigating a homicide after a man was found dead inside a burning home in southeast Houston Thursday evening. This happened around 5 p.m. in the 6500 block of Hogue. Houston police said firefighters responded at that time to a call of a house fire in progress. When the Houston Fire Department arrived at the scene, they found smoke coming from the home. When firefighters made entry into the home, crews found a man dead on a couch, police said. That is when firefighters called for HPD. Homicide detectives responded to the scene and determined the death was "not natural." HPD would not confirm whether the victim had been shot or stabbed. Arson investigators are also working to determine how the fire started.  

For the first time in its existence, the Windcrest Fire Department is now manned by paid firefighters. Four firefighter/EMTs were hired and began shifts last week following a long, drawn-out effort to provide the city with dependable round-the-clock staffing. Fire Chief Dan Kramer last month told City Council that the department was ready to enlist its first four paid firefighters into its previously all-volunteer department. "We have four (firefighters) that have been moved along after the preliminary backgrounds and interview process," Kramer told council at an Aug. 17 meeting. "My hope is to have all four eligible and ready to start on Sept. 7." Out of six applicants, the department decided to initiate the process with four of them, he said. "We've already opened another process now that will conduct a second hiring process and fill those two additional spots." All four of the hired firefighters were members of the volunteer fire staff, he said.  

A consultant study of Dallas Fire Rescue recommends adding 30 peak time ambulances staffed by civilian paramedics to handle growing emergency medical service demand. At a city council Public Safety Committee briefing last month, Dallas Fire Rescue officials said they disagree with some of the consultant's recommendations but that everything is under review to make a good system even better. "We're one of the busiest EMS systems in the United states, one of the most complex EMS Systems in the United States," said EMS Medical Director Dr. Marshal Isaacs said. "There are a lot of additional efficiencies that the department and the city need to look at to best serve the community and be good stewards of scarce resources and scare dollars." Dallas Fire Rescue paramedics are all certified firefighters who've completed training at the Dallas Fire Academy.  

First responders are required to step into the line of fire and help other people despite the risks to their life — even amid a pandemic. One of those first responders, Kingwood's Jerry Pacheco, is being honored in Humble after he lost his life to the coronavirus after serving 17 years with the Houston Fire Department. On Sept. 11 during a 9/11 first responders ceremony outside of Memorial Hermann Northeast, a ceiling tile was officially unveiled in honor of Pacheco and was later placed in the hospital. The ceiling tile project is not new to the hospital, it is something they have done to honor first responders for a while now, according to Jennifer Cole, the EMS liaison at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital. Tiles are also in the works to honor Houston firefighters Leroy Lucio and Tommy Searcy. Both died due to complications with COVID-19. Pacheco's tile painting features the Houston Fire Department logo with a black stripe across it, symbolizing a line of duty death, and now is placed in the ER.  

Future first responders from the Angelina College Fire and Police academies were up and moving at "dark thirty" on Thursday morning to help a guy out for a walk. The cadets joined retired firefighter John Martin on part of "Ernie's Journey." The coast-to-coast walk began with nonagenarian and World War II veteran Ernest Andrus and made its way through East Texas recently, with Martin picking up the flag when Andrus grew ill and wasn't able to continue for now. Martin credited the cadets not only with their walking efforts but also their willingness to make time in their busy schedules for such a worthy cause. "As a retired firefighter myself, it's awesome to see all this new blood coming into service as first responders," Martin said. "Not only that, it's that they have the will and desire to support something like this even with all the training and everything else they have going on right now. It's amazing, but it doesn't surprise me. It's what first responders do."  

Using technology that most everyone already has, regional dispatchers hope to give first responders the ability to see what they will encounter even before they arrive at the scene of an emergency. "When you make a phone call often to 9-1-1 its in a stressful environment or the rate of anxiety is high for the caller, so they are not good information providers at least not at the detail level that we would like to have," said Roddy Walter, director of WARCOG, a consolidated dispatch center that serves the communities of Ashland, Orrville, Wooster and the fire service for Kidron Ohio. For the next 30 days WARCOG will be giving a system called "911eye" a trial run. The system allows dispatchers to send an encrypted message to 9-1-1 callers that lets them tap into the caller's cell phone to get an accurate GPS signal of their location within five meters, and with the caller's permission allows them to tap into the callers cell phone camera.  

A new peer-to-peer program is providing St. Lucie fire personnel with much-needed resources during difficult times. "Firefighters know what other firefighters go through," St. Lucie County Fire District Division Chief Aaron Shaw said. "And if nothing else, it's just a way for us to vent and speak to each other." This week, Shaw, Lt. Jesse Almand, and firefighter-paramedic Rusty Wiles were recognized for their work with the St. Lucie County Fire District's already existing behavioral health programs. "I was asked two years ago by the fire chief to take our current programs when it came to behavioral health and improve and expand them," Shaw said. Now they, along with a select group of firefighters, are taking it a step further with the new peer-to-peer program. "A lot of people don't want to come forward with it and that's why I'm trying to come forward to show people, you're not weak and it's OK to get help," Wiles said.  

Firefighters don't just fight fires, many are also paramedics, EMTs, and registered nurses. Now, they're also COVID first responders. Firefighters are used to quickly evolving situations. That's why they were able to jump into action once the COVID-19 pandemic hit. "We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst," said Jaime Lopez. Chief of EMS Training Jaime Lopez has overseen the implementation of the newly COVID-dedicated call center. He says the Laredo Fire Department receives around 30 calls a day in a 24 hour shift. That's down by about half since the pandemic began back in March. A team of nurses also evaluates potential COVID patients over the phone just as any emergency room would. "They find out their COVID symptoms, if they have any family members that are COVID positive, how long they've been COVID positive, what their signs and symptoms are."  

You would think axes or power tools would be a favored tool in firefighting. But for the Waterloo Fire Department, that's not the case. They put a lot of value into their washing machine. With their jobs involving putting themselves at risk daily, Battalion Chief Bill Beck said that also includes the risk of cancer. "Studies after studies show that we die of cancer more than the general public does," Beck said, "before we would take our dirty gear to a commercial laundromat, and we don't w ant to do that or put the public at risk in that way." Working in hazardous conditions, almost daily, it is important they have the right appliances to lower that risk. Their washing machine, or better known as the extractor, takes in 60 gallons of water and washes five sets of gear at a time. Using their soap designed for fire gear, the extractor helps get rid of the bloodborne pathogens left on their uniforms.  

VIDEO: Kevin Cunrod is a Susquehanna Valley EMT. He is a Manheim firefighter. And in his off time, between calls, he's a TikTok star. "There are a lot of first responders out there who are down and they're stressed," said Cunrod. "If I can help them to not be stressed or my partners not to be stressed, I'll keep doing it." Cunrod's positive videos have amassed more than 22,000 followers in just a matter of months on his TikTok page. He didn't even begin using TikTok until after the state shutdown in March. "After the COVID crisis when everybody got locked down my wife was laughing one day and was like, hey I'm watching TikTok," he said. "I started watching it after that and I was like, I'm going to try this. So, at 49-years-old I tried TikTok for the first time and fell in love with it."