A 19-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection a mercury spill at a shopping center in west Houston, the FBI said. Christopher Lee Melder has been charged with burglary, unlawful disposal of hazardous material and an outstanding felony drug possession warrant. Authorities said the burglary charge stemmed from Melder breaking into a lab to steal the toxic metal. The FBI first tweeted Monday around 3:30 a.m. that they had taken someone into custody for questioning. Around 60 people were decontaminated as a precaution following the discovery of the heavy metal mercury at a west Houston shopping center located in the area of Westview Drive and West Sam Houston Parkway. Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said a pregnant woman was transported to the hospital, but it was also precautionary.  

Channel 2 Investigates has learned for the first time in 17 years, the city of Houston's so-called Public Protection Classification rating is changing for the worse. The new ISO rating 1/1X could lead to higher insurance rates for both homeowners and businesses. The Insurance Services Office periodically details studies of municipalities to determine a city's ability to answer and dispatch 911 calls, apparatus response times, water availability, and a host of other factors that go into figuring fire protection. That rating is then used by many insurance carriers to help determine rates for homeowners and business structure insurance. Both Houston Fire Chief Pena and Mayor Sylvester Turner argue that the 1/1x rating does not represent a rating drop but rather a more granular rating system that was instituted in 2014.  

The wife of a volunteer firefighter in Grimes County was seriously injured Saturday afternoon after a driver lost control of his pickup and struck her on Highway 90. It happened as firefighters were already on the scene of a crash north of Anderson near Marl Lane. Troopers said the pickup's driver was approaching the scene and swerved off the highway to avoid hitting stopped vehicles. As the truck left the highway, it hit the victim who was standing near a gate on private property. "That victim is the wife of one of our firefighters. She was with her husband when he responded in his personal vehicle to the scene of the first accident," said Anderson Volunteer Fire Department Chief Michael Kimich. She's also responsible for quickly shoving a child out of the path of the pickup before she was hit, said the chief.  

VIDEO: Arlington firefighters and Manhattan Construction are trying to determine what sparked a 2-alarm fire that sent thick black smoke into the air from Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers' new stadium under construction. The fire began shortly before 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the $1.2 billion stadium set to open in March. Cell phone video captured the smoke rising from an upper section of Globe Life Field. An industrial painter for the stadium, Jose Camarena, said he was near the fire when it ignited. "It was pretty scary, it was pretty intense," he said. Video posted on Snapchat from a worker at the stadium showed men working above the fire. In it, one can be heard asking another if they want the basket to be sent up. The other worker can be heard urgently saying, "Send it! Send it!"  

For 365 days a year and 24 hours a day, the San Antonio Fire Department works to protect the public. Their duties include responding to fires, assisting in car crashes, chemical spills and water rescues, and helping Santa and his elves spread holiday cheer. Saturday morning hundreds of volunteers participated in Santa's Firefighter Toy Drive Wrap Party at the Fire Training Academy. The event aims to help children in need and foster a relationship with the communities firefighters serve. According to fire Chief Charles Hood, the children are chosen throughout the year, "when we go to people's houses and they didn't have a tree and they didn't have toys." Firefighters want to help make a difference in the lives of children in the city. "This event is a mechanism to give to people that we see are in need," Hood said. A call for volunteers and donations for the last collection weekend was made on the San Antonio Fire Department's Facebook page.  

Bodega Bay's financially struggling firefighting agency could have a new name, more firefighters and more paramedics under a plan that would expand the growing Sonoma County Fire District next year — but only if the Board of Supervisors ponies up as much as $2.5 million a year to make it happen. The 66-year-old coast agency and the 100-year-old Russian River Fire Protection District both want to join Sonoma County Fire, the latest in a series of moves meant to consolidate and modernize the county's far-flung and somewhat antiquated fire services network. Sonoma County Fire Chief Mark Heine called the changes important for firefighting but difficult for the agencies making them. "It's a very emotional thing for a board, disbanding a fire agency and combining it with another one," said Heine.  

VIDEO: First responders rescued a man trapped in an upside down submerged vehicle in Liberty Bay Saturday morning. The Poulsbo Fire and Police departments responded to the scene of the rollover accident off Fjord Drive around 8:40 a.m. The vehicle went off the roadway into Liberty Bay south of the Poulsbo Yacht Club, according to Poulsbo Fire Department spokesperson Jody Matson. One woman was already outside of the vehicle when first responders arrived. A witness told KING 5 she was screaming for help because the driver of the vehicle was still trapped inside. Matson said the tide was in and the vehicle was upside down and almost completely submerged with only the two rear tires sticking out of the water when first responders arrived. Firefighters didn't wait for a rescue boat to arrive and swam out to the vehicle without any specialized gear to rescue the man.  

A Quincy-based addiction treatment company is looking to open a facility in Canton that would include a specialized wing for first responders. ARK Behavioral Health has proposed converting the shuttered Kindred-Tower Hill nursing home, nestled at the end of Getchell Way near Randolph, into a substance-use treatment facility that could help up to 160 people at a time through the first steps of recovery. The facility, to be named Bedrock Recovery Center, would be equipped to monitor patients through a weeklong detox and into a month or so of residential treatment. The project is before Canton's zoning board of appeals. ARK has filed for a special permit under the town's new bylaws that allow substance-abuse treatment facilities in areas of town zoned for industrial use. The new permit process was passed by town meeting voters this year.  

According to the National Volunteer Fire Council, 65% of all firefighters in the United States in 2016 were volunteers. But the number of people joining volunteer fire departments is on the decline, and not just in Daviess County. "The volunteer service on the fire side is really suffering," said Randy Lawson, executive director for the Kentucky Firefighter's Association. To younger people, being a volunteer firefighter "is not as appealing as it used to be," he said. "The volunteer fire departments, not just in Kentucky but nationwide, are crying for help." Several chiefs of area volunteer departments said they have had fewer people signing on to be firefighters for some time. Having fewer volunteers on a department's personnel roster has an impact on the response because there are simply fewer people to come to a fire or emergency run.  

There's something about the scene that unfolds when the tones sound and fire trucks race out of the City of Newburgh fire headquarters on Grand Street, said acting Chief Terry Ahlers. He watched Thursday afternoon as the firemen did their dance, jumping out of their everyday shoes, slipping on turnout gear and hopping in two trucks. The exhaust hoses swung from the ceiling as the trucks zoomed out and the garage doors shut. They were responding to an odor of gas at a building. "Sometimes, you don't know if they're going to come back," Ahlers said. "They might never get to wear those shoes again." Ahlers only has a handful of work days left before he retires Jan. 2. He started at the Newburgh Fire Department 20 years ago, on Nov. 29, 1999. He is departing at a troubling and uncertain time for Newburgh firefighters; the department is preparing to lay off 14 of the 68 firemen as part of the greater plan to balance the city's 2020 budget.