After a Thursday fire damaged a home on Englewood Drive, firefighters said the site was difficult to search due to a large number of contents within the home. Thankfully, all residents were found safe and uninjured, but this issue is a common obstacle for area firefighters. Amarillo Fire Department said homes with a large content of items are extremely dangerous, and the higher amount of synthetic materials in a home, the faster an entire room can catch fire. "When you have these high contents fires, essentially you're raising the floor higher and closer to the ceiling. So things catch fire easier, faster," explained Cody Snyder, public information officer for AFD. "When we go in, our number one priority is life safety. Our number one priority is to make sure anybody who might have been in that house is out. That is very difficult when the house is heavily cluttered."  

Three Plum Grove firefighters responding to an emergency Sunday afternoon were involved in a single-vehicle accident that ended with the tanker truck they were in being rolled over. According to Sgt. Rob Willoughby, supervisor for the Liberty County office of Texas Department of Public Safety, the accident occurred at 4:23 p.m. on CR 5000. "The vehicle left the roadway on the south shoulder and the driver overcorrected, which caused the truck to overturn," said Willoughby. "It landed on its roof with three firefighters inside." The driver, James Autrey, and two 17-year-old passengers, who are members of the Plum Grove VFD's junior firefighter program, all suffered minor cuts and scrapes but were otherwise in good condition, Willoughby said. When asked if a mechanical problem with the vehicle was to blame for the crash, Willoughby said the investigation is looking into whether driver inattentiveness or a problem with the rear axle of the tanker played a part in the crash.  

Jason Garza recently became the new Hardin Fire Chief and is more than ready for the job. Previous to becoming the fire chief, Garza served in the Marine Corps. for five years and served as a fireman in Baytown for 17 years. Garza is a husband and father of six children. He tragically lost his two-year-old son in a drowning accident in 2019. The loss of his son has motivated him to bring safety awareness to the community and help proactively respond to the citizens' needs. Garza is excited to be in the position and is currently working on multiple ways to improve the Hardin Fire and Rescue team, including evaluating the manpower. Hardin Fire and Rescue is a combination department, which means it is a volunteer fire department and has some paid firefighters on staff.  

The New Braunfels Fire Department will conduct training activities during the next several days at the now-fenced-off portion of the H-E-B strip center complex in the 600 block of South Walnut Avenue, in what officials say is an opportunity to better the skills of local firefighters. David Ferguson, the city's media and communications coordinator, said New Braunfels residents might see firefighters on the roof and inside the buildings of the complex, using saws, ladders and ladder trucks, mainly during the daylight and evening hours. "Most fire training facilities don't offer a lot of commercial-grade structures for firefighters to train in, and the contractor has agreed to allow the NBFD to use the soon-to-be-demolished structure for training purposes," Ferguson said. "That training will focus on skills that are specific to fighting fires on commercial structures, as opposed to residential structures.  

The Madisonville Volunteer Fire Department recently purchased a new grass truck with help from the community and grant money. The department was awarded a $20,000 grant from the Texas A&M Forest Service. The grant didn't cover all the costs so firefighters asked residents and local businesses for help, raising $45,000 to complete the purchase. "The businesses that stepped forward and lowered their prices for us to be able to afford to buy the stuff and some of them that just came and gave a little bit extra, we appreciate that and we appreciate everyone in the community that said ‘We agree you need another truck,'" said Tom Jones, Madisonville Fire Chief. The new truck is replacing a grass truck that is more than 30 years old. Jones says the purchase helps them combat grass fires more efficiently.  

A Mission firefighter will appear in court again next month as he continues his fight to receive worker's compensation. Lt. Homer Salinas, a veteran of the Mission Fire Department since 2002, was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 2017 and successfully fought in court to receive workers' compensation from the city's health insurance carrier to assist him in paying for his cancer treatment. However, in 2019, Texas Municipal League filed a lawsuit against Salinas on behalf of the city of Mission to prevent the cancer-stricken firefighter from receiving roughly $100,000 for four surgeries he underwent from 2017 through 2018. Salinas, who appeared in district court for the latest hearing of the case last week, said he was frustrated by TML's tactics. Previously, Salinas went before a benefit review council twice and an appeals court to contest TML's decision.  

VIDEO: A huge fire broke out overnight inside a recycling plant in New Jersey. The 11-alarm fire is contained but is still not under control at Atlantic Fiber Company that started just after midnight Saturday. Firefighters from over 20 departments including Rutherford, Paterson, Lodi and Wallington responded to the fire on the brutally cold night. Officials say it may take days till the fire is out, but the goal is to extinguish it before the impending winter storm. The massive structure, which is filled with combustible materials such as recycling paper and cardboard, has largely collapsed onto itself. The facility recycles single-steam consumer recyclables, mainly paper - 30,000 to 40,000 tons a month, according to the company. There are no signs of the blaze slowing after officials say several explosions from inside could be heard and the building collapsed into itself.  

PHOTOS: A crew from Lakeside Fire House was sent to the hospital Sunday morning when their firetruck rolled off the road while it was snowing. Henrico Fire tweeted on Sunday, Jan. 31 around 10:50 a.m. that it received a call that one of its units -- Henrico Fire Engine 305 -- was involved in a rollover accident.Fire officials said the roads were very slippery and it was snowing at the time of the crash. They added, that there were no other vehicles involved in the accident. According to Henrico Fire, all four firefighters who were on the truck were able to exit it on their own and were taken to the nearby hospitals to be treated. There's no word on what condition they are in at this time.  

Dylan Mercier was not unlike any number of boys growing up. He loved playing with toy cars and trucks. The St. Anne man, who recently had his Mack semi-tractor and trailer wrapped to pay tribute to firefighters, is now stepping into a world he never could have imagined. Mercier, who will soon turn the age of 20, was contacted by die cast toy manufacturer First Gear, Inc. The Peosta, Iowa-based company is an officially licensed custom die cast manufacturer of metal replica cars, trucks and construction equipment. It will be transforming his unique ride into a collectible die cast model. The die cast will be on a 1/64 scale of his truck, meaning is will be only several inches in length. If all goes as planned, the first production of the truck will be completed by late February to early March. And that's not all. Mercier is not just taking all the cash — one of the die cast trucks would likely sell in the $100 range — and putting it into his pocket.  

A Durham company is developing a new technology that will help fight COVID-19. It's what EmitBio said will potentially save millions of lives. The handheld device is inserted into the mouth aims precise wavelengths of targeted light at a spot in the back of the throat known as your oropharynx. It's turned on for five minutes, and later that same day the treatment is repeated. The light it emits interacts with the cells of the body and COVID-19. "So, the virus wants to make many copies of itself so it's doing that continuously inside the cell. And we're able to disable that property and that takes care of everything," said EmitBio Executive Chairman Neal Hunter. Hunter said the technology stops the virus from making copies of itself. The key is that you need to have mild to moderate symptoms within 72 hours for it to be most effective.  

VIDEO: Beautiful, hand-made wooden American flags to benefit local fire departments -- that's the idea behind Flags for Frontlines. Michael Jolley is a 17-year-old volunteer firefighter at Ryegate Fire Department. "I just have a passion for volunteer firefighting, I went to emergency services and criminal justice at Riverbank Career and Technical Center in Bradford where I just really found my passion in Emergency Services through that," he says. And he knows first-hand just how far a couple extra bucks go at the station. "Fire departments need a lot of things but the budgets just don't allow it. Like, fire gear for one, a lot of people don't know that fire gear costs anywhere between $2,500 to $3,000 just for a set of fire gear," Jolley explains. He spent the summer thinking about how he could help raise money for these small departments, and decided to use his woodworking background and local connections to make a difference.