A Converse family is displaced after a lightning strike set their house on fire, according to the Converse Fire Department. The fire happened just before 10 a.m., Sunday, at a home in the 8400 block of Dusty Ridge. According to Converse Fire Chief Luis Valdez, firefighters arrived at the scene in a matter of minutes. Upon arrival, they saw heavy smoke and flames coming from the home's attic. According to Valdez, the department sent in several teams to control the fire and ensure the family's safety. The department also called in the Randolph Air Force Base Fire Department and Live Oak Fire Department to help get the fire under control. Valdez said the family was home at the time of the fire and had heard a "loud boom," following the lightning strike, and the power went out.  

The Canyon Lake area is benefiting from two new fire stations, each providing life-saving services to the community. Comal County Emergency Services Districts No. 2 and No. 3 recently opened the stations. Firehouse No. 56 at 1150 S. Cranes Mill Road in the Vintage Oaks area opened to calls Oct. 9, 2020. Firehouse No. 54 at 8685 Farm-to-Market Road 306, serving the River Chase area, opened Jan. 10. "We had a very long response times before each of these stations came on line," said Canyon Lake Fire and EMS Chief Darren Brinkkoeter, who estimated both new stations cut response times that previously exceeded 25 minutes down to 10 minutes or less. "It's absolutely a huge benefit for us our fire district, which covers 250 square miles, with Canyon Lake situated in the middle," Brinkkoeter said.  

VIDEO: Neighbors attempted to save a man who caught on fire after crashing his car in a ditch Saturday morning in east Harris County by dumping gallons of water on him. "We could not get the door open because the way the car was jammed into the ground," said Shuntay Montgomery. 'So, we couldn't get it. But we had it opened up just enough to keep pouring water on top of his body." The crash happened in the 2600 block of Broad Street in the community of McNair around 9 a.m., according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Derrick Tyler, 34, was driving home from his job at a metal plate pipe yard when deputies said it appeared he fell asleep, veered off the road and landed nose-down in a ditch. "She was pouring water over him while I was trying to open the doors, but we couldn't get the doors open," said Edgar Johnson, another neighbor.  

Students in the Texas A&M College of Geosciences and the Texas A&M chapter of Wine To Water donated three pallets of canned water to the College Station Fire Department. The water was originally sent to the university by Mananalu Water, a sustainability-focused can water company owned by actor Jason Momoa. The students say this was their way to help with the water crisis that has impacted millions in Texas. This year, students have delivered water filters and canned water to residents in need in Bryan, College Station, Waco, Corpus Christi, Rockport, Port Arthur, Livingston, Baytown, Elkhart, and Longview. "We're really here to kind of bring awareness as well as provide that relief to our first responders just to make sure they're taken care of because they do take care of us as well," said Bree Gonzalez, a Texas A&M student.  

One person was injured in a second fire in 48 hours at an abandoned building in south Austin. An Austin Fire Department shift commander said firefighters pulled the person from the building at 8530 South Congress Avenue around 5:45 p.m. Saturday. The area is west of Interstate 35 just north of Slaughter Lane. Austin-Travis County EMS medics took the person to the hospital with serious injuries. AFD responded to a trash fire there on Thursday around 8:15 p.m. No one was injured. The AFD shift commander said they believe people who are experiencing homelessness are staying inside of the building. The cause of the Saturday fire is under investigation.  

The Austin Fire Department said arson was the cause of a house fire in North Austin on Saturday morning. Fire crews were called to the scene of the single-family house at 5214 Avenue H around 7:30 a.m. AFD said the fire had moderate involvement when crews arrived. It is now under control. One resident is being treated for smoke inhalation. He will be transferred to jail when he is released from the hospital, AFD said. The house is a total loss after the fire, which caused $285,000 in damages, including $275,000 in structural damage and $10,000 in content damage. No other information is available at this time.  

Authorities are investigating the bizarre circumstances surrounding a car fire which sparked a large blaze at a gas station in Baldwin Park early Monday morning. The fire occurred at about 12:50 a.m. at a Mobile gas station in the 12600 block of East Ramona Boulevard near the 605 Freeway. Security video provided to CBSLA showed a car pull up to a pump. The driver gets out, walks around the car and appears to be speaking to someone on the passenger side when there is some kind of flash bang and the car starts smoking. A passenger then crawls out. The car caught fire and burst into flames. The fire then spread to the entire gas station pumping station. The gas station clerk also told CBSLA he saw the two men pouring gas on the car before it caught fire. "There's like a big explosion on the inside of the car, the car's on fire the guy jumps out, his face is like burnt, they're both like, they don't look they're normal, they're almost unfazed by it, even after he's burnt," the clerk said.  

Twenty-three years ago, a firefighter rushed into a burning home in Poughkeepsie with two young brothers inside. One of them died in the fire but the 3-year-old brother was rescued, and he reunited with the man who saved him over the weekend for the first time. William Porter is now retired and that little boy, Jacob Tsukroff, is now 26 years old. In a meeting arranged by Porter's daughter, the former Arlington Fire Department firefighter embraced with Tsukroff at the Poughkeepsie Elks Club on Sunday, LoHud first reported. They had only one brief exchange since that life-altering fire but Porter said the incident left an impact on him. "It was one of the biggest calls that stuck in my mind, one that had never really had closure to it. I always wondered how he was," Porter said. Before Porter retired two months ago, on the anniversary of the fire, his daughter Jessica Scalamandre wanted to give her father that closure so she tracked Tsukroff down.  

It has been a challenging year for all of us, but it has been especially hard for first responders and frontline workers who were struggling even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now these heroes on the front lines of community service are finding help through a new equine therapy program in Tucson healing with horses. Therapeutic Ranch for Animals and Kids (TRAK) launched its "Heroes First" program in 2020 with grant funding from the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. Erik Lindmark, a ranch hand at the Therapeutic Ranch for Animals and Kids, says the non-profit changed his life. "I talk, I have almost conversations with the horses and I go stall to stall and if I am having a bad day and I will talk to these animals and they listen if you look in their eyes they listen and they're responding to you," said Erik Lindmark, former New York Police Officer and volunteer at TRAK. Erik didn't always know his way around horses.  

Hundreds of emergency responders in Pennsylvania have been killed while providing roadside assistance. Beginning April 27, new changes to Pennsylvania's Move Over Law will take effect to prevent future deaths. In July 2020, Tyler Laudenslager was struck and killed by a driver while providing roadside assistance in Berks County on Interstate 78 west. The Halifax volunteer firefighter of 13 years left behind his wife Holly and their young daughter Riley. However, Laudenslager's towing company and fire department made sure Laudenslager's family knew they would not be alone. "Our family went from a very small family to a very large family between the H&S Towing family and the Halifax Fire Department," said Deb Laudenslager, Tyler's mother. On Saturday, emergency responders from all over gathered in Manheim, Lancaster County, to raise awareness about Pennsylvania's Move Over Law.  

More than 15% of the total U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With more than 143 million doses administered, over 93 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and more than 51 million people have been fully vaccinated. The vast majority of vaccines administered so far came from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. Johnson & Johnson has delivered nearly 5 million doses, according to the data. CDC's data tracker counts people as fully vaccinated if they got two doses on different days of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or received one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But the agency urges people to wait two weeks after their final shot to consider themselves fully vaccinated. While vaccination rates are climbing, so are cases. The seven-day average of daily cases continues to tick upward, with an average of nearly 57,000 cases being recorded every day.