Firefighters from Bell County and the Texas A&M Forest Service converged on Still House Hollow Lake Sunday afternoon to battle a huge blaze that started in the Dana Peak Park area and jumped a road into a nearby neighborhood. Harker Heights Fire Department Chief Paul Sims said the 68-acre fire was reported at about Noon Sunday. It gained intensity, jumped Comanche Road, and spread into The Ridge, a nearby subdivision. The fire was reportedly 75 percent contained Sunday evening, said Bell County Spokesperson Victoria Wenkman. In between four to six homes were in danger, Sims said, but no injuries or damage to structures had been reported as of Sunday evening. "There were four to six homes that were directly in the path of the fire but the teams responded quickly and were able to knock the fire down and that helped contain it," Sims said.  

After serving 45 years with Travis County Emergency Services District No. 2, otherwise known as the Pflugerville Fire Department, Fire Chief Ron Moellenberg is retiring. A Sept. 23 news release from ESD 2 stated Moellenberg's last day will be Sept. 30. Moellenberg started as a volunteer with what was then called the Pflugerville Volunteer Fire Department before he became chief of the Pflugerville Fire Department in 1986, according to the release. Moellenberg also served in the U.S. Army, received a bachelor's in biomedical science from Texas A&M University, and worked for the Texas Department of Health-Immunization Division, where he was responsible for the development, coordination and management of rash-fever illness surveillance and measles control in Texas.  

The Cy-Fair Fire Department honored the life and legacy of one of their own on Sunday. Driver operator Hugo Guevara, 31, died Saturday after a three-week battle with COVID-19. Fire crews paid tribute to Guevara by coming together as his body was escorted from the hospital to a funeral home. Guevara is the first line of duty death in the Cy-Fair Fire Department due to COVID-19. The department says they're heartbroken and devastated by his death. Hugo was a big personality and was loved by everyone. "It's a lot of suffering right now. There's a lot of pain, but we're going to get through it and do what we need to do to provide great customer service and support our community," Asst. Chief Mike Clements said. The department asks to keep those closest to Hugo in your thoughts and prayers.  

Early Sunday morning, a train derailment in Smithville shut down State Highway 95 and prompted the evacuation of 20-25 families after the crash caused a chemical tanker on the train to spring a leak. At approximately 5:00a.m., a Union Pacific train carrying hazardous material derailed near the intersection of SH 95 and Martin Luther King Boulevard. Officials say that while the tanker cars were empty, some contained residual hydrochloric acid that then began to leak out. The Smithville Volunteer Fire Department and Smithville Police responded to the scene and set up a perimeter while waiting for hazmat crews to arrive. No injuries were reported, but several families were forced to evacuate in the early hours of the morning, as the air quality from the leaking tanker could prove to be hazardous.  

A handful of McLennan County residents suited up in firefighting gear last week for an up-close look at fire behavior and how it relates to firefighters' work. They were in the third week of the Waco Fire Department's first Citizens Fire Academy and will meet one more time. The program, offering classroom sessions and hands-on experience and demonstrations, is an idea Fire Chief Gregory Summers brought with him when he started in Waco in March of last year. He oversaw a similar program when he was chief in Little Rock, Arkansas. Lt. Eric Riser, who has been with the department for 23 years, said the program has been a blast, and participants will walk away with good information on the fire department and the fire-safety role they can play day to day.  

A San Antonio fire engineer died on Sunday after succumbing to complications of COVID-19, according to the San Antonio Fire Department. Joseph M. Faunce began working for the San Antonio Fire Department in 1989 and was most recently assigned to the Fire Training Division, the department said. "Joe was an extremely kind man and great friend to many in our SAFD family. The SAFD extends our most sincere sympathy and condolences to the Faunce family and want them all to know they will forever be part of our family," SAFD said in a news release. Funeral arrangements are still pending at this time.  

VIDEOS/PHOTOS: First responders and volunteers in Liberty County and surrounding counties quickly came together after an Amtrak train derailed just outside of Joplin on Saturday, September 25, 2021, leaving three people dead and dozens injured. A spokesperson for BNSF says the section of track where the derailment happened was last inspected on Thursday, September 23. The spokesperson also said the track can be repaired in as little as 14 hours after the National Transportation Safety Board completes its investigation, which usually takes a "single-digit number of days." All but five of the injured have been released from the hospital and are continuing to head west as the train was bound for Seattle. Many passengers were bused to Shelby where they stayed in hotels.  

The Valley Hispanic Bomberos, a nonprofit group made up of Hispanic firefighters, is rooted in culture and tradition with the goal of protecting their communities while mentoring others to join them in the fire service. The organization is made up of roughly 1,200 members, and for many of them, they serve the same communities they grew up in. "As our organization, we like to focus on the neighborhoods that most of us grew up in, you know – I grew up in Maryvale," Vice President of the Valley Hispanic Bomberos Greg Morales told KTAR News 92.3 FM. Morales prides himself in organizing and leading community events in neighborhoods with large Hispanic populations. Those events vary from drowning prevention, car-seat safety and anything that the firefighters can help educate their communities about.  

PHOTOS: After it was canceled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stephen Siller Foundation Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk resumed for 2021, where the organization said it expected more than 30,000 participants on Sunday. The route retraced the heroic steps of Siller, a New York City firefighter (FDNY), who lost his life on Sept. 11, 2001, starting on the Brooklyn side of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and proceeding through the tunnel and into lower Manhattan. The event was created by Siller's siblings, who wanted to honor the final steps of their brother, who strapped on his gear and ran through the tunnel to the Twin Towers to save people on that tragic day. The Siller siblings have built the Tunnel to Towers Foundation from a grassroots local organization to a national effort that makes sure heroic sacrifices by firefighters and police officers, as well as members of the U.S. military, are rewarded.  

McKeesport firefighters aren't just fighting fires and responding to car crashes, they're picking up school students stranded by the bus driver shortage. Only on KDKA, Meghan Schiller talks with the firefighter who answered the call and now spearheads an initiative to ease the stress on parents, students, and teachers. "We all live here, our kids go to school here, a lot of us grew up here, you know a lot of us will probably never leave here unless they throw us out," said McKeesport firefighter Kevin Kovach. Forget walking, biking or public transit. There's a new way for kids to get to school in McKeesport. As cities across the nation try to solve the bus driver shortage, firefighters in McKeesport came up with an idea. It doesn't involve the typical transportation, but it's a fire someone needs to put out.  

The Raritan Township Fire Company is raising funds to restore its gear and station after the remnants of Hurricane Ida deluged the building with flooding and water damage, rendering it uninhabitable for a few months. The storm inflicted damage on the whole station, including the firefighters' wooden gear lockers, walls, kitchen, generator, bay doors, and other pieces of equipment, said Chief Keith Paradiso. The kitchen was recently upgraded and will need to be replaced, along with the other gear, he said. It will be an ongoing process to assess what needs to be repaired or fully replaced. And the station itself is not currently operational, he said. "We are hoping to (have a) modified return this year, hopefully November, but there is still some work to determine that," he said.