A firefighter collapsed with a possible heart attack and had his heartbeat reestablished with an AED while responding to a large grass fire in Colorado County Tuesday, Feb. 8, according to a statement from Columbus VFD. "We were dispatched to a large grass fire off of FM 949 and Pleasant Trails Road," stated CVFD's release. "While attacking the fire line a firefighter collapsed with a possible heart attack. It happened in the presences of Columbus, Bernardo and Garwood Firefighters and our on scene EMS crew." The unconscious firefighter was quickly tended to by fellow first responders who fought to keep him alive, according to CVFD's recount. "The firefighter lost his pulse and the crew sprang into action. They started CPR with CVFD's AED and oxygen bottle and mask off of our command unit 1470," read Tuesday's release.  

VIDEO: A house fire overnight on the city's East Side has left a woman dead and a man suffering from burns. San Antonio firefighters found both of them after answering a call about the fire after 1 a.m. Thursday. They say when they arrived in the 200 block of Utah Street, the man, who fire crews described as elderly, already had escaped the burning home. However, he suffered burns and had to be taken to a hospital. Firefighters attempted to go into the home to rescue the woman, who was believed to be in her 90s. Heavy flames and smoke, though, caused them to retreat. When they did reach the woman, she already was dead. Fire investigators spent more than three hours at the scene looking for the cause of the fire, but did not immediately release their findings. Later they said the cause was an overturned space heater.  

PHOTOS: An Overton convenience store sustained extensive damage in an overnight fire, according to the Rusk County Office of Emergency Management. The fire happened at the Quick Track #38 Exxon on South Commerce Street in downtown Overton. Crews from the Overton and New London fire departments responded. Arriving crews found heavy fire coming from the building and were able to quickly bring the fire under control, according to Rusk County OEM. One firefighter did suffer minor injuries while fighting the fire. Details on the injuries were not immediately available. No word on the cause of the blaze.  

Houston will see its first changes to city events, three months after the Astroworld tragedy in 2021. Mayor Sylvester Turner joined Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia Wednesday morning to announce a new task force focused specifically on how special events are organized in the Houston area. The Special Events Task Force will review and make recommendations to improve communication, protocols, and permitting requirements in the city and county. "It's about looking to the future, and not back on any one incident," Turner said. Local leaders said they're doing this to ensure consistent operational standards for future events. They worked together to appoint 10 industry leaders to serve on the task force. "The line of demarcation between the city and county properties is invisible to the public," Turner said. "Together, we can build upon our individual achievements by working more collaboratively through our governmental processes, coordinating collaboration and communication."  

After hearing emotional pleas from people whose dogs died in a fire at a pet boarding business last year, the Georgetown City Council has approved requiring all existing animal care or boarding facilities to have supervised fire alarm systems. It also approved more advanced fire code requirements for any animal care or boarding facility to be built in the future. The systems must be installed within 18 months and are designed to alert a monitoring company that then contacts the Georgetown Fire Department if an alarm goes off. The council passed the measure on Tuesday, more than four months after 75 dogs died in a fire on Sept. 19 at the Ponderosa Pet Resort in Georgetown. The facility had no fire alarms but was not required to have any at the time. Fire officials have not determined an exact cause of the fire but have cited six theories about how electrical malfunctions could have ignited the blaze.  

The Amarillo Fire Department will be receiving a check from the 100 Club of the Texas Panhandle to purchase safety equipment for the crew. After sending the 100 Club a list of needs, their board voted on and approved purchasing 21 ballistic vests and 20 helmets. "This purchase will double the amount of protective equipment we have on hand in case our response to a hostile incident were to ever occur," said the release. The 100 Club is also buying a Roll N Rack hose rolling system for the department. The device can be taken to large scenes to help the firefighters return service more efficiently. The Roll N Rack equipment will also help expedite the annual hose testing process which includes service testing for the inventory of several miles of firehouse.  

While responding to an emergency on East John Street Wednesday morning, Champaign Fire Department's Ladder 161 was involved in a two-vehicle accident at the intersection of Neil and Green streets. Police said a firefighter on Ladder 161 and the occupant of the second vehicle were both treated on scene and were taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. According to officers, Ladder 161 was eastbound on Green Street and collided with the southbound blue Chevy Malibu at the Neil St. intersection. Both vehicles sustained moderate damage and had to be towed from the scene. Police are investigating the cause of the accident.  

PHOTOS: The new Westridge Commissary was a dramatic addition to Casper's expanding edges when it opened in 1950. The new shopping center was the second operation opened by Commissary Inc., which operated what was likely Casper's first modern full-service grocery store on 442 E. Yellowstone. By all accounts, the shopping center continued to stay busy with business as usual. However, that all changed on a memorable Sunday in April 1972. According to newspaper accounts, a night watchman was inside the store when smoke was first seen in the back of the building. At about 9 p.m., crews at Fire Station No. 2 just across 15th street soon noticed flames escaping out vent shafts. "This fire was going real good when they first noticed it," Fire Chief B.J. McCarrel told the Casper Star-Tribune. Crews tried to pry open a rear door to the building, but the steel door had been barred shut. "If we could have got into the building we could have saved the building," said McCarrel.  

Hyundai and Kia are telling the owners of nearly 485,000 vehicles in the U.S. to park them outdoors because they can catch fire even if the engines have been turned off. The recalls from the two Korean automakers are another in a long string of fire and engine failure problems that have dogged the companies for the past six years. This time the problem is contamination in the antilock brake control module that can cause an electrical short. This increases the risk of fire while the vehicles are being driven or are parked. Affected are certain Kia Sportage SUVs from 2014 through 2016, and the 2016 through 2018 K900 sedan. Recalled Hyundais include certain 2016 through 2018 Santa Fe SUVs, 2017 and 2018 Santa Fe Sports, the 2019 Santa Fe XL and 2014 and 2015 Tucson SUVs. The automakers say they have 11 reports of fires in the U.S. but no injuries.  

First H.E.L.P. and FirstNet, built with AT&T, have teamed up to provide dozens of communities and thousands of first responders with world-class mental health training through First H.E.L.P.'s #ResponderReadiness Workshop Series. First H.E.L.P. Chief Learning Officer Joe Willis worked with AT&T to organize these training opportunities for first responders across the country. Many of the nation's emergency response teams are rural and covered by small groups of dedicated and often under-resourced first responders that rely on regional dispatchers. For most of these men and women, mental health training is a necessary tool, but often it goes unfunded. AT&T is working to ease the burden for these communities by providing high-quality training at no cost.  

How did a late Portsmouth volunteer firefighter's helmet end up in Ohio? No one can say for certain, but a few city Good Samaritans caught wind of its whereabouts and felt compelled to bring it back to the Seacoast The family of former Portsmouth Fire Department "call man" Stanley Pizz, a Port City native who fought fires from 1955 through 1979, has been given his old helmet, slightly singed from experience and emblazoned with his last name on the back. How was it located? Just before the New Year, a former city firefighter was browsing eBay and recognized the helmet as being one from the olden days of his previous employer. On Tuesday afternoon at the department's downtown central station, Portsmouth Fire Chief Todd Germain called together a meeting between Pizz's relatives, the former city firefighter who called attention to the helmet's online listing, and the city Realtor who bought the helmet in order for it to be returned to the Pizz family.