VIDEO/PHOTOS: A downtown Kyle bar was destroyed by a fire early Thursday morning. It isn't clear what started the fire at Papa Jack's, located at 108 W. Center St. in Kyle. According to a city official, smoke was rolling from an alley next to the building when crews arrived. The Kyle Fire Department said the roof collapsed during the fire, and it received the call at 1:50 a.m. No injuries have been reported. Another business, Jack's Axes, is connected to the bar. KFD said Center Street is closed through downtown due to the fire. KXAN's photographer at the scene spoke with people who live nearby and work there. "We got some tweets and snaps that Papa Jack's was on fire, and we didn't believe it," said Dana Davila. She works at Papa Jack's and said she closed the bar Wednesday night.  

The Trophy Club Town Council approved a grant application at its Jan. 25 meeting in an attempt to increase staffing in the fire department. Since 2018, the Trophy Club Fire Department has been requesting to add three additional full-time firefighters, according to the agenda packet. Only five full-time employees are permanently assigned to each of the department's three shifts. "This has come at considerable expense not only with increased overtime costs but has negatively impacted firefighter health and safety," the packet stated. The fire department's current financial situation doesn't allow it to hire more than one full-time firefighter per year over the next three years, according to the packet. But that "does not immediately solve the pressing issue of overworking firefighters," the document stated.  

The Jacksonville Public Safety Complex, which houses first responders, is the culmination of a $10-million project that took two years to complete. The 29,000-square-foot facility is located at 911 S. Bolton Street in Jacksonville. Police Corporal Amanda Braggs said the complex provides much needed space and new technology for the police department and the fire department, as well. Jacksonville's Police Department moved into the new building back in December after being delayed due to COVID-19. The city's fire department is scheduled to move in within the next few months. The complex includes new dispatch monitors, more space for city meetings, and the latest in technology. "We only had four of the old jail cells that we were utilizing as evidence storage at the old facility, and here we have the rolling storage," said Bragg.  

Nora Coronado is the administrative assistant for the Mathis EMS Department. Usually she sits behind the scenes answering phone calls with "Mathis EMS. This is Nora. How can I help you?" But now she's training to be an EMT through a course the Annaville Fire Department is offering for free. "I live here in town and I just thought it would be something that would help our community," she said. The course is teaching Coronado and 24 others the skills they'll need on the field, like how to take blood pressure, how to perform CPR and how to listen to lungs. When asked about how she's feeling about getting out on the field, Coronado responded with, "exciting, nervous, but hey, I'm in it for the ride." However, it's been a rough ride for the Mathis EMS Department.  

Four months after a fire quickly started at Ponderosa Pet Resort, a dog boarding facility in Georgetown, fire officials are still investigating what sparked the fire, which eventually killed 75 pets. However, the fire chief is proposing amendments to the city's code. Seventy-five dogs died after a fire started at the Williamson County boarding facility on Sept. 18, 2021. No smoke alarms or sprinklers were in the building and no one on staff was at the facility at the time of the fire. At a Georgetown City Council meeting Tuesday, Jan. 25, Fire Chief John Sullivan said he has put together a series of code revisions that animal housing or care facilities would be required to follow if approved by the City of Georgetown.  

Crews have put out a fire at a condo in west Austin, the fire department said. Assistant Chief Andre De La Reza with the Austin Fire Department said the fire started Wednesday afternoon in a third-floor unit at 6000 Shepherd Mountain Cove. He said crews could see the heavy plume of smoke coming from the condo building well before they arrived on scene. De Le Reza said firefighters saw the condo's balcony fully engulfed in flames, which then extended into the attic. They attacked it from the outside before moving inside to make sure no one was in the condo. Officials tweeted the fire went to a second alarm. Ultimately, 16 different units with 67 firefighters responded to the fire as well as four of the city's 13 aerial devices.  

A garbage truck burst into flames in a neighborhood in Fresno on Wednesday afternoon – and the fireball was caught on camera. The Fresno Fire Department says the truck caught on fire in the area of Willow and Perrin avenues. A video shows intense flames and heavy black smoke billowing from the front of the truck. Officials say the garbage truck had been picking up trash in the neighborhood when a mechanical issue caused it to catch fire. The driver was able to get out of the truck without being injured and started working on trying to put the flames out. After being unable to extinguish the fire, the driver backed a safe distance away from the truck and waited for crews to arrive. A nearby car was damaged in the fire but firefighters were able to contain the flames before they could spread to any of the surrounding homes.  

VIDEO: When people call for an ambulance in Sackets Harbor, New York — and the crew shows up at their door — almost everyone has the same reaction. "A lot of people just come up and ask you, 'Wait, how old are you?'" Cooper Antonson said. "'You're the EMT?!'" Grayden Brunet said of how people have reacted. "We just explain to them — we are the ambulance," Niklas Brazie said. These baby-faced first responders took over the town's Emergency Medical Services not long after COVID-19 hit, when all the older EMS volunteers either couldn't — or wouldn't — do the job anymore. That exodus is part of a national trend. In rural America, 35% of ambulance services are all-volunteer. And 69% of those departments say they're struggling to find help.  

With a family of five dead in an unsolved house fire, night-vision images of the masked suspects haunted the metro for months — until Google led police to the accused killers. At age 16, Kevin Bui and Gavin Seymour — along with another teen charged as a juvenile — were arrested on counts of first-degree murder and more in the August 2020 killings in Green Valley Ranch. It took months before a break in the case, with the community fearful it was a targeted hate crime against the Senegalese immigrants who lost their lives. But newly released arrest documents show how police connected the teens to the crime scene through their Google searches, placed them at the fire through their Snapchat location data and read their messages to learn the arson was a case of misdirected revenge in a drug trafficking scheme.  

First responders face many risks, but for firefighters especially there is real concern about the risk of cancer. "Firefighters are at an increased risk for some types of cancer. Since 2015, over 70 percent of line of duty deaths has been because of cancer," said Natasha Schaefer Solle, Ph.D., who is the Co-Deputy Director for the Firefighter Cancer Initiative with the University of Miami's Sylvester Cancer Center. On Wednesday, Dr. Schaefer Solle and her team were at Hialeah's Fire Station 1 to screen firefighters there for cancer. "We've actually had a clinic for the last two years, and because of the feedback of firefighters of bringing the services to them, because of their work schedule, we really took it to heart, and now we are at the stations with them," said Dr. Schaefer Solle.  

To recruit new officers and firefighters and keep current employees local, one metro city is offering a new incentive. The City of South Fulton unveiled a program for housing allowance up to $450 a month toward rent or mortgage payments. The pilot program, which is open to 25 people, will run from Feb. 1 until Sept. 30, but applications are due Friday. The incentive is part of the city's efforts to encourage more public safety workers to live in South Fulton communities. The city says about 27% of workers currently live in South Fulton. About 58% say they are interested in relocating to the city. "Competition for experienced and skilled public safety employees has ramped up in the last year or two," City Manager Tammi Saddler Jones said. "This program allows us to employ the best in the field who will become even more qualified to serve our city because they live here."