VIDEO: A Fort Worth firefighter who was responding to a rollover crash was hit by a car and seriously injured. The accident happened Tuesday morning around 6:45 a.m. on Highway 114 near Interstate 35. Fort Worth Fire Department spokesman Mike Drivdahl said the firefighter was hit by the car as she was getting out of the fire engine. She was rushed to the hospital with serious lower-body injuries. Those injuries are not believed to be life-threating. The driver of the car did stop at the scene, Drivdahl said.  

Nestled in a creek bed with dense brush and at the bottom of a slight valley, the small town of Miami is perilously susceptible to catastrophic wildfires. In 2006, during one of the most destructive wildfires the Texas Panhandle town has seen, fires burned nearly one million acres and left 12 dead in the Miami area. In March 2019, the Texas A&M Forest Service launched the Texas Wildfire Ranch Program to help towns like Miami. The program focuses on creating fire barriers as a proactive approach to combating wildfires and maps private property to assist firefighters in making tactical decisions that reflect landowners' priorities. The program is important because Texas is especially vulnerable to wildfires, said Jim Cooper, assistant fire chief with the Texas A&M Forest Service.  

The evacuation continues around a gas well blow out near Marshall. Tanos Exploration has crews working to cap the well, but it hasn't happened yet. The Harrison County Fire Marshal spoke about how they are assisting the company. Harrison County Fire Marshal Thomas Mock says when the well began releasing gas their job was to: "Give notification to people in the area in the one-mile exclusion zone to evacuate," Mock said. And that still holds as crews work to cap the uncontrolled release. Tanos Exploration was quick to ask Mock, who is also Harrison County EOC Coordinator, to keep air traffic out of the area. "They did have a request to do a no-fly zone over the area, and so my office contacted the FAA out of Fort Worth to get that established," Mock said. There was a concern about blowing the gas around or worse yet igniting it.  

Crews from two departments responded late Monday morning to a cotton seed mill fire in the Downsville area south of Waco. They arrived to find a large amount of cotton burning in a building on the Rosenfeld farm at South 3rd Street and Rosenfled Road. Bulldozers were used to move the cotton out of the building. No injuries were reported. Firefighters from Downsville and Robinson responded to the fire, which was reported at around 11:50 a.m. Monday.  

A roughly 40-acre brush fire in Bastrop County that started Monday afternoon has been contained, city of Bastrop officials said Monday evening. The fire is at Texas 21 and FM 1441, several miles northeast of the city of Bastrop. Residents on Cassel Way may return to their homes, said officials with Bastrop County Emergency Services District 2. Firefighters will remain at the scene overnight, city officials said. Fire officials expect the fire to burn through Monday night into Tuesday. Firefighters are protecting all nearby structures, fire officials said.  

A fire broke out Monday afternoon at an abandoned home off North Port Avenue and North Blunzter Street. Officials said some homeless people were occupying the structure but no injuries were reported. The fire was kept under control and put out quickly, but did cause some smoke damage outside. Firefighters are still investigating to see what caused the fire.  

VIDEO: An OSHA report on the fire that left a fire captain dead and three other firefighters injured in Bethalto, Illinois, said communication problems contributed to the dangerous conditions at the fire. Godfrey Fire Captain Jake Ringering was killed in a fire at 4064 Culp Lane on March 5. An OSHA report of working conditions at the fire was completed in September and was released to 5 On Your Side Monday. The report highlighted multiple problems with the effort to extinguish the fire. The report said 911 operators failed to notify first responders that all the residents of the home safely escaped the home, failed to tell first responders that the home was a "hoarder house" and that leadership of the fire departments failed to properly check the scene.  

Since joining the Fire Department in 2006, Lieutenant Kyra Neeley King has not only seen a great melding of various rescue services — including medical professionals and firefighters — into a cohesive response force, but she's also witnessed these brave first responders serving a common purpose of helping New Yorkers. King, a liaison to Fire Commissioner Dan Nigro and a photographer, has brought that idea of common purpose to life in a new exhibit now on display at the Fire Museum in SoHo in Manhattan through January. Called "Brave Colors," the exhibit features photographs she has taken of the men and women of the FDNY, working at various scenes. The collection, however, speaks to the human element of being a member of this prestigious department, one of the largest in the nation.  

VIDEO: The New Bedford firefighters union is once again calling on the city to end its policy of "blacking out" certain engines when the department is short-staffed. The city's black out policy sometimes leaves one random truck unstaffed to save money. The department has been operating under the policy for at least ten years. The closest engine to the fire on Myrtle Street Saturday night that killed 88-year-old Robert Seamans was out of service. "I believe that there was a blackout at the fire department today and they were saying that's actually why there were not here on time," said neighbor Holly Thomas Saturday night. In October, 85-year-old Louise Barboza was killed in a space heater fire on Coffin Avenue. In both cases, the closest engine couldn't respond.  

PHOTOS: Julian Reams literally is leaving his mark on the St. Lucie County Fire District. Reams, 32, a firefighter with the agency, also is an accomplished artist from Miami, and he brought some of his artistic passion to his job as a first responder. Reams has painted three murals on as many fire stations, two of which are stations where he's been based since joining the agency in December 2012. "There's no rules to art; there's no age limit to it. It's for everyone," Reams said at Station 12 in Port St. Lucie. "I think that's the cool part about art, what I enjoy about it the most." At Station 12 on Southeast Village Green Drive, Reams painted an enormous mural of a firefighter's head with a helmet and self-contained breathing apparatus. The painting adorns the wall above some lockers, and is about as tall as Reams.  

VIDEO: As a singer-songwriter, Larry Long has made a career out of making music with a message, but he hopes his latest creation will strike a chord on the issue of firefighter health and wellness. "You can never predict where a song is going to go or the effect it's going to have, but time will tell," said Long, who is from south Minneapolis. Long came up with the idea for "Firefighter (Duty, Honor, Courage)" after tagging along with a group of firefighters as they put out a restaurant blaze over a decade ago. The song chronicles the challenges the public servants face both on and off the job, like cancer, heart attacks and emotional trauma, which they are twice as likely to experience than the regular population. "There hasn't been a lot of music written for the fire service and the journey that all of us firefighters are on," said George Esbensen, a retired Eden Prairie fire chief.