Killeen Police and Fire Departments are investigating the death of a woman from an apartment fire. Officers were dispatched to the 4300 block of Lake Road early Monday morning in reference to a structure fire. When officers arrived, firefighters with the Killeen Fire Department were already on scene and making entry into one of the apartments due to heavy smoke. One woman was found inside, and paramedics immediately started life-saving measures. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:44 a.m. by Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke. He ordered an autopsy to be performed at the Southwestern Institute of Forensics Sciences in Dallas. The name of the victim has been withheld, pending notification next of kin.  

One person was transported to the hospital after an apartment fire in northeast Houston early Tuesday morning. The fire was reported around 3:30 a.m. in the 5800 block of Liberty Road near Easy Street. When firefighters arrived, there was fire visible in one of the units. Officials say two of the seven units were damaged. One person was injured and transported to the hospital, fire officials say. That person's condition is unknown at this time. The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

VIDEO: On March 7, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo honored first responders. The First Responders Day Honor and Awards Ceremony was held at NRG Center at 5 p.m. The day is meant to celebrate what it means to be a first responder. They consistently show compassion, bravery and they take action during uncertain times. At RodeoHouston, they ring a bell three times to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This year, there were 41 first responders from 22 agencies who lost their lives in the line of duty. The First Responder of the Year honorees are nominated by various law enforcement and firefighting agencies across the eight counties that make up the Houston metropolitan area. In 2022, the Rodeo recognized 15 individuals and one group that showed innovation, exhibited bravery and performed life-saving efforts.  

The Amarillo Fire Department reports that crews responded to a structure fire and saved one puppy, in the 1000 block of North Hayes at around 11:28 a.m., Monday. According to AFD, when crews arrived they noticed heavy smoke coming from a detached garage of the house and quickly extinguished the fire. AFD said crews found a puppy in the garage that is doing fine, and no injuries were reported. The Amarillo Fire Marshall's Office determined that the fire was accidental due to a space heater that was placed too close to a mattress. AFD said it wants to remind people to never place a space heater near combustible material and to leave at least three feet of clearance around a heater.  

The Celina Professional Firefighters Association 5153 and Neighbors United will partner to host its inaugural #WalkForTheRed140 fundraising event on Thursday at the historic Celina Downtown Square. #WalkForTheRed140 is a four-day 140-mile walking event that was created to bring awareness and support firefighters who are battling cancer or have lost their lives to the disease. Neighbors United, a grassroots organization that assists families dealing with terminal illness, death in the family, or those affected by house fires, started the event in 2019 after cancer was named the leading cause of death for firefighters. "The WalkForTheRed140 is about standing up for your brothers and sisters currently fighting or who have fought the No. 1 enemy of the fire service – cancer," the association stated.  

A series of overdoses in Austin that killed two and sent a dozen people to the hospital is now at the center of a statewide investigation. Xylazine, a drug used in veterinary medicine, is at least partially responsible for the increase in opiate overdoses in Austin over the past week, according to the Austin-Travis County Office of the Chief Medical Officer citing local hospitals. For animals, the drug can be used as a sedative, pain reliever, muscle relaxer or induce vomiting, according to a Facebook post from the office which also noted human studies on the drug were halted due to side effects including depression, blurred vision and hypotension. The post noted an "increase in opiate overdose incidents" and comes after two people died Friday in overdoses near Austin's Sixth Street area. Early Friday morning, officials said they responded to seven overdose situations, with 13 ambulances taking over a dozen people to the hospital.  

A father and his 2-year-old were safe after the toddler was tossed to safety from a second-story window during an apartment fire in New Jersey on Monday, authorities said. The rescue, which was was captured on video from different angles, involved officials from the South Brunswick Township Police Department and Chief Chris Perez of the Monmouth Junction Fire Department. "We thought the building was evacuated, and then there's somebody at the window and then we said, 'Oh my God, he has a baby,'" police Sgt. John Penney told NBC New York. After the boy was thrown to rescuers, his father, who has not yet been publicly identified, dropped from the second floor. His fall was broken by rescuers and shrubbery surrounding the building, police said.  

Though the Alexandria Fire Department doesn't have any female firefighters, the city's Board of Works and Safety on Monday voted unanimously in favor of a contract that would double the number of weeks for paid maternity leave from four to eight. Capt. Adam Matson said the newly approved contract also provides three days of paternity leave. "I don't know of a lot of fire departments that have maternity leave," he admitted. "We've made great strides to get it to eight weeks. We're hoping in '23 to go to 12." The Family and Medical Leave Act makes unpaid leave available to new parents working for larger employers. The Alexandria Fire Department has offered four weeks of paid maternity for the past four years, Matson said. The department doesn't have any current job openings, but Matson said he hopes the paid maternity and paternity leaves will be attractive to future candidates.  

VIDEO: A firefighter drill in Georgia turned into a surprise marriage proposal. Two Savannah fire stations partnered for a training session Wednesday, but unbeknownst to one firefighter, that wasn't the real purpose of the day. In fact, there wasn't going to be a drill at all. Tyler Carlson was blindfolded and sent into a burn building to find a downed firefighter. "My captain told me I was the lead and to go first," she said. "He was very adamant on that! I started searching...and then once I came to the end of the hose line, then told me to stop and remove my blindfold." She was shocked to see her boyfriend, Savannah Fire Capt. Bill Barrett, in front of her. Even before she took off her helmet, she could see he was on one knee with a ring in hand.  

In 2010, an East Tennessee firefighter by the name of Michael Robinson saw first-hand how hot a burning building can be when he almost watched his partner die from overheating. "We didn't have anything to help us cool off. We had some lukewarm bottles of water, a cold towel around his neck and it could have turned out a lot different but we saved him," said Robinson. Shortly after that happened he decided to take matters into his own hands and create the Heatseeker H2O, which acts as a nozzle you hook up to a fire engine that provides a cool mist to help first responders cool off. Robinson said with about 70 pounds of gear, and extreme heat, the elements can "literally cook our body" while responding to fires. The mist provided by the Heatseeker H2O can cool a first responder off as much as 30 degrees.  

Two years after COVID-19 first forced widespread closures in the U.S., Americans are more optimistic about the trajectory of the pandemic than they have been since last June before the delta and omicron variants of the virus swept through the country. As COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths continue to decline, Americans' concern about contracting the disease has dropped precipitously. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Americans' views of it have tracked closely with the ebbs and flows in COVID-19 cases. That is, during periods of high transmission and infection, the public has evaluated the situation as worsening, and when the virus has receded somewhat, assessments have turned more positive.