In preparation to take a position as Little Elm's new fire chief, former Weatherford Fire Chief Paul Rust said he'll miss everything about Weatherford. "Obviously, I am going to miss [Administrative Assistant] Mrs. Angee [King-Bush] and the rest of my fire family here," Rust said. "I'm also going to miss the folks that work in the other city departments, the elected officials and city management. I will miss the community and my friends. I will mostly miss people, but I will also miss places like Shep's [Place], Heritage Park and downtown." The city of Weatherford announced last week on Facebook that Rust has resigned effective immediately. In the meantime, Jonathan Peacock will serve as the interim chief until a permanent leader is hired.  

Fire departments in Log Cabin, Trinidad, and other surrounding cities will supposedly share in response duties after the entire Malakoff Volunteer Fire Department resigned in unison Monday. Seventeen members of the city's volunteer fire department resigned during Monday night's city council meeting. The reason given was that there was a lack of communication between the city and the fire department. Also, officials allege the city was not paying bills incurred by their volunteer fire department. According to a UT Health EMS employee on the scene, surrounding fire departments — Log Cabin, Trinidad, and others — will respond to calls in Malakoff until further plans are made.  

A staff of over 500 paramedics cover and respond to more than a million people, according to Austin-Travis County EMS' website. With the average amount of 9-1-1 calls they receive each year exceeding 100,000, top-notch facilities aren't just nice to have, they need to have them. With an ever-growing population, those calls and their response times become more challenging. In February, an audit found Austin Police and Fire departments missed a number of their 9-1-1 response time goals, according to 2018 data. However, the same audit revealed that ATCEMS met most of its own. In light of such findings, more fire/EMS stations continue to reopen with improvements. ATCEMS continues to meet the challenge. They officially reopened another station Monday morning: EMS Station 11 in southwest Austin.  

Temperatures have been above average in late winter, but rainfall in the Rio Grande Valley has been practically non-existent. A stretch of exceedingly dry months has plunged Cameron, Willacy and Hidalgo counties into severe drought conditions, bringing concerns about water supplies, spring planting and cattle and raising the risk of wildfires across the region. To the west, conditions are even worse, with Starr, Jim Hogg, Zapata, Webb and Dimmit counties in extreme drought conditions, just one level short of the maximum condition of exceptional drought. Rainfall in February in the Rio Grande Valley was practically nil, with Brownsville receiving .10 inches, or 0.98 inches less than normal, Harlingen at 0.08 percent, down 1.33 inches from normal, and McAllen at 0.19 inches, or 0.92 inches under normal.  

A woman in a wheelchair was rescued during an apartment complex fire on Monday night, officials said. The fire happened at a complex on Gardina Street near Vance Jackson Road. The San Antonio Fire Department said everyone safely evacuated from the building, except for the woman in the wheelchair, who had to be rescued by crews. The fire started on the first floor of an apartment building and extended to the second floor and attic. The arson unit will investigate. No one was hurt. However, two families are now displaced.  

The Calvert Volunteer Fire Department received a grant by the Texas A&M Forestry Service for new gear and equipment. The Fire Department says the rural organizations exists solely on the goodwill of their volunteer force and it can be difficult to replace older gear as it degrades after years of heavy use in extreme environments. Within the grant was the ability to purchase approximately $15,000 worth of new gear that included 18 sets of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) suits that are dual certified for utility and wildland firefighting, 20 structural helmets and gloves, and 3 complete sets of Globe structural firefighting PPE to replace older gear. "Personal protective equipment (PPE) is so necessary for our firefighters and is extremely expensive," stated Assistant Chief Keith Petit.  

VIDEO: A new partnership hopes to increase the number of people in Indiana who can donate tissue after they die. The partnership is between Carmel Fire Department and Indiana Donor Network. The changes that this partnership brings could impact thousands of people a year. Organs cannot be donated from people who die outside of a hospital. "Historically in Indiana, those people who may die out of the hospital would never have the chance to become a tissue donor," said Logan Miller with Indiana Donor Network. By law, not everyone has to report when someone dies to the donor network. "In Indiana, the only people who are required to make a referral are hospitals. So if you pass away at a nursing home, if you pass away on hospice, if you pass away anywhere outside of a hospital, referrals are not made," Miller said. Carmel Fire Department knows the impact that a donation can have on a person's life.  

"This is - ‘Follow me, follow me, follow me.' Left, right, upstairs, basement, ‘Show me your basement.' That's a good question - ‘Where's your bedroom?' You would want to know ‘Is the baby in the bedroom?''' Cindy Hanzes, of Connellsville, demonstrated words in American Sign Language to firefighters attending a special class at the Morrell Volunteer Fire Company. Many of the words could apply to firefighters finding themselves in emergency situations involving people who are deaf or hard of hearing. The firefighters paid close attention, carefully shaping their fingers in imitation as they learned. Hanzes, a certified employment support professional for Blind and Vision Rehabilitation Services of Pittsburgh, became the teacher for this five-week class under arrangements made by Hear Fayette, a center for hearing loss assistance and community education, which operates under St. Vincent de Paul Society in Uniontown.  

The man who would become Patient Zero for the new coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. appeared to do everything right. He arrived Jan. 19 at an urgent-care clinic in a suburb north of Seattle with a slightly elevated temperature and a cough he'd developed soon after returning four days earlier from a visit with family in Wuhan, China. The 35-year-old had seen a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alert about the virus and decided to get checked. He put on a mask in the waiting room. After learning about his travel, the clinic drew blood and called state and county health officials, who hustled the sample onto an overnight flight to the CDC lab in Atlanta. The patient was told to stay in isolation at home, and health officials checked on him the next morning.  

A fire lieutenant used bad judgment when he tried to make a training exercise more realistic and ended up starting a blaze that injured a fellow firefighter, Fire Chief John Oates said Monday. Lt. Doug McKeon, a 21-year department veteran, was suspended without pay for 14 days in January and February, according to a disciplinary letter released after a Freedom of Information request. "Your unblemished record and many years of positive professional service were considered in contemplating this discipline," Oates wrote in the letter to McKeon, dated Jan. 16. "However, this level of failure by a Lieutenant cannot be tolerated." The town bought property at 1718 Main St. near Fire Station No. 2 as a prospective location for a new station. Before a vacant house on the property was torn down recently, the police and fire departments used the place for training, Oates said.