A 70-year-old man was pulled out of a house fire Monday morning in the 400 block of Bear Canyon Drive in Manchaca. He later died, officials said. Travis County ESD 5 Public Information Officer Chris Barron said the fire started around 8:30 a.m. in a common area of the home, and then spread throughout the house via the attic. He said crews performed CPR on the man, but he died. No one else was hurt. The fire is under control, Barron said. Manchaca Fire, Austin Fire and ATCEMS all responded to the scene. The cause is under investigation.  

Deep inside an unmarked building not far from City Hall, Fort Worth city leaders are coordinating the response to the coronavirus. Fort Worth Fire Chief Jim Davis gave NBC 5 a tour of the Emergency Operations Center. "Here at the front, you have a situational awareness table," Davis said, pointing to a group of employees huddled around computer screens. They track what's going on, even monitoring local TV news broadcasts, so the city can respond in real-time. Other groups focus on supplies -- searching for hard-to-find protective equipment for first responders. "And they've been working tirelessly to make sure they're in contact with vendors, working with the city purchasing department," Davis said. The emergency center employs about 12 people full-time but swells to several times that number during a crisis like this.  

The coronavirus is having an impact on first responders in North Texas. Plano, Dallas and Fort Worth have all announced recent cases of COVID-19. Dallas Fire-Rescue said its firefighters have also been exposed. Three Dallas firefighters recently tested positive for COVID-19. Jim McDade, the president of the Dallas Fire-Rescue Association, said he has talked to the sick firefighters and all are doing well. But because of close contact, 28 other firefighters are now in quarantine. "Right now the number, we have about 28 people who are quarantined. We've had a total of 47. We had a few people whose test results came back negative so that's released a few people from quarantine. Because if one person on a crew gets sick, the entire crew will get quarantine," McDade said.  

Many people working from home are using electronics like laptops more often than they normally would. And fire officials report they're seeing an uptick of incidents at homes. Edinburg Fire Chief Shawn Snider says one fire they went to this past week was actually caused by a laptop. "It sat there and it was being charged but it got overheated and it set the bed on fire so just make sure that your laptops that they're sitting on a hard surface where there's actually an opening under that allows ventilation to occur," says Snider. Snider stresses that with more people at home now, everyone should have an evacuation plan and check their smoke detectors.  

Furloughs and cancellations over the novel coronavirus did not stop a Houston boy from the birthday of a lifetime thanks to firefighters. Jason "Pablo" Johnson was supposed to have his third birthday party Monday with friends and family. COVID-19's grip on the globe meant that his mother had to get creative. Rochelle Johnson enlisted her neighbors' help for a "birthday drive-by car parade" filled with well wishes, colorful signs and presents, which was more than any child could want given the circumstances. But what's a parade without a fire truck? She tried, in vain, to get an official Houston Fire Department-sponsored visit, but the department initially declined. Social distance guidelines for HFD meant firefighters did not make any special appearances, but that didn't cut it for the mother.  

The three largest public safety agencies in Franklin County will no longer release the number of personnel who have tested positive for the new coronavirus, the agencies said Monday. The Columbus Divisions of Fire and Police and the Franklin County sheriff's office all cited consultations with legal counsel. "It has been determined that the impact of COVID-19 on staffing numbers is considered part of our critical infrastructure, and therefore protected information," the sheriff's office said in a release. Representatives of the police and fire divisions echoed the sheriff's office stance. As of Sunday, the fire division had eight firefighters who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Of those, six were recovering at home, and two had returned to work after they were no longer considered contagious.  

If you go outside at sunset, listen in the distance and you may hear something you don't hear too often. Each night at dusk, bagpipes and drums will echo through neighborhoods across the country. "You should listen at sunset -- there are pipers and drummers all across the area," Thomas Johnson, a captain with Aurora Fire Department told FOX31. The movement is called "Sunset Solidarity" and encourages Scottish drummers and bagpipers to play outside their homes at sundown. "The pipes have a centuries-long tradition of inspiring courage and resolve to people in times of distress," Johnson said. Johnson is a piper with the Colorado Emerald Society. The band is made up of first responders from 24 police and fire agencies across Colorado. Their primary mission is playing at line-of-duty death funerals for police and firefighters.  

Sometimes miracles happen because every little thing goes right. And people involved are smart and creative and fearless. This is the story of a hairstylist, a team of automotive prototype designers and a massive global company that in just a few days went from creating high-tech cars guided by artificial intelligence with the use of robots to old-fashioned built-by-hand assembly the way things were done back in the 1900s. It sounds like a Hollywood movie script. It was, in fact, real life in Detroit in the time of the novel coronavirus. Ford Motor executives issued a call to action March 19, after receiving an alert from the Mayo Clinic. Ford immediately assembled a task force to address the personal protective equipment shortage.  

In a joint letter, members of Staten Island's political delegation today called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio to work with relevant pension boards to ensure that first responders and other essential employees who die as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) be guaranteed contractual line-of-duty death benefit and payments. "There cannot be any uncertainty about death benefits as we are sending our first responders and essential workers into potential danger," said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore). "We must at least take this stress off their shoulders." The letter, signed by Borelli, Borough President James Oddo (R), Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid Island), and others, comes as the FDNY reported the busiest five days for the EMS in its history last week. The coronavirus has also deeply affected the NYPD, which has 930 employees who tested positive as of Monday.  

After the recent signing of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act by President Donald J. Trump, International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) President, Fire Chief Gary Ludwig, expressed mixed emotions about the stimulus package. "While I am pleased that Congress and the President took action to help those who are suffering economically by allocating federal money for hospitals, law enforcement, educational institutions, airlines, and drug companies, I am extremely disappointed that federal funding desperately needed by the American fire and emergency medical services was largely overlooked," Chief Ludwig said. Law enforcement agencies, by comparison, received $850 million in the stimulus bill versus only $100 million for the fire service.