Patrick Brody, assistant fire chief of administration, has been appointed San Angelo Fire Department's interim fire chief. Brody has been in the fire service since 2001, serving all 21 of those years with the SAFD. He has been in his current position as assistant fire chief of administration for three years. A press release from the City of San Angelo said Brody holds a master certification in both structural and aircraft rescue firefighting and is a certified incident commander, hazardous material incident commander and an incident safety officer. He and his wife, Kristy, have been married almost 25 years and have two sons, who are 17 and 18. Current Fire Chief Brian Dunn will retire from the San Angelo Fire Department February 25, 2022.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: South Padre Island officials are at the scene of a fire that broke out overnight at Pier 19. According to Fire Chief Jim Pigg, the call of a fire came in after 1 a.m. of a possible structure fire. They believe the fire started around midnight. Fire departments from Los Fresnos, Laguna Vista, and Port Isabel were called in to assist. As of 5:30 a.m., the fire had been contained but is still actively burning, according to Chief Pigg. The chief mentioned they are unable to access the fire directly because of the location of the restaurant. He added that overnight winds also might've fueled the fire. "The wind that was blowing we weren't able to get around the sides of it to get in there. Once the flames the breach, came outside the windows, there was just no way for us to get around it with the smoke and the heat so it continued spreading rapidly down the pier."  

After 30 years of working for the City of Orange, Deputy Fire Chief Lee Anne Brown announced her retirement effective March 11. Brown began her work with the City of Orange Fire Department Nov. 11, 1991, and held the ranks of firefighter, captain, battalion chief and deputy chief. While she was a battalion chief, Brown served as the Fire Marshal for six years and as Deputy Chief she has also served as the Emergency Management Coordinator of Orange for 8 years. After her retirement from the City, Brown plans to continue her fire career in the industrial setting, working for the Chevron Phillips facility in Orange. This will allow her to spend more time with her family and friends and her favorite pastime of horseback riding. A statement from the City of Orange said Brown has been invaluable in her leadership roles during her career.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Firefighters in Texarkana fought to contain a blaze that started in an abandoned building Tuesday afternoon. An abandoned hotel on the 5400 block North State Line Avenue near downtown Texarkana, Texas caught fire around 4:00 p.m. Flames were visible above the tree line as firefighters worked to bring them under control. Police blocked the lanes and rerouted traffic while firefighters worked to put out the blaze. A local man, Richard Johnson, saw the smoke as he was closing up after work nearby and captured footage of the fire. He says when he arrived the building was fully engulfed in flames and the hotel walls were collapsing. The cause of the fire is not yet known.  

The Amarillo Fire Department extinguished a house fire caused while the homeowner was attempting to thaw frozen pipes on Tuesday morning. According to AFD officials, at about 9:10 a.m., crews responded to a structure fire in the 1600 block of S. Garfield. The first arriving unit found flames and smoke coming from the back of the home. Firefighters pulled hose lines and made their way to the back of the property to begin extinguishing the fire on the outside, while another crew made entry into the home. The fire was brought under control within seven minutes. No one was injured as the occupants were outside when crews arrived. The Amarillo Fire Marshal's Office has ruled this fire as "accidental." The homeowner was trying to thaw frozen pipes from outside the house with an electric heat gun when the fire started and spread through the wall into the bathroom.  

Since mid-February, Texas A&M Forest Service has allocated state and federal resources across Texas. In the Coastal Bend, crews are currently stationed in Alice and Beeville. "We move resources around to where our areas of concern are at," said James Russell, the incident commander in Alice for TFS. Currently stationed in Alice are a helicopter, three brush trucks, a bulldozer and about 16 personnel. The crew and equipment come mostly from out of state. Natalie Nichols is one of those crew members, based out of Utah. She is an assistant engine captain for the Bureau of Land Management. "We go out and help with the wildfires that you guys see on TV," Nichols said. "We go support different agencies, different places nationally."  

Two firefighters were injured while battling a blaze at a grocery store in the Bronx Tuesday night. FDNY officials say the fire started just after 5 p.m. in the basement and first floor of Bravo Supermarket on Archer Street in the Van Nest section. They say the fire grew to four alarms and nearly 40 units and 170 firefighters worked to put it out. One firefighter was seriously injured and taken to Jacobi Hospital, although the injury is not believed to be life threatening. A second firefighter suffered a minor injury and was also transported to Jacobi Hospital. The fire has since been placed under control. Operations are ongoing and are expected to continue throughout the night. The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

Following the death of three Baltimore firefighters this year in the collapse of a vacant home, a member of Baltimore City Council has proposed a bill creating restrictions on when firefighters can enter vacant buildings and requiring firefighters to wear body cameras. The bill, introduced by Councilwoman Danielle McCray Tuesday evening, would bar city firefighters from entering vacant buildings if 25% or more of the structure has been consumed by fire. Additionally, firefighters could only enter a vacant building if the department "confirmed" an occupant was inside and "structural and hazardous conditions permit a safe entry." Firefighters would be barred from entering a collapsed structure unless someone's life is in immediate danger, according to the proposed legislation. The bill also requires firefighters to be equipped with a recording device that collects audio and video to be used only at the scene of fires.  

A Calvin man who lost his son due to a KIA Soul fire back in 2019 contacted KFOR wanting to once again share the family's tragic story after a new KIA recall. "We've had days that are okay, and we've had days that have not been very good," Robert Carlton told News 4. It's been almost two years since Robert and Becky Carlton lost their son, Jordan. "My wife, Becky, the situation that she was in, those memories will never leave," Robert said. Jordan and his mom were inside a 2019 KIA Soul, a rental, in Hawaii when it caught fire back in 2019. Both of them were seriously hurt. Jordan suffered from burns on more than 80 percent of his body. He died 14 months later. "No family should have to go through what we went through," Robert said.  

Across the University of Iowa's 175-year history, the campus community has experienced a wide-range of disasters including tornadoes, flooding, and fires. The most impactful events include the 2008 flood and fires at South Hall, the old library building, and the Old Capitol Building. The 2008 flood inflicted $750 million in damage to 22 campus buildings including the old Hancher Auditorium building, which was destroyed in 2013, and the Art Building, which has since been decommissioned. Mary Bennett, historian and archivist at the State Historical Society of Iowa, has lived through the three most recent disasters in her 50 years in Iowa City. Bennett graduated from the university in the 1970s. Bennett said she remembers the wide-ranging destruction caused by the 2008 flood and that generally, it was difficult to get around town with Dubuque Street and the Park Road Bridge submerged. "I think that the whole community was so impacted," Bennett said.