The DeSoto City Council has unanimously confirmed the appointment of a 21-year DeSoto Fire veteran as the city's new Fire Chief. According to the City of DeSoto, Bryan Southard has served as the department's second in command in the title of Assistant Chief since May of 2018. He succeeds Jerry Duffield who has served as DeSoto's Fire Chief for the past nine years, city officials said. "I have served in the DeSoto Fire-Rescue Department for more than 21 years in every possible rank, and consider every member of the department as family," said Southard. "I am excited in this new role to continue working with every level of this organization in providing first-rate fire services to the DeSoto community." City officials said Southard joined the department in March 2001, starting as a Firefighter and moving up to Engineer, Captain, Battalion Chief, EMS Battalion Chief, and Assistant Fire Chief.  

A collaborative team with City of Austin personnel and festival staff is geared up for anything. They are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. "Police, fire, EMS, transportation. We are all gathered to keep an eye on what's happening in the downtown area," said Sara Henry, communications manager with Austin Center for Events. They set up the South by Southwest Command Center on March 11. The city does this each year. "We've been doing this for many years, there are a lot of seasoned professionals in the room. All of these folks are there to help ensure public safety throughout the festival," said Henry. Downtown, ATCEMS officials have a set-up on 5th and Brazos Street, right in the thick of crowds. They are prepared to respond to any calls, including heat-related incidents and overdoses.  

PHOTOS: A fire on Tuesday in Atascosa County had burned an estimated 2,500 acres and had been 25 percent contained as of 8:20 p.m., according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The Christine Fire started around 2:30 p.m., according to a tweet from Inciweb, the national incident information system for wildfires. The Atascosa County Sheriff's office said the massive brush fire was located 12 miles south of Jourdanton. An Express-News photographer reported the brush fire burned near the San Miguel Electric Cooperative power plant. The photographer also reported that a helicopter and tankers belonging to Texas A&M Forest Service were used to fight the fire.  

VIDEO: As San Antonio firefighters worked to put out a fire in a building under construction just east of downtown, they also were concerned about the impact it might have to the homes of some people nearby. They found the wooden frame of what were going to be loft apartments, at the corner of Center Street and N. Swiss, fully engulfed in flames when they arrived around 3 a.m. Tuesday. RELATED: Apartment building under construction east of downtown burns to ground The fire crews, who had just put out another fire nearby, quickly realized this one had a head start. Parts of the structure were beginning to collapse, so all they could do was fight the fire from the outside. "Our main focus was making sure that building (next door) didn't catch fire, and also evacuating the tenants," said Battalion Chief Tony Rodriguez with SAFD.  

Wildfire activity is forecast to increase through Monday, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. 70 Texas wildfires burned over 15,000 acres since Saturday and the Texas A&M Forest Service said more activity is expected along and west of I-35 and into South Texas. "We've had a serious rainfall deficit, especially across the western two-thirds of our state and that's led to increasing drying of fuels. We also have an abundance of freeze cured grasses and fine fuels, which can start and spread fires very easily," said Walter Flocke, with the Texas A&M Forest Service. "Due to the critical amount of dry fuels that we have, the fire that started would spread very rapidly and be hard to contain immediately." As the Texas A&M Forest Service monitors for more wildfires, Tuesday night they updated the Buddy Fire that started Sunday in Blanco County to 1,456 acres and 100% contained.  

Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to mobilize state resources as Texas faces increased fire weather conditions this week. The National Weather Service warns high winds and low relative humidity has created heightened risk for wildfires in the western half of the state. According to the Texas A&M Forest Service, wildfire activity is forecast to increase along and west of I-35 and into South Texas through the weekend. An abundance of extremely dry dormant grasses and intensifying drought may produce large fires that are difficult to control when exposed to periods of elevated to critical fire weather. "The State of Texas remains ready to fully support local partners and communities that could be impacted by wildfires this week," said Governor Abbott.  

Smoke was visible miles away after a fire broke out Tuesday night in Milford, Massachusetts. Aerial footage showed massive flames engulfing a three-story building on Haven Street. Fire crews from Milford and multiple neighboring communities responded. No one was injured, fire officials said. Access to water was a problem for firefighters. "The challenge is that no hydrants are available, therefore we have to bring trucks in carrying thousands of gallons of water, and they rotate, and we pump their water and they go back and fill up again," said Milford Fire Chief Mark Nelson. "It's quite an operation, it's labor-intensive, and it takes more time." Crews managed to get the fire under control after about an hour, but continued to douse hot spots late Tuesday night.  

Researchers in Washington are updating a database on different types of fentanyl to keep first responders safe when they arrive to the scene of an overdose or crime scene. The idea is to put that information into a handheld device that officers or firefighters can use so they know if the substance they have found is dangerous. The Department of Homeland Security funded this project at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Washington State. Just like variants of COVID-19, there are different forms of fentanyl. Enterprise chemists work on analogs of the deadly opioid that are more addictive and easier to make. Overdoses from the opioid has become a big problem recently in Colorado. The state's health department found nearly half of the overdose deaths in 2021 involved fentanyl.  

It was March 25, 2018, and then high school standout Bones Hyland was in his room in his family's Delaware home after an AAU game. He was watching the Kansas vs. Duke Elite Eight game on his laptop and talking to a friend when his room started to fill with black smoke. The home was quickly engulfed in fire and Hyland was forced to jump from his second-story window to safety on the ground. In the fall, Hyland smashed his right knee into a brick staircase, tearing his patellar tendon and jeopardizing his basketball career. It could have been much worse, his grandmother and young cousin did not survive the fire. Those losses hit Hyland hard. Hyland formed a tight bond with the firefighters and first responders who helped save him and another cousin that day. When the Nuggets rookie came to Philadelphia Monday, Hyland met pregame with the firefighters from the station that helped him. They gave him a Wilmington Fire Department jacket.  

Sometimes, a life-changing experience can come from seemingly out of the blue. At least it appeared that way for Joshua Everetts, age 43, of Jenkintown. He lived in South Philly with his wife, Jovanna, for 15 years, but the two had decided that once their son, Raylan, was of school age that they would move out of the city to Jenkintown. They moved in October of 2019 and after a few months of settling in, the pandemic hit. The family suddenly found themselves unable to enjoy and venture out into their new community. While staying put in the house on lockdown, Everetts would unknowingly stumble upon an opportunity that would change his life forever. "One day I came across a post for ‘volunteers needed' for the Jenkintown Fire Department, so I jumped on the opportunity to get out of the house." Upon volunteering, Everetts was initially accepted into the department as a volunteer fire police officer, "which in itself, took quite a bit of training and also being sworn in by the mayor," he said.  

VIDEO: The BA.2 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant now makes up nearly a quarter of new COVID-19 infections nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Tuesday, up from around 1 in 10 new cases just a week prior. Since January, Omicron has made up virtually all new infections in the U.S. Like in many countries abroad, most cases in the U.S. had been caused by a sub-lineage of Omicron known as BA.1. But while both BA.1 and BA.2 can be traced back to some of the earliest samples gathered of Omicron, BA.2 has only recently begun to climb in prevalence. BA.2's prevalence is the highest in the Northeast, according to the CDC's "Nowcast" estimates published Tuesday. In the region spanning New York and New Jersey, the agency estimates 39.0% of circulating viruses are BA.2.