VIDEO: Bryan's new Fire Chief is now part of the community. Richard Giusti was sworn in Tuesday afternoon at Fire Station 1. He's coming to the community after serving as an Assistant Chief in San Antonio. Giusti has been a firefighter for 34 years. "Number one, the fire service is about serving the community. Being a public servant. There's no greater honor I believe as far as our fire department, like I talked about here, to let our fire department know what my main priorities are. Number one it's a round trip ticket for our firefighters," said Giusti, when talking about keeping his men and women with the department safe. "Well we're very excited to welcome Chief Giusti into the community. He's going to serve the Bryan College Station community well," said Bryan Mayor Andrew Nelson.  

A fire near the old drill tower for the Austin Fire Department spread to the tower itself on West Cesar Chavez Street in downtown Austin Thursday night. The Buford Tower was built in the 1930s, according to the Texas State Historical Association, and stands about 67 feet tall. Originally called "The Old Fireman's Practice Tower," TSHA says it was used as a training facility for local firefighters. As of 9:30 p.m., AFD says the fire is under control, and the damage is mostly on the outside and windows. The department says the fire was a homeless camp fire. TSHA says while the tower was used for many decades, by the 1970s it became unsafe to set fires for training due to the city's growth. The tower was dedicated in 1978 and named for AFD veteran Capt. James L. Buford, who died about six years earlier trying to rescue a teen who ended up drowning in flood waters from Shoal Creek, according to AFD.  

Jesus Garza Jr. has been fighting the effects of COVID-19 since he got the virus in January. He was hospitalized all of February, getting admitted because his oxygen levels were below normal, during which he was on a ventilator. While at the hospital he got Bronchitis and Pneumonia, which lead his lungs to be scarred. He was sent home with an oxygen tank, which he was on for two weeks. Now, he said he gets tired quicker and being in bed for three weeks has caused his legs to become weak, so walking is hard. He said he has to wait 90 days to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but doctors say he has the antibodies. He's back at work but his role has changed, not allowing him to be on scene during fires, so he works remotely. He has to communicate through text or radios with his crew, but he said sometimes it's hard getting a response back because they're working.  

The state-sponsored homeless camp in southeast Austin caught fire early Friday morning. The Austin Fire Department says four of 11 units there suffered damage but no one was hurt. AFD said the fire started around 4:20 a.m. Friday. They have not yet determined a cause, but the occupant of the area where the fire started said it was some sort of electrical fire. More than 100 people live at the encampment. It exists on land the Texas Department of Transportation owns off U.S. Highway 183 near Montopolis. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott first designated it as an encampment site in November 2019 during one of the flashpoints in the debate over Austin's homelessness policies. Last year, residents voted to call this camp the Esperanza Community. Firefighters say this was actually the third homeless camp fire of the night.  

VIDEO: A chase came to a fiery end and two were killed, including an innocent driver, in west Houston early Friday morning. It happened just after 4 a.m. on the northbound feeders of the West Beltway at Clay Road. A Harris County Precinct 5 deputy constable was driving on the West Beltway when the driver of a red Camaro sped by without headlights on, authorities said. That's when the deputy attempted to pursue the driver. Pct. 5 officials say the Camaro was traveling up to 100 mph. The driver momentarily slowed down but took off again. The deputy was not able to keep up because the Camaro was traveling so fast, the constable's office said. After about a four minute pursuit, the Camaro exited the Beltway at Clay Road and struck an innocent driver in a Ford Ranger at the intersection. By the time the deputy made it to the crash, the Ford Ranger was engulfed in flames, according to the constable's office. The deputy used his fire extinguisher to try and put out the flames.  

Austin Fire Department says it's gotten lots of animals out of trees, but this may be the first time an animal has actually been inside a tree. In a Tweet Wednesday assuring that this is "NOT an April Fools' Day joke" AFD shared a video of a rescue of a squirrel who had gotten its head stuck in a tree. AFD says just before 7:30 p.m on Tuesday, the A-shift crew from Engine 38 responded to a distraught 911 caller who had reported the case of a squirrel who had somehow managed to get his head lodged in the knothole of a tree and was unable to free himself. "Whether squirrels have a 'reverse' gear remains a mystery, but said squirrel had found himself with his front half stuck inside the interior of the tree while his back half remained unprotected," said the department in a statement. AFD said the caller was very concerned as the squirrel had apparently been there for some time.  

A fire near the old drill tower for the Austin Fire Department spread to the tower itself on West Cesar Chavez Street in downtown Austin Thursday night. The Buford Tower was built in the 1930s, according to the Texas State Historical Association, and stands about 67 feet tall. Originally called "The Old Fireman's Practice Tower," TSHA says it was used as a training facility for local firefighters. As of 9:30 p.m., AFD says the fire is under control, and the damage is mostly on the outside and windows. The department says the fire was a homeless camp fire. TSHA says while the tower was used for many decades, by the 1970s it became unsafe to set fires for training due to the city's growth. The tower was dedicated in 1978 and named for AFD veteran Capt. James L. Buford, who died about six years earlier trying to rescue a teen who ended up drowning in flood waters from Shoal Creek, according to AFD.  

First responders using the FirstNet network, which is provided by AT&T, will get access to AT&T's 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) network starting this month. AT&T calls this service "5G+," meaning users get higher speeds than the 5G offered on low-band spectrum. First responders in parts of 38 cities and more than 20 venues will get access to the AT&T mmWave (5G+) spectrum this April; they also will continue to get the always-on priority and preemption across LTE – Band 14 spectrum plus all of AT&T's commercial LTE spectrum bands. First responders in Houston, however, already are getting access to the mmWave spectrum. That's not for any particular reason other than it's a routine part of any FirstNet deployment that the service is thoroughly tested and vetted before launch. It just so happens a lot of beta users were in Houston, according to Scott Agnew, assistant vice president, product marketing, FirstNet Program at AT&T.  

PHOTO: A 44-year-old man was arrested after allegedly stealing a fire engine in San Bernardino on Thursday, officials said. Around 9:45 a.m., the Highland Fire Department reported that their fire engine was stolen in the area of Cooley and Pedley streets in San Bernardino, according to a news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The truck had been momentarily unattended in front of a mechanic shop, while the crew assigned to the engine was not on a call for service, the fire department said. A man, described at the time only as Hispanic, was seen driving away in the fire engine. Deputies from the Sheriff's Department, along with California Highway Patrol officers, searched the area, with a Sheriff's helicopter overhead. Around 10:05 a.m., the fire engine was seen exiting the southbound 215 Freeway at University Avenue. Deputies and officers conducted a felony traffic stop and detained the driver of the fire truck.  

Mario Jackson is a Cincinnati firefighter, a paramedic and now also a children's book author. Jackson says "Nya the Great and Her Visit to the Fire House" is aimed at inspiring young girls. "I realized that there isn't a lot of representation for women, especially women of color, in jobs that are usually male-dominated," he told us on Thursday. A father to daughters aged 7 and 13, Jackson says he had the idea to write a children's book a couple of years ago. He started writing it in 2019, then took a few breaks before picking it up against during the pandemic. He hopes to turn it into a series. "This first book is about a young girl [and] her and her dad's visit the firehouse, where her aunt is a captain of the firehouse," Jackson explained. "She has just been waiting on this visit. She gets there, she meets some of the firefighters, and her aunt takes her on a tour." The book gives kids and idea of what it's like to be a firefighter. But the bigger picture, Jackson says, is to show young girls that women can be successful.  

As a demographer — someone who studies how human populations grow and change — UCLA professor of sociology Patrick Heuveline typically spends time each year traveling around the world, talking to people about their hopes for their families and their dreams for the future. "Demography is obviously all about numbers — but at its core, it's about people's lives," he said. A big part of understanding demographics is understanding mortality, which is why in 2020 Heuveline's research took on a grim new reality. He began tracking worldwide COVID-19 deaths and interpreting what those numbers mean to overall life expectancy. This month marks a somber milestone in the pandemic: one year since the U.S. recorded its first COVID-19–related deaths. As of the end of March, more than 2.8 million around the world, including more than 550,000 Americans, have died of causes related to COVID-19.