The grand opening for Fire Station 11 in Midland was held Thursday morning. City of Midland officials say that it will help the city deal with recent growth to the northwest part of the city. A main goal of this new station is to increase response times in this part of the city. "The fire department's goal is a five minute response time to any place within Midland, and we were really stretched, there were some new developments that really weren't in that five minute response time, so this facility, will allow us to have a five minute response time to all the city limits in midland," said Lori Blong, Midland City Council, district four. During the grand opening some lucky attendees got to tour the new fire station and got to take a ride in the fire truck. The station will be comprised of one fire truck and a hazmat truck. Also, there will be three firefighters at the station at all times.  

The Marshall Fire Department successfully extinguished a fire at a former pawn shop. According to a report from the City of Marshall, at around 5:00 p.m. Tuesday firefighters responded to a structure fire in the 500 block of West Grand Ave. After about an hour, the fire was able to be contained and extinguished. "Commercial fires in large buildings like these can quickly get out of hand," said Marshall Fire Chief Reggie Cooper. "Thanks to early notification from quick thinking people passing by, seeing smoke, and making the immediate 911 call our guys were able to make a rapid response and successful firestop." Cooper said interior temperatures reached around 250 degrees while exterior temperatures reached around 94 degrees. "To the citizen who brought his young son and delivered Gatorade to our firefighters, I want to personally say thank you," said Cooper.  

Denison firefighters are being trained and educated on what to do when they encounter electricity at a house or elsewhere. The training sessions are being conducted by Fire Department International. Owner Jeff Clifton emphasized that every time a firefighter encounters a fire, they'll be dealing with electricity. "Make sure we pull the right meters and how to do it properly and just protect us and the citizens," said Denison Fire Rescue rookie Daniel Grinnell. A power company representative can't always show up quickly when there is an electrical problem that starts a fire, so firefighters must be prepared to take action. "Being able to identify electrical components and whether or not we can do anything about them... if we can secure the power safely," Clifton said.  

The BikeTown bicycle shop building in Abilene suffered damage during an early morning fire on Thursday. According to the Abilene Fire Department, the fire began at approximately 1:30 a.m. When firefighters arrived at the scene they found heavy smoke and flames shooting out of the building. No one was injured in the fire and the business was not open at the time of the blaze. The cause of the fire and the estimated damages have not been determined at this time. BikeTown released the following statement on social media. "Not the news we wanted to wake up to, but unfortunately, there was a fire in BikeTown overnight. We will be working over the next few days to sort through things. Please do not come down to the store at this point in time. You will not be able to come inside..."  

Noonday Volunteer Fire Department has a new 1,000-gallon pumper/water truck acquired as part of a Texas A&M Forest Service program to help rural volunteer fire departments. "Noonday Volunteer Fire Department's new pumper-tender is a versatile apparatus that will allow the firefighters to tackle a variety of emergencies in the wildland urban interface of East Texas," said Texas A&M Forest Service Regional Fire Coordinator Josh Bardwell. "It has the necessary components to be a water tender supporting other fire engines and the ability to operate as a frontline fire engine that can pump high volumes of water and Class A foam through its Compressed Air Foam System to effectively suppress fire." The truck replaces a 21-year-old piece of equipment.  

The Brewster County Sheriff's Office responded to a flipped over Marathon Volunteer Fire Department truck on July 7 around 5:30 p.m. The truck, Brush 43, was responding to a possible grass fire when it blew out its tire and caused it to veer out of the lane and roll over in a storm water culvert. Fire Chief Wilson and Firefighter Pivonka were both in the truck and both came out of the incident with no injuries. The Marathon Volunteer Fire Department and Brewster County Sheriff's Office were at the scene until 12:45 a.m. until the vehicle was removed.  

VIDEO: Numerous public safety agencies are working around the clock to keep tens of thousands of fans safe at the MLB All-Star Game and all the events surrounding it in Downtown Denver. Usually, agencies start preparing for an event of this magnitude up to two years ahead of time. But this year, Denver had just three months notice. "We're as ready as we can be," said Lt. Jake McCaig, of Denver Health Paramedics. McCaig said the plan is to have up to 10 paramedics staffed at Coors Field and up to 20 ambulances in and around downtown. Plus, Denver Health will have paramedics on bikes and in large, powerful golf carts. Paramedics also have special permission to fly a drone with an infrared camera around Coors Field.  

As he arrived at Fire Station 13 in Tampa to spend 12 hours shadowing some of Tampa's firefighters, Luis Viera kept his reasoning simple: "I'm looking in this city's budget for some robust and significant help for this fire station," he said. The Tampa city councilman has been working for more than a year to ease the stress on the crews of Fire Station 13 – the city's busiest – a location plagued by nearly never-ending calls for service. "They have about 10,000 calls a year. You do the math, that's about 30 calls a day," Viera explained. "The nickname of this fire station is ‘Nightmare on Annie Street,' because they say if you work here, you're not going to sleep." Thursday, Viera is pulling a 12-hour shift at the station to raise awareness of the need for additional resources.  

PHOTO: The Athens Cultural Affairs Commission has announced the installation of new public art work for Athens-Clarke County Fire Station #2, located at 265 Cleveland Road. "Hero's Path", by Baton Rouge-based artist Aaron Hussey, was installed by the artist on Friday, June 18, 2021 and funded by Athens-Clarke County SPLOST. "Hero's Path" is a 16ft aluminum and steel sculpture with upward-reaching ladders, and castings of a helmet and coat used by firefighters. The base features the ACC EMA logo on one side and the "Firefighter's Prayer" (written by A.W. "Smokey" Linn, a Kansas firefighter, in 1958) on the other. Hussey's proposal was selected by a panel of ACC firefighters and approved by the Mayor and Commission in Spring 2019.  

Over 13 years ago, Arlington's fire and police departments first teamed up to better address active shooter situations. Since then, their partnership — called the Rescue Task Force — has become the standard for when police and fire personnel respond together to high-threat situations, according to The National Fire Protection Association. The departments' model was even adopted for the 2012 London Olympics. In recent years, the task force has taken on a new threat requiring teamwork between police and fire: explosives. The expanding role of the task force reflects how the fire department's responsibilities have evolved over the last decade, as well as an increased need for intra-agency cooperation to handle complex situations. As public safety threats have changed, so too have the duties of firefighters. Gone are the days when they just fought fires — now, they save lives in active shooter situations and defuse bombs.  

Twenty-four states have seen an uptick of at least 10% in COVID-19 cases over the past week, Johns Hopkins University data shows, as health experts and the federal government keep pressing for more people to get vaccinated. The rapid spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has only ratcheted up the pressure. That variant, first identified in India, accounted for 51.7% of all new COVID-19 infections in the country over the two weeks that ended Saturday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated. "We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of COVID-19 on steroids," Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to Joe Biden's COVID Response Team, told CNN on Wednesday. "It's twice as infectious. Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the Delta variant in its tracks: It's called vaccine."