VIDEO: A series of fires that may have been intentionally set in the Greater Heights is raising an alarm among residents that there is at least one arsonist on the loose. Around 3 a.m. on Thursday, Brendan Posterick heard his car alarm go off. When he looked outside, he noticed his Toyota parked at the corner of 18th Street and Harvard was engulfed in flames. His girlfriend, Lauren Hale, quickly called 911. "It was terrifying," said Hale. "I think I was shaking for probably the next four hours. I told him I was shaking to my core." Video obtained by ABC13 shows flames shooting up at least 20 to 30 feet at one point. Francesco Congi's car also suffered some damage. "It's a person or persons who are disturbed and they are looking for attention, unfortunately," said Congi.  

Bell County area voters will decide whether a new emergency services district would be created. The decision will be on the November election ballot. Creating an emergency services district would allow the Salado Volunteer Fire Department to receive funding from a property tax. Currently the Salado Volunteer Fire Department is entirely operated by unpaid volunteers. "We do have times in the day where someone calls and they need medical attention and we don't have anybody to send," said Bert Henry, the department's public information officer. The department is currently funded with $40,000-$50,000 a year from The Village of Salado and about $60,000 from Bell County. But Henry said that money is insufficient to cover it's operating costs.  

The Cactus Fire Department has been operating as strictly a volunteer service. "That means if we got a call, our volunteers were really good at showing but there would be sometimes at two or three in the morning and we may not have anyone. So now we're guaranteeing our citizens that we are going to have people come to you for help," said Cactus Fire Department's Chief, Tim Nicholson. This is done so by transitioning to a combination fire service. "What that means is that we have volunteer staff as well as we're going to have career staff here 24/7, 365 days a year. Our closest ambulance is eight to 12 minutes away. So now we're guaranteeing our citizens that you're going to receive that emergency service you were waiting for on the medical side within two minutes at the most," said Chief Nicholson.  

When work started on the expansion of Interstate 35 through Waco, The Texas Department of Transportation's Communications Steering Committee took extra steps to make sure first responders stayed in the loop. Elizabeth Thomas, emergency management coordinator for Waco and McLennan County, said first responders have had to make some changes to their normal routes, but that has been easier with the help from TxDOT. Through the partnership with TxDOT, the first responders have color coded maps, advance notice of changes to road closures and the help of traffic cameras along I-35. "We want to give them the best information to have the quickest access and also good response times," Thomas said. "Sometimes these car accidents are very life-threatening, and you want to have the first responders get there as soon as possible." Thomas said in particular, the cameras are helpful in determining where a crash is on I-35 and the best route to get there.  

Volunteer firefighters in Brazos County are asking voters in the area to pay attention to more than just the presidency this election year. What some might consider an area of small towns is facing a big potential problem. Taylor Gibson of the South Brazos County Volunteer firefighters said their volunteers are "outstanding, but they're being worn out." He said with the population growth in South Brazos County, his volunteers are becoming less and less able to handle calls during the day because they're at their day jobs. "The call volumes have essentially doubled, where the volunteers have been cut in half over the years. It's just too intrusive to handle it all." He is just asking voters to look at the facts and consider a proposition on this year's ballot that would raise property taxes to get money to hire a paid fire chief and three paid fire fighter positions to support the volunteer department during the day.  

Marble Falls Fire Chief Russell Sander touted the efficiency of the department's Squad 51 unit in improving response times and reducing the need for assistance from outside departments during overlapping calls. Since Squad 51 came into service on Jan. 15, 2019, it has helped improve the department's response time by 5 percent, with 55 percent of calls responded to in 5 minutes or less, and decreased reliance on mutual aid by a whopping 71 percent. "We were getting a lot of medical calls coming in," Sander said during an Oct. 6 report to the Marble Fall City Council. Marble Falls Fire Rescue responds with Marble Falls Area EMS to many medical calls. Before Squad 51, the department would often have to send the main fire truck and crew. "Engine 1 would be on call and that second call would come in, and we'd have to request a mutual aid fire department to come in," Sander said. This resulted in a longer response time for the second call.  

VIDEO: Authorities said a truck hit the Ellinwood Fire Department late Tuesday night. The driver was heading westbound on U.S. 56 at over 100 mph. After the truck hit the building, it started on fire. "We got the fire extinguished rather soon, and then, we had to extricate, took about 20 minutes to extricate the subject in the pickup," said Ellinwood Fire Chief Chris Komarek. The driver was transported to a Wichita hospital with a broken hip. The building and two trucks were destroyed. One was a reserve tanker and the other was a brush truck. "Actually, we have three brush trucks so we'll be down to two now. We'll probably be able to manage on that," said Chief Komarek. "We have good mutual aid with surrounding departments." The department estimates they will be without a building for at least six months.  

VIDEO: At least 70 people are displaced after a major apartment fire in DeKalb County. According to DeKalb Fire Capt. Deon Bentley, the fire ripped through the Alderwood Trail Apartments at 2947 N. DeKalb Dr. Images from above the fire showed flames shooting through the roof of the building and plumes of white smoke billowing in the air as crews worked to put out the fire. Early indications appear to show that the fire started in the breezeway, though it's still unclear exactly how it was sparked. While no one was injured in the fire, officials said that because it started in a breezeway, there were some people who were initially stuck inside their apartments. The fire department told 11Alive's Hope Ford that neighbors actually used their own ladders to help get people out before the fire department showed up.  

Is this person with chest pain having a heart attack? That's a question EMTs frequently confront when responding to 911 calls. A study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Health shows that on-scene use of a new protocol and advanced diagnostic equipment can help paramedics better identify patients at high risk for adverse cardiac events. This approach could help paramedics determine the hospital best equipped to treat those people. Currently, pre-hospital assessment of patients with chest pain focuses on looking for signs of a heart attack with a portable electrocardiogram (EKG). For the 93% of people who aren't having a discernible heart attack, paramedics rely on their experience and patient preference to decide what hospital to go to rather than on an objective risk assessment of the level of cardiac care needed, Stopyra said.  

Caitlin Crandall's morning routine looked much different a couple of years ago. The 35-year-old went from working 9-5 at a desk to 24 hours for the Syracuse Fire Department at Station 5, preparing to save lives. "Life was just so blah and just so mundane," said Crandall. "Something just clicked for me. This is what I need to do to feel fulfilled in life. I need to be doing more." Crandall didn't know anything about firefighting, but she knew there was a sense of pride, camaraderie and commitment that she wanted to be a part of. She became 1 of the 13 women within the 338-person department. "I am proud to be a female firefighter," said Crandall. "However, being a female does not take precedence over the synergy that my guys and I have together. We all have the same job. There's a job that needs to be done." Chief Michael Monds says women make up about 4 percent of the department, meeting the national average.  

More than a dozen individuals who traveled to Charleston this week to take the state electrician's exam were instead arrested on federal charges alleging they are in the U.S. illegally. The Office of the State Fire Marshal became suspicious of several exam applications received earlier this month. The investigation and increased scrutiny that resulted flagged several additional applications. Fire Marshal investigators coordinated with Enforcement and Removal Operations at U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement. This joint effort led a targeted enforcement operation at the Oct. 6 exam site and the arrest of 14 unlawfully present individuals. "The men and women of ICE have the vital role of arresting and removing criminal aliens, and we will continue to perform our duty as intended by Congress with integrity, courage, and professionalism." said ERO Philadelphia Field Office Director Simona L. Flores-Lund.