The fire chiefs from El Paso County ESD #1 and #2 say Sunday's recycling plant fire in Montana Vista was the largest fire they've had since the start of the pandemic, saying it came with a few new challenges, namely, social distancing. Around 10:40 a.m. Sunday morning, approximately volunteer firefighters from Montana Vista, Horizon, Socorro, Clint, Fabens and West Valley Fire Departments responded to the fire on Marvin Lane and Krag Street. Firefighters were there in nine minutes and began battling the fire immediately. One of the chiefs that oversees Montana Vista Fire says it's hard to social distance when fighting a fire, but says everyone wears air packs with masks that cover their nose and mouth to protect them from smoke inhalation, those air packs also protect them from COVID-19 when they are close to one another.  

Houston police said a driver was taken into custody late Saturday night after crashing into the side of an ambulance. The crash was reported shortly before midnight in the 6400 block of MLK Blvd. Police said Houston Fire Department ambulance 35 was traveling northbound on MLK with lights and sirens on while responding to an emergency call. That's when the driver of a GMC pickup pulled into the road and struck the side of the ambulance. Two firefighters were inside the ambulance but were not hurt. The pickup driver was also not hurt. Police gave the driver a field sobriety test and then took him into custody for further processing as the possible DWI investigation continued, officers at the scene said.  

The Cuero Fire Department was kept busy early Sunday morning with three unrelated fires that sparked within hours of each other, according to a news release from DeWitt County. The first fire was called in early Sunday morning at 1:50 a.m. in the 300 block of E. Sarah, according to the news release. At 6:40 a.m., some of the crew had to be reassigned after a trash dumpster fire was called in. That fire was believed to be intentionally set, and the suspect believed to be behind the arson was arrested by the Cuero Police Department, according to the news release. Then, at about 7:50 a.m., the Cuero Volunteer Fire Department was called to a car wreck with a possible entrapment. That car lit on fire as firefighters were in route to the call, according to the news release.  

It was a very somber and quiet day in West on the seventh anniversary of the West Fertilizer Plant explosion. The city is still on lock down like the rest of the area. Police tape surrounds the memorial to the fallen first responders, deterring any large gathering. But at the memorial outside of the volunteer fire department, flowers, left every year by a fellow first responder. "It's my way of honoring them," said Hunt Witten. "I feel like their sacrifice was so great it should be acknowledged every year." Witten works for the Ponderosa fire department just north of Houston. Born in West and a Baylor graduate, Witten drove from Houston to help with the fire caused by the explosion. Now every year he comes back to West on the anniversary, leaves flowers, and says a prayer for every person who lost their life that day.  

VIDEO: Businesses and local residents were evacuated Saturday afternoon after a gas leak fire in Grand Prairie. The Grand Prairie Fire Department responded to a high-pressure gas leak underneath Mayfield Road and State Highway 360, where — at some point — something ignited and lit up the gas leak. Three buildings at a nearby apartment complex were evacuated, as well as an Exxon, a 7-Eleven and a Furniture Mart. Grand Prairie Assistant Fire Chief Bill Murphy said there were no injuries. He continued to say crews were being overly cautious because the leak is believed to be coming from either a six or 12-inch high-pressure gas line underground.  

Fire chiefs through the western United States are being asked to propose budget cuts between 10% and 25% for their departments—often including EMS service—as local governments try to fund operations in the face of dramatic tax-revenue declines caused by stay-at-home measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19. "We're hearing that, broad-based across the West, fire chiefs are being asked to present budgets that represent between a 10% and a 25% reduction," Jeff Johnson, executive director of the Western Fire Chiefs, said during an interview with IWCE's Urgent Communications. "I've heard it as low as 10% and as high as 25%." "The states that are getting hit the hardest are the ones that are sales-tax dependent. They've lost [revenue from] sales tax, fuel tax, airport landing fees, tourism tax—there are a number of things that have just stopped."  

For three years the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Center has equipped 30,000 people with smart rings and smartphone apps to determine, before any signs of illness, whether they had influenza. So it required only some computer algorithm adjustments to launch a pilot project in March to monitor 200 front-line healthcare professionals for COVID-19 and determine the presence of infection and potential for contagion 24 hours before flu symptoms emerge. Within a week, 1,000 healthcare workers will be wearing the rings and using the apps with expectations that in a month participation will grow to 10,000 in West Virginia, Philadelphia, New York, Florida and elsewhere to determine how effectively the system provides early warning signs of infection.  

Paramedic Amy Dyer Drinkwater watched COVID-19 on the approach well before it gained a foothold in Maine. As the director of three ambulance services – St. George, Thomaston and South Thomaston – she had the safety of the community and staff to consider, and this particular risk was novel, not only in its pathology and virology, but in the way it skulked around, undetected. As many knew from early on, medical personal protection equipment (PPE) — masks and gowns, face shields, even gloves and plastic booties — were in short supply. Maine, mostly rural and in the far corner of the country, had dim prospect of receiving much PPE from the national stockpile. Photos from Wuhan and New York City, of nurses and doctors rushing among patients with their gloves, surgical masks, and thin yellow gowns, indicated what was to come for hospitals.  

One by one, 85 ambulances and firetrucks trickled down the narrow street in a somber procession, snaking their way through the Port Monmouth section of Middletown. As the first responders rolled past the forest green house, they each blared their sirens to honor one of their own. Robert Weber, a Middletown First Aid and Rescue Squad volunteer and firefighter, was only 44 when he died April 15 from complications of the coronavirus. One of his five siblings recorded the caravan of emergency vehicles that came a day later to salute her brother. Choked up from watching the memorial drive-by, Jennifer Weber could only shake her head at the irony. "Robert was running after firetrucks and ambulances since he was 5 years old," she said. "He'd be chasing after their sirens if he was here." The scene that unfolded on a brisk Thursday evening was just one of more than a dozen memorials that have occurred in New Jersey communities this month.  

Many new apps claim to be aimed at helping combat the coronavirus. Some provide vital notifications and advice, but others are full of misinformation and scams. That's why we recommend the following, trustworthy sources. Always investigate the authenticity and authority of any app or website that claims to provide COVID-19 information. Many of these will let anyone self-report data and publish their own articles without fact-checking. The Center for Disease Control's (CDC) website has a lot of excellent information about the coronavirus pandemic. It's the primary federal agency tasked with safeguarding public health in the U.S. You'll find everything from general information and U.S. case statistics, to a symptom self-checker, and guides to make your own face mask.