Steve Holland, who served most recently as division chief and PIO, is saying goodbye to work and hello to retirement after a 31-year career with Lubbock Fire and Rescue. "I've made a lot of relationships outside of the Fire Department with other city departments, a lot of the media. It's going to be different not having those working relationships on a regular basis, but I'm also looking forward to this next chapter in my life," Holland said at his retirement party, thrown by friends and family on Saturday. Holland says he hasn't heard anything bad about retirement, but he hopes he leaves behind a positive legacy, most recently with a new smoke and carbon monoxide detector program launched on Lubbock Fire Rescue's website.  

Houstonians paid to train and equip firefighter Adam Lopez, but just four years after starting with the Houston Fire Department, he left. Lopez is now a firefighter in Sugar Land, taking fewer calls but making more money and far removed from the politics of a department most recently used to turmoil. Lopez, who graduated from the HFD training academy in 2015, says Houston was where he always wanted to work as a firefighter. "The pride, the ownership, I mean everybody knew Houston," Lopez told 13 Investigates. "The knowledge you can gain there is very great but as a long-term career at this point, the way things are going, it's just not going to happen." His departure is just one of many and part of a costly and damaging trend. HFD has a problem keeping firefighters like Lopez.  

Austin Fire Department is mourning the loss of one of its own this weekend. Fire Specialist Chris Lafferre, 41, passed away after suffering a cardiac event in his home Saturday evening, according to the fire department's Facebook post. Lafferre was awarded the Medal of Valor in 2006, which is the department's second highest honor, after a boat rescue, officials say. A woman and her companion were riding in a boat when they were sucked through the Tom Miller Dam; however, Lafferre and Battalion Chief David Brietzke were successfully able to save them, per AFD. The fire department is now urging the public to keep Lafferre's family, friends and colleagues in their thoughts and prayers through this unexpected loss. "Rest in peace, Chris; we'll see you on the top floor," the department says.  

More than a dozen people are without a home Sunday morning after a huge fire ripped through an apartment building. The Houston Fire Department was called to Antoine and Tidwell to the Oakwood Garden Apartments at 2:30 Sunday morning. Fire officials say the roof of the building caved in. At least one person was taken to the hospital for possible smoke inhalation. People who live in neighboring buildings told ABC13 they could feel the heat from the fire as soon as they stepped outside. Firefighters say the fact that the building has a flat roof helped the fire stay contained to one side. Still, eight units were affected by the fire and 10 have water and smoke damage. The Red Cross arrived at the scene to provide assistance to the victims.  

Among the many calls retired San Antonio firefighter Conrad Gonzales remembers responding to was a one-vehicle rollover in 1996 in Pearsall, just outside of the Alamo City. All 10 passengers were ejected from the van and only three survived. Among the victims was a young girl who resembled his daughter. "I remember just looking at her and my heart just stopped," he said. The story of the tragic accident is one of 40 during his 22-year career Gonzales compiled for his 2018 book, "10-96 (We're on the way)." The book consists of 40 short stories, including the story of the van accident he titled "She Looked Like My Daughter." The 65-year-old, who was born and raised on the West Side of the city, has seen it all as a first responder. He began working for SAFD in 1976 before retiring in 1998. During his career, Gonzales worked at numerous stations in the Alamo City as a firefighter, EMT and flight paramedic with AirLife.  

For 15 years, Kelly Kemp turned to heroin to escape from reality. The mother of two used it as a security blanket. At times, she felt it was her only friend. Her addiction started with pain pills that she took after dental work. When that prescription ran out, she turned to buying them on the streets. But that got too expensive, so she turned to heroin, a cheaper option. "I said, ‘Let's try this.' And it was off to the races," Kemp said. Like thousands of others lost in the opioid epidemic, it nearly killed her. Kemp, 48, still remembers the day she overdosed. It was like any other of being an addict: Shoot heroin, spend time with her significant other. Only on that day, she overdosed. One of her children found her and called 911. Kemp's significant other revived her with Narcan, a nasal spray that reverses the effects of an overdose caused by opioids.  

A new bill has been introduced in the South Carolina legislature that would create new a supplemental insurance policy for some firefighters diagnosed with cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of deaths in career firefighters, according to the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. While most fire departments – including the Aiken Department of Public Safety – provide cancer health care benefits to their employees, some firefighters believe the Firefighter Cancer Health Care Benefit Plan currently being discussed in the S.C. legislature would be a big step forward in improving their coverage. "The benefits to this one are a lot better than what the locals can offer," said Capt. Brian Brazier, who works in the ADPS fire division. "With as many firefighters as (the state) is looking to cover, the cost of this is going to be pretty high, but the money is there to do it. I feel like we need to support the fire services in the state."  

What seemed like an eternity was actually 19 seconds. After Ryan Newman's battered race car came to rest last Monday at the end of the tri-oval in a brutal wreck at the finish of the Daytona 500, it took only 19 seconds for the first emergency vehicle to arrive, according to a chronology provided by NASCAR officials during a question-and-answer session with reporters on Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "The tool truck arrived at the vehicle 19 seconds after it came to rest," said Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. "The fireman that you saw with the extinguisher was in that vehicle. One of the three trauma doctors assigned to the safety team for the race arrived at the car at the 33-second mark, and a paramedic entered the vehicle at the 35-second mark.  

The first responders' biggest fear was realized one night in December when someone called 911 for help in rural Erie County and nobody came. The first dispatch went to Union City Fire Co. When Union City couldn't crew its ambulance, the call rolled over to neighboring Waterford Volunteer Fire Department. Waterford couldn't raise an ambulance crew either, so the call went to nearby Mill Village Volunteer Fire Department. Again, no answer. Fifty-one minutes later, the county 911 center canceled the alarm, saying the caller was going to the hospital in a private vehicle. "It's here," a somber Union City Fire Chief Isaiah Edwards told his firefighters a week later at a station meeting. "We're dropping a ton of calls. It's going to be a mess. I don't have answers."  

A retired firefighter who pulled his brother's body from the rubble at Ground Zero died Saturday of 9/11-related pancreatic cancer, officials said. Daniel Foley watched his firefighter brother respond to 9/11 and not come back, FDNY Lt. Mickey Conboy said. Foley promised his parents he wouldn't come home until he found his brother. He found his brother's body on day 11 after the attack, but still went back to Ground Zero each day. "He didn't stop until we all were done on that last day in May in 2002," Conboy said. During his career as a firefighter, Foley was award three department medals for rescues he'd made, officials said. He rescued four children trapped in a back room during one blaze. Foley retired just over a year ago. "Danny Foley was the epitome of a great fireman," Conboy said. "Danny's left an indelible mark on all of us."  

On North Main Street stands a historic little two-story brick building that once was Aberdeen Fire Station No. 2. It was built in 1930 to provide protection to the city's north side, expanding coverage of the downtown Fire Station No. 1. It still looks much like it did back then, but No. 2 now is privately owned. The city sold it in 2008 after it built a new No. 2 at 1825 Eighth Ave. N.W. near the U.S. Highway 281 bypass. The city added a third station in 1973. It's west of Aberdeen Regional Airport on the east side of Aberdeen. It was remodeled in 2008. Fire stations and firefighters have a history as long as Aberdeen itself. In the late 1880s, two years after the city was settled, a livery stable caught fire, making town leaders realize that they needed firefighters.