A new video shows San Antonio firefighters rescuing several riders stuck on a rollercoaster at SeaWorld. SAFD crews were called out to SeaWorld, located at 10500 Sea World Drive on the far West Side, around 1 p.m. Sunday. The riders were reportedly stranded on SeaWorld's Wave Breaker rollercoaster. The video shows firefighters utilizing a high-extension ladder to reach the riders and get them down safely. Other details surrounding the incident are limited as of yet. We've reached out to SeaWorld for further comment and San Antonio Fire Department but have not yet received additional details.  

Two firefighters have been injured after several apartments caught on fire Sunday evening, officials said. The fire was reported at the Parc 505 Apartments along Cypress Station Drive near the North Freeway. Officials said crews were having a tough time putting out the fire because it was burning in between two levels of roofing. So far, eight apartments have been impacted, leaving 24 residents without a place to stay. Investigators said the firefighters injured suffered minor injuries. There are no reports of any residents being injured in the fire.  

As a COVID-19 outbreak continues to bear down on the city of El Paso, Houston firefighters have been sent to West Texas to help. Firefighters are operating mobile medical units created to relieve the strain on hospitals overrun by coronavirus patients. A third mobile morgue has been ordered to house El Paso County's dead as the death toll is expected to rise. Houston Fire Chief Samuel Pena said seven Houston first responders have been sent to help. El Paso's hospital system has been overrun by the coronavirus. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott requested last week that Beaumont Army Medical Center at Fort Bliss be allowed to accept civilian patients. Firefighters with HFD are operating the mobile medical units sent to El Paso by the governor.  

The ongoing dilemma of structural problems and foundational issues at The Woodlands Fire Station No. 5 continued last week as township directors heard from an engineering expert who laid out a series of options facing the department to repair the damaged station. The report also included possible repairs to three other fire department facilities. A representative from Martinez Architects, the firm that did extensive analysis and structural studies of Fire Station No. 5, as well as stations No. 3, No. 4 and the Fire Training Center, provided a synopsis of the fire department repairs and findings that a group of agencies and officials developed. After the lengthy report and numerous questions from directors, no action was taken on the proposal. Officials will continue to research the issue in the coming months. The Woodlands Fire Chief Palmer Buck said the report was a guide for township directors in moving forward with possible remedies to the issues at all four facilities.  

VIDEO: Emergency crews responded to a structure fire in Tyler Friday evening. According to a press release from the Tyler Fire Department, the fire happened in the 400 block of E. Erwin. The initial call was received at approximately 7:35 p.m. The first arriving units reported heavy fire conditions in the structure and ordered a second alarm, summoning additional resources to the incident. TFD responded with four Engines, one Ladder Truck, a Battalion Chief, and an Investigator. The fire was brought under control at approximately 8:20 p.m., however, the scene is still active. A fire official said the structure on fire was a vacant home. Investigators with the Tyler Fire Marshal's Office are currently at the scene and will be investigating the cause of the blaze.  

"Welcome, friends." Jubilee-Harlingen is extending that message to first responders with a special parking space set aside just for them. "It is very important to Jubilee because our first responders are extremely important for our community, our parents, our students," said Gabriel Trevino, assistant principal at Jubilee Harlingen at 123 Palm Court. He and other school administrators gathered at the campus Friday morning to dedicate the parking space as a gesture of gratitude toward first responders. Police officers and firefighters regularly come into the school and speak with students — when there's no pandemic raging outside. "We always want our first responders to feel welcome at our campus," said Tanya Perez, principal.  

VIDEO: Neighbors in Meadowmere Park first heard the explosion around 6 a.m. Meadowmere Park Fire Chief Kevin Carrero lives in the neighborhood and woke up to the noise. "It was like a big explosion, like a bomb went off. I thought it was a transformer that blew up but it was just too loud," Carrero said. The 63-year-old man living inside the home that exploded was airlifted to a hospital, the Nassau County Police Department said in a release. According to police, the man suffered severe burns. Two firefighters from Valley Stream Fire Department also sustained injuries, according to a Nassau County fire marshal. The firefighters were injured after a chimney fell on top of the firefighters, leaving them with bruises and lacerations, police said. The home identified by officials as the site of the explosion was completely leveled and the homes on either side were severely damaged.  

A copper time capsule, placed 101 years ago behind a granite cornerstone at the downtown fire station, was opened by firefighters Friday. The copper box contained a hand-signed ledger of the fire crew at the time, news clippings, a penny and mementos from a fireman's ball with the York, Maine, Fire Department. Accessing the capsule required hours of labor by Mark Young of East Coast Masonry, who cut through mortar without damaging the white marble cornerstone engraved with the year 1919. Fire Chief Todd Germain said they knew it was there because it was mentioned in a book about the history of the Portsmouth Fire Department by former chief Steve Achilles, as well as Ray Brighton's "They Came to Fish." The cornerstone is at the base of a wall at the front, right of the fire station, is more than 16 inches thick. When Young wasn't finding the time capsule quickly, Lt. Russ Osgood said, some began to wonder if it was "the greatest practical joke in the history of firefighting."  

A new video shows San Antonio firefighters rescuing several riders stuck on a rollercoaster at SeaWorld. SAFD crews were called out to SeaWorld, located at 10500 Sea World Drive on the far West Side, around 1 p.m. Sunday. The riders were reportedly stranded on SeaWorld's Wave Breaker rollercoaster. The video shows firefighters utilizing a high-extension ladder to reach the riders and get them down safely. Other details surrounding the incident are limited as of yet. We've reached out to SeaWorld for further comment and San Antonio Fire Department but have not yet received additional details.  

After 72 years of putting out fires, responding to crashes and helping out in medical emergencies, the largely volunteer-run town of Madison Fire Department flickers out Sunday. The city of Madison Fire Department officially takes over fire protection responsibilities for town residents at midnight on Sunday in preparation for the eventual dissolution of the town of Madison in two years. "It's kind of highs and lows depending on the day," town of Madison Fire Chief David Bloom said Saturday. "You hate to see the station get closed up and you don't want people to not have jobs or have a volunteer opportunity that they love." The department has six full-time employees, four interns who live at the station on Fish Hatchery Road and about 15 volunteers, he said. Three full-timers are transferring to the city of Madison Fire Department, and the other three are retiring, including the 72-year-old Bloom, who said he bought a new fishing pole in anticipation of the free time.  

It feels like whenever I cough these days it triggers a mini-panic attack that I promptly try to quash with a steady stream of chamomile tea. Thankfully, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they figured out a way to gauge whether a person has COVID-19 just from the sound of their cough, so I may soon get to put my inner hypochondriac to rest. The tool uses neural networks that can detect the subtle changes in a person's cough that indicate whether they're infected, even if they don't have any other symptoms. Asymptomatic people infected with COVID-19 are a vector for the virus that's particularly tricky to manage, in part because they're less likely to get tested because, duh, why would they if they're feeling fine, right? Thus, carriers could infect others without even realizing it. But even asymptomatic carriers have one tell that shows they're infected, MIT researchers found. It's all in the cough.