At approximately 4 a.m. today, the Big Spring Fire Department was called for a structure on fire with occupants still inside the residence. BSFD units responded to a single-family home on fire and witnesses reported someone was inside the home. According to Big Spring Fire Department, rescue crews entry into the house and attempted to rescue the occupant but the fire spread quickly and made difficult all rescue efforts. Unfortunately, firefighters were unable to reach the victim and he suffered smoke inhalation and heat injuries resulting in his death. Information about the victim will not be released until next of kin have been notified. A BSFD firefighter was injured during the rescue effort. He is being held for observation and is expected to be released in the next couple of days.  

A woman was found dead after the Houston Fire Department responded to an apartment fire Wednesday in northwest Houston, officials said. The fire was reported at 2:46 p.m. at Garden City Apartments at 9601 W. Montgomery Rd. The fire was detected to be coming from a first-floor apartment, officials said. When firefighters entered the apartment, they found the woman dead on a burning couch and immediately pulled her outside, but it is unclear if the cause of death was due to the fire or something else. Relatives identified her as Verma Moore, 67. Moore lived alone and had a history of health problems including a series of strokes, according to family members. They said she was also a smoker. Firefighters said the fire was only active between 5 minutes and 10 minutes but was quickly extinguished.  

A local volunteer fire department is unveiling their new fire engine. Brazos County District 2 Volunteer Fire Department recently received a new engine. It serves a dual purpose as a fire engine and water tanker and replaces their other engine which has been in service more than 20 years. Engine 222 also has a high water capacity to be able to fight fires. In that area there aren't many fire hydrants. "Engine 222 has a complete compliment of rescue tools so this will help us for motor vehicle accidents. It will help us for structure fires. It can be a tender so if there is a grass fire or wildland incident. The 1800 gallons of water can allow us to refill our booster so it can be the water source," said Travis Rollins, a firefighter with Brazos County District 2 Volunteer Fire Department.  

The city's permitting and inspection processes were being followed at the site of a chemical explosion that rocked Northwest Houston, killed two people and damaged over 400 homes last month, Houston Fire Department Chief Sam Peña told members of Houston City Council's Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee Feb. 5. A rusted pipe underneath a layer of insulation has been identified as a potential culprit in the incident however the investigation is ongoing, he said. Peña said the city's current inspection process may have not have been sufficient enough to catch the issue even if one was conducted shortly before the incident. "I don't know if our inspection would have caught that," Peña said. The site was last inspected in 2016 and was due for an additional inspection soon, he said.  

VIDEO: Six families were displaced after a fire tore through their building at a Southwest Side apartment complex early Tuesday. When firefighters arrived at The Preserve at the Port in the 400 block of Cropsey Avenue around 1 a.m., they found flames shooting through the roof of the building, officials said. Four units were destroyed by the fire, officials said. Damage was estimated at $100,000. No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

Following concerns that the university was putting a strain on Houston's resources, beginning this spring semester, the Harris County Emergency Corp will be hired for a trial period as the campus's ambulance service from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. every Friday and Saturday night. Rice University Police Department police chief Clemente Rodriguez said that although there hasn't been an abnormal uptick in call volume, these periods are typically busier for the city as well. For the Rice campus and visitors, HCEC transports will cost the same as normal transports, and ambulances are hired at an undisclosed rate according to Rodriguez and Rice Emergency Medical Services director Lisa Basgall. The Houston Chronicle reports that the base cost for Houston ambulance transports increased 70 percent in 2019 to $1,876.40 plus $14.36 per mile.  

VIDEOS: Boston firefighters battled a 4-alarm fire in the city's South Boston neighborhood, and spent most of the evening working to put out remaining hotspots. The fire started in the basement of an unoccupied building that is being renovated on East 7th Street shortly after 5 p.m., and quickly spread to the floors above as well as an attached building that was occupied, Boston Fire officials said. "It's a building under construction, so there was no plaster on the walls," said Jack Dempsey, Boston Fire Department's Chief of Operations. "So the fire started in the basement area and quickly went up throughout the building, because there's nothing to contain it." Geoffrey Spooner, who lives three doors down, ran outside with his family when he heard the commotion.  

VIDEO: The Santa Maria Airport just purchased new equipment that allows the fire department to test its fire-fighting foam, while protecting the environment. The device meets a new FAA regulation regarding foam testing for the airport fire department. It's called NoFoam System. The device is used to test the concentration of water versus foam. The Santa Maria Fire Department said that usually for fuel fires, like ones involving aircraft, the concentration should normally be about 3 to 6 percent foam and the rest water. In the past, testing the concentration meant allowing the foam to run off in the concrete. The new device means testing the foam will not affect groundwater or small animals. "We are not putting that foam out on the ground anymore," said Mike Farmer, Battalion Chief for the City of Santa Maria Fire Department. "It's actually running through the system that we purchased, keeps the foam inside the vehicle, and doesn't put the foam out into the environment."  

In response to a deadly fire in a Minneapolis high-rise last fall, a group of Minnesota lawmakers on Wednesday, Feb. 5, proposed legislation that would require nearly all tall apartment buildings to install automatic sprinkler systems. Five people died Nov. 27, 2019, in an early-morning fire at Cedar High Apartments, a 25-story building near downtown Minneapolis. Those deaths could have been prevented if the 1960s-era building had sprinklers on its upper floors, Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, said at a Capitol news conference announcing the bill. "Sprinklers are the best protection you can have," Steve Zaccard, St. Paul's former fire marshal, told reporters. A 1979 law requires all new government-owned buildings to install sprinkler systems, but up to 40 buildings constructed before that year do not have sprinklers. Twenty-six of those high-rises are in Minneapolis, Dziedzic said.  

VIDEO: Two Papillion firefighters are still recovering after what is called a smoke explosion during a fire Saturday night. A video of that blast is shown from a Sarpy County deputy's cruiser cam. A blast of fire and air that caught three Papillion firefighters off guard and too close. One of them is Joe Lapuzza silhouetted against the flames. Joe LaPuzza said, "And I shut the water off so I could put my gloves on and advance up to the door and the next thing I knew I was thrown back and felt like I was on fire. I didn't know what happened I just know it wasn't good." The six-year Papillion firefighter suffered burns to the top of his hands that are healing with pig's skin. Though the gloves were off this is the protective gear he wore and Chief Bill Bowes says that worked as designed. Chief Bill Bowes said," Just a little bit of singing here. It kept all the heat from him so he got not burns other than what was exposed."  

A Commonwealth Court panel Wednesday thwarted an attempt by the state attorney general's office to forcibly dissolve a volunteer fire company that refused to participate in a government-organized merger. The ruling means that, for now at least, Independent Fire Company No. 1 in South Williamsport can continue to exist as a nonprofit entity and might even resume fighting fires outside the borough. As Judge Patricia A. McCullough noted in the state court's opinion, Independent came to be in the AG's crosshairs after it refused to join the borough's two other fire companies to form the South Williamsport Fire Department in 2016. Borough council then passed an ordinance barring Independent from answering emergency calls in town.