Austin Fire Division Chief Palmer Buck has been named the new chief of the fire department in The Woodlands. Buck, who has been with the Austin Fire Department for 26 years, will leave the department this Thanksgiving and will begin his post in the Houston-area suburb on Dec. 2, Austin fire officials said. "There are not enough superlatives or adjectives in the English language to describe the positive impact Chief Buck has had on the fire service as a whole or on the Austin Fire Department in particular," Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker said. "Our loss is The Woodlands' gain, and although we are all immensely happy for him as he takes this next exciting step in his career, he will be deeply missed." Buck rose through the ranks as a first responder in North Carolina and Texas, working as a paramedic and as a firefighter, according to a short biography provided by the Austin Fire Department.  

VIDEO: Firefighters are battling a fire at Main Street Market in downtown Houston. According to the Firefighters' Union, three firefighters were rescued at the building fire. The union says one is in stable condition at the hospital and the other two are safe at the scene. The fire was first reported at the building on the corner of Main Street and Walker Street around 8 a.m. Thursday. The fire reached four alarms but is currently at three alarms. Fire trucks are blocking the streets surrounding the building, and the public is asked to avoid the area. Houston METRO says the METRO Rail Red Line is delayed due to the fire.  

The Annaville Fire Chief is advocating creating a position for a countywide fire marshal to the Nueces County Commissioners Court. The idea unanimously was approved by all Nueces county fire chiefs. The goal is to establish a countywide fire code for the safety of all the county's residents. Right now, areas outside the city limits – known as unincorporated areas -- do not have a fire code. "They don't have to put in an alarm system, they don't have to have a sprinkler system, and they don't have to be inspected for safety reasons," said Annaville Fire Chief Michael Clack. With a new fire marshal and a countywide fire code, residents' safety would be a priority -- enabling surrounding areas to grow. "The biggest part of it is reviewing plans and construction to make sure that they're built to a standard, and then annual inspections to ensure they're still safe," Clark said.  

The entrance of the Edinburg Police Department was awash in the red and blue lights of police cars and firetrucks Wednesday night as members of the public holding purple balloons and electric candles gathered to hear speeches from domestic violence survivors and support organizations at the agency's Domestic Violence Awareness Walk. The event's speakers addressed those issues, with groups like Mujeres Unidas, the Child Advocacy Center and Easter Seals discussing domestic violence and ways to end it. Uniformed members of the Edinburg police and fire departments also gave emotional accounts of their experiences with domestic abuse as children, including Edinburg Fire Chief Shawn Snider who gave a particularly personal account of his own experiences with domestic violence as a child when he was 7 years old.  

The Refinery Terminal Fire Company held its quarterly training Wednesday afternoon to brush up on fire fighting and rescue skills. It was just a drill, but it felt very real. 3News Reporter Nora Perez was allowed to get pretty close with her camera and was assured it was safe. "Anytime we need to shut it off, we have valves, emergency valves, that will shut it off," RTFC Capt. Ernesto Solis said. It was just one part of regular training that all firefighters in the RTFC must complete on a quarterly basis to keep their skills and wits sharp. "We have to practice to make sure our personnel are familiar with those types of environments," RTFC Asst. Chief Riley Maxson said. "That way, they're mentally prepared to go in and respond." Maxson said his men receive the very best training.  

A babysitter who left two children alone at a Motel 6 before the kids sparked a massive fire has been arrested. Tara Piccione, 31, was booked into Harris County jail on two counts of child abandonment. Back on Oct. 9, a three-alarm fire broke out at the Motel 6 off I-45 and Cypresswood, destroying much of the property. Investigators said Piccione was the person put in the care of a 3-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl. The kids' mother and Piccione are friends. The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office said the children were playing with a lighter when the bedding in their motel room caught fire. According to documents reviewed by ABC13, the boy and girl were left in the motel room. The girl noticed the bed was on fire. She saw that her brother, who had been playing with the lighter, had set it on fire.  

Three Texas first responders were struck and killed by vehicles while on duty in a week's time — prompting officials to remind motorists to move over and slow down for roadside emergency vehicles. On October 7, 2019, two Louise Volunteer Fire Department firefighters, having cleared a previous call, stopped in their lane of travel on Farm-to-Market (FM) 647, south of Highway 59 near Louise, Texas, to check the fire engine's front tires, believing something was wrong. Both firemen were struck by a Dodge dually pickup truck traveling southbound on FM 647. Firefighter Steven Henderson was airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas, where he succumbed to his injuries on October 12, 2019. On October 11, 2019, Falls County Sheriff's Department K-9 Deputy Matt Jones was assisting a motorist on Highway 6 in between Riesel and Marlin, Texas, when a vehicle hydroplaned and struck him and Riesel Police Department Chief Danny Krumnow.  

Full-time firefighter/paramedic Wendy Ashworth made history last week in the Acushnet Fire and EMS Department when she became the first female member of the department to command an incident. Ashworth, 56, is the only full-time female firefighter in the department, according to Chief Kevin Gallagher. As of Aug. 1, there were 48 employees, 11 of them women including Ashworth. They are on-call firefighters and part-time paramedics and EMTs. Recent changes that took effect July 1, such as the fire and EMS departments officially merging to combine unions, contracts, and budgets, helped make way for this bit of history, Gallagher said. Ashworth, along with a few others, went from being a full-time paramedic to a full-time firefighter/paramedic and got specialized training to be incorporated into the command system and work firefighter shifts.  

Created by former FirstNet senior executives and P3 Group North America engineers, Allerio is a smart mobile connectivity company that is taking emergency medical services (EMS) and telemedicine to the next level with next generation connectivity solutions built with meeting the needs of responders in mind. The start-up is dedicated to bringing the best technology for first responders to meet the current and future needs of the global public safety community. Allerio is a joint venture between the Public Safety Network, LLC (PSN) and P3 North America Inc. (P3 NA) and was founded in 2019. The co-founders of PSN, TJ Kennedy, former President of the FirstNet Authority, and Jason Karp, former Chief Counsel of the FirstNet Authority, founded PSN to help bring to market the best technology and communications solutions to meet the mission critical needs of public safety.  

Portland's public safety disability fund expects to receive 10 new claims a year from police or firefighters seeking benefits for two types of stress disorders as the result of a new state law that went into effect last month. Lawmakers this summer approved Senate Bill 507 to define post-traumatic stress and acute stress disorders as occupational diseases for full-time police, firefighters, 911 emergency dispatchers, corrections officers and emergency medical service providers. "There's a lot of work we need to do in the mental health field," said Alan Ferschwiler, president of the Portland Fire Fighters Association. "The city needs to take care of our members in a way we haven't in the past." Ferschwiler cited examples of past rejected claims that he said should have been approved: a firefighter's stress claim after being pulled out from a collapsing building and a firefighter who raced into a fire wearing no mask to rescue a woman.  

VIDEO: It was 5:04 p.m. on October 17, 1989, when a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake shook the soft soil of San Francisco's Marina District, crumpling the neighborhood's old wooden buildings like paper, and sending a cascade of splintered wood and glass into the streets. Neighbors who were there at the time recall that something else went flying into the air in those moments: natural gas. The shaking had twisted and snapped underground gas lines, and as the smell of sulfur began to blanket the neighborhood, fire broke out at the corner of Beach and Divisadero streets and rapidly began to spread. The fire department responded, but soon discovered another problem: The earthquake hadn't just broken gas lines. It had also broken the water pipes feeding the neighborhood's fire hydrants.