Russell "Rusty" Wilson will become the new Mesquite Fire Chief on Nov.1 and will oversee 206 firefighters and seven stations for a fire department that responded to nearly 19,000 calls for service in 2019. Wilson, who has more than 30 years of experience in the fire service profession, is currently the Fire Chief for the City of Katy. He also served the City of Irving's Fire Department from 1988 to 2016, starting as a Firefighter and ascending to the position of Assistant Fire Chief. "I am deeply honored to be selected as the next Fire Chief for the City of Mesquite, and I look forward to working with the fine men and women who so professionally represent this City in the service to our citizens," said Wilson. Wilson calls returning to North Texas, a ‘homecoming' because he lived in Mesquite for years prior to working in Katy. He said it's going to be a good fit to get back to what he's used to, working with a much larger department.  

The official signing ceremony for the City of McAllen Firefighters Association happened on Monday. The city of McAllen and the interim fire chief the McAllen Firefighters Association all signed the collective bargaining agreement. The mayor says the city has what is called collective bargaining. It means they negotiate with the union for fire and police departments. The focus this day was on fire services. Mayor Jim Darling, "they agreed to go for another year on the contract which is you know we're grateful for that. I think they're grateful to maintain what they have. It's a two-way street and it's always trying to be a two-way street." The mayor said he expects the service from the firefighters to stay the same from this agreement.  

There was fire at Coker Enterprises on Monday. This is the second time this has happened in the last two weeks. The owner has been operating in Tyler for the past 43 years. When the first fire happened responders said they thought it was an accident, but this time they are having doubts. With more than 30 fire, police and EMS vehicles at the scene, they joined forces to try to figure out what happened. The Smith County Fire Marshal, Jay Brooks said this second fire is suspicious. "Due to circumstances right now, we do deem the fires are suspicious. We are processing what is behind me as a crime scene. That's just protocol at this point. We don't have enough at this point to say it's an arson attempt or incendiary fire. However, we're going to treat it as such," said Brooks. No one was injured. Brooks said that if someone did start this fire, they did it without triggering any alarms.  

The Jackalope Fire in Roberts County was reported as having burned 10,000 acres and was about 80% contained as of Monday afternoon, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. The TFS was called in to assist local fire departments with the blaze on Sunday, Oct. 11 at about 3:45 p.m. The fire is located north of Pampa off of Highway 70. Local fire departments reported moderate to high fire activity and with the passage of the cold front late Sunday evening, high temperatures, erratic winds and topography and the fire resisted control efforts early into its progression. While resisting responders' efforts, the fire crossed FM 283, impacting traffic due to fire activity and suppression efforts.  

At times, it seems nearly impossible to recount all the highlights, grim milestones, controversies, dramatic steps and downright chaos that has occurred since the coronavirus pandemic upended everyone's lives in March. The clearing of toilet paper from store shelves. The disputes over face coverings. The shuttering of schools and non-essential businesses. The frontline heroes. The overwhelming and tragic number of deaths. They're all ingredients of a year like no other, of a health crisis that has stolen more than 1,000 lives in Bexar County and more than 16,000 lives in Texas. And it's all occurred during a presidential year and an international reckoning on race, nevertheless. To try to wrap our brains around how far we've come — and the arc of the pandemic — in the first eight months of the COVID-19 crisis, we've taken a deep dive to list major milestones, news and events that have occurred since February.  

VIDEO: A Riverside family's Halloween decor is so realistic that multiple people have made emergency phone calls summoning firefighters to the home. To say Carmen and Travis Long love Halloween is an understatement. They began creating their "Pirates of the Caribbean"-themed creation three years ago. "We've been adding things every year," said homeowner Carmen Long. "It started with just skeletons, then we added a cannon in the back and the ship, the pretend fire on the side." The make-believe blaze is so realistic that passersby have called the fire department numerous times. As many as 400 people have been arriving each night to admire the spooky spectacle. Onlookers can watch the creative show every Friday through Sunday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the corner of Chapman Place and Magnolia Avenue.  

VIDEO: In his 15 year career as a firefighter, Lt. Stephen Curry with Roanoke Fire-EMS has never seen anything like the fire that happened on Bullitt Avenue in southeast Roanoke over the weekend. A fire broke out around 5:45 on Saturday morning at a vacant house on the 700 block of Bullitt Avenue. As the fire burned through the structure, it started to collapse. Firefighters warned each other to be careful. Not long after, the building toppled. "I have not personally seen this happen in my career. Often in the city, it doesn't happen because our trucks get there so quick and our crews are on it pretty quickly. You can have fires that devastate a house, but it's still standing," said Curry. "So to see that particular house twist in that fashion and collapse in the back was kind of an odd sight." Falling debris hit and injured one firefighter. "That was certainly a close call. We do a dangerous job," said Curry.  

The first New Orleans firefighters were furloughed on Sunday under a plan requiring six unpaid days off by the end of the year to help stem a precipitous decline in city sales tax revenue during the coronavirus pandemic. The city's furlough requires almost all 4,700 employees to take the six unpaid days, including police, firefighters and other safety workers, reducing their salaries by about 10% and saving the city $6 million. But firefighters say it comes at the cost of public safety and the safety of firefighters. The firefighters' union said Sunday the impacts of the furloughs are already being felt. Three trucks were out of service on Sunday because firefighters had to be moved around to fill shifts elsewhere. While only about 13 people at the department were furloughed on Sunday, prior staffing issues left the NOFD with only about 110 on duty out of about 153 the union considers necessary to be fully staffed, said Aaron Mischler, the union president.  

Just as predicted, the US is now grappling with a new Covid-19 surge -- one that could overwhelm hospitals, kill thousands of Americans a day by January and leave even young survivors with long-term complications. "We went down to the lowest point lately in early September, around 30,000-35,000 new cases a day. Now we're back up to (about) 50,000 new cases a day. And it's going to continue to rise," said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. "This is the fall/winter surge that everyone was worried about. And now it's happening. And it's happening especially in the northern Midwest, and the Northern states are getting hit very hard -- Wisconsin, Montana, the Dakotas. But it's going to be nationally soon enough."  

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin says New York City will have to cover a $4 million shortfall to a program that helps 9/11 first responders pay for medical bills. The federal government removed funds to the World Trade Center Health Program to settle debts with the city over several years. Attorney Michael Barasch represents thousands of 9/11 first responders and survivors. He says his clients will be left untreated during the pandemic while Mnuchin and New York City fight. "The federal government, which has not exactly been truthful about the severity of this COVID-19, is pulling the rug out from underneath the [New York City] Bureau Health Services, which treats these firefighters. And making it impossible for them to hire as many people that need to be hired to take care of these firefighters." At least 21 jobs at the program are left vacant without money for new hires.