One person died in a plane crash just before 4:00 p.m. Monday in the 200 block of East 37th Street, according to Lubbock Fire Rescue. Police confirmed the plane did catch on fire, but that no structures were damage other than a fence. No one was in the home at the time of the crash, and no injuries were reported on the ground. Officials provided a few new details in a press conference at Citizens Tower. Lubbock Fire Rescue said this in a release: Around 4pm, a small, single engine plane crashed in the backyard of a residence in the 200 block of E 37th St. The plane was on fire. LFR extinguished the fire containing it to the plane. There was damage to the fence and no damage to the house. There is 1 confirmed fatality. There were no injuries to any persons around the crash. The investigation is ongoing.  

Waco police officers and firefighters are using their friendly rivalry to support a fellow first-responder who recently passed away. Their "Battle of the Badges" event, which was originally scheduled for next month, was moved up following the death of Lindsey Garnett-Hale, a paramedic with American Medical Response. "She's one of our Waco AMR, so at that point, she's a sister with all of us, so it doesn't matter what department you are, we're all first-responders, when they mourn we mourn with them," said Waco PD officer Janae Draper. "She gave the ultimate sacrifice, so the least we can do is do something to give back to her family." Garnett-Hale, 35, a single mother to a young boy, suffered a medical event while she was on-duty on Oct. 15. Waco police officer James Sloan had never met Garnett-Hale, but after learning of her passing, he helped arrange for "Battle of the Badges" to be in her honor.  

One person was injured as firefighters battled a house fire in Taylor on Saturday evening. Fire crews were on the scene of the blaze at 511 W. Rio Grande St. around 7:20 p.m., according to a City spokesperson. The fire was extinguished by 9 p.m., and there are no other structures on fire. A man, a resident of the house, was taken to Ascension Seton Williamson County hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. No other injuries were reported. Both the Taylor Fire Department and the Hutto Fire Department responded to the fire. City police were conducting traffic in the area. A viewer photo taken from U.S. 79 and sent to KVUE showed a large plume of smoke coming from the fire.  

A second alarm fire took out a 100-year-old church and provided some challenges for firefighters. The Coliseum Church has experienced several fires since it was built in 1925, but none greater than Sunday nights. "It burned several times. This is the worst by far. Obviously, our guys were able to get here, but last night when we arrived, the roof was already starting to fall in," said Cody Snyder, public information officer for the Amarillo Fire Department. It even caused firefighters to use aerial tactics to put it out. "It's more dangerous, we can't risk putting our guys inside, we can't put water directly on the fire," said Snyder. The fire was put out eventually, but the damages and upcoming weather still created concern to the public. Since, the fire was so severe this time, the Amarillo Fire Department is taking extra precautions.  

Missouri City Fire & Rescue Services responded to 6,842 calls from October 2019 to September 2020—91 fewer than in the year prior, according to its annual report. Fire Chief Eugene Campbell presented the department's annual report, which included response statistics, training information, departmental accomplishments and an update on Fire Station No. 6, during the Oct. 19 Missouri City City Council meeting. Campbell said the coronavirus pandemic has affected the number of calls MCFRS received. However, the department responded to 119 more EMS calls in FY 2019-20 than in the year prior. Of the total calls, the majority—64.6%—were emergency medical services or rescue calls, 2.5% were for structure fires or fire incidents, and 33% were other calls, a category that encompasses a variety of reasons, including false alarms, hazardous conditions and non-emergency service calls.  

The Bryan Fire Marshal's Office is investigating what started a fire that has displaced an adult with disabilities. At 5:10 a.m. Bryan Fire Department responded to a residence fire. When they arrive, firefighters forced entry and were able to rescue the resident who was speaking to Bryan police through the burglar bars at his back door. Police were at the door coaching him to stay on the floor below the smoke until the fire crews could get to him. The resident said he woke up to fire in the house and became separated from the keys needed to unlock the burglar bars to exit the home. He then called 911 on his cell phone. Investigators say this individual was not obviously hurt but was sent to CHI St. Joseph as a precaution, where he was checked out and sent home.  

VIDEO: For six months now, the Philadelphia Fire Department and Drexel University have partnered to study the levels of stress and mental health of first responders in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Presently, they are crunching the data collected, but already there are preliminary findings that could help guide officials going forward. Even before the pandemic, researchers at Drexel University's School of Public Health found that the mental health load of the job of firefighters and paramedics was already significant. Now you add putting on all that protective gear to make sure you're not catching the virus when responding to emergency calls. "It's the calls when you don't think you need to put it on and then the patients are coming back positive and then our members have to worry about did they contract it," said paramedic Jacqulyn Murphy.  

VIDEO: BSO Fire Rescue has a new tool it is using to help the public and save lives. Local 10 News got an exclusive look at their upgraded EMS rescue helicopters. Meeting up at Pompano Beach Air Park, BSO showed Local 10 what the twin Eurocopter EC135 helicopters can do. They are dedicated to EMS missions and have been branded as ‘Firestars' with a completely different black, red and gold color scheme. The EMS helicopters are also carrying whole blood, which is usually only available in trauma centers. Whole blood is much more effective for patients than an IV because it has oxygen in it. The fluids do not. A crew of three go out on each flight; a pilot and co-pilot up front and a paramedic in the back, attending to the patient as they wing their way to the hospital. The helicopters were retrofitted around the life-saving emergency equipment they carry, and it's not just defibrillators and heart monitors.  

VIDEO: DeKalb County firefighters saved one of their own after he fell through the floor while trying to put out an overnight hotel fire. Firefighters responded to the Oyo Hotel near the Wesley Chapel Road and Interstate 20 exit around midnight Monday morning. They found smoke pouring out of the three-story building. As firefighters worked to extinguish the flames, one of them fell from the second to the first floor. A standby team of firefighters then rushed in to save him. Luckily he wasn't injured. In fact, the Battalion Chief says the firefighter managed to finish out his shift and even continue to help put out the fire.  

In 1974, the television program "Emergency!" made Paul Brouwer, 72, keen on becoming a firefighter. "It was all the rage at the time," he recalled. The current township emergency manager since 1991, he spent about 30 years in the Clinton Township Fire Department before retiring in 2004 as deputy chief of operations. The emergency manager position is separate from CTFD. This month, the CTFD celebrates 75 years in operation. The department, which has five stations, serviced nearly 14,000 calls in 2019. Brouwer was part of the first HAZMAT technician class with the Michigan State Police, developing a team of around 20 technicians and a couple specialists in the late ‘80s — one of the biggest in Macomb County. He went from HAZMAT to working in specialties like high-angle rescues and confined spaces, to going on ambulance runs and being a first responder with EMTs. "Now, every person in the suppression division is a full-blown paramedic," he said.  

According to DHEC, South Carolina firefighters are reaching a milestone of 200 naloxone administrations for suspected opioid overdoses this year as of October 21st. The Reducing Opioid Loss of Life (ROLL) program trains any fire department to administer the opioid antidote naloxone, including departments not staffed with emergency medical technicians. It's administered by DHEC's Bureau of Emergency Medical Services and currently includes over1,700 firefighters in 113 units across the state. South Carolina started the program in 2017 to address the increasing number of opioid overdoses and deaths. "The expansion of ROLL this year couldn't have come at a more important time, allowing more first responder fire departments to respond to significant increases in suspected overdoses since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic," said Arnold Alier, director of DHEC's Emergency Medical Services.