The City of Ferris has shifted their 911 dispatch service to Ellis County after three of their four dispatchers have been diagnosed with COVID-19. One of those to become ill, Mike Atwell, died earlier this month. "In a small community like this it impacts everybody when we lose somebody like this and our city has been hit fairly hard," said City Manager Brooks Williams. Williams said the death of Atwell, a former police officer, was the biggest loss of what had already been a tough run for the city during the pandemic. According to Williams, about 20% of city staff have contracted COVID-19 and the city has yet to receive any doses of the vaccine. "While we don't have as many first responders, if you did a ratio of first responders to calls answered we do just as many and so our folks are just as at risk as others, so it is disappointing we haven't been able to get them the vaccine yet," said Williams.  

"He taught that to his kids. He taught that to his grand kids. You fight, you know. You never give up. He fought until his last breath," Renee Garces said, remembering her father-in-law as a fighter. Juan Garces, of O'Donnell, died on Christmas day after contracting COVID-19. His daughter-in-law says he was like a father to her, and that he was a hardworking, humble man. Despite their closeness, they could only say their goodbyes over FaceTime. "You know he spoke to us two days before he passed away. He was still waving, saying goodnight and goodbye," she said. Garces was dedicated to his welding business as well as his family. His eldest granddaughter, Missi Rodriguez, looks back on their time fondly. "I wish I could describe the type of individual he was," Rodriguez said. "I could never do him justice. Because he was just, he was just so wonderful." Garces also had a life-long passion for protecting his neighbors. He served the O'Donnell Volunteer Fire Department for nearly 45 years, eventually becoming Fire Marshal. A service not forgotten on the day he was laid to rest.  

City of Dallas firefighters and paramedics have started receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The Dallas Fire Rescue twitter account tweeted out on Tuesday "The vaccination of our #firstresponders has officially begun! Thank you to everyone involved in the acquisition of the #ModernaVaccine and helping us move one step closer to ending the pandemic!" At this time, it is unclear how many vaccines DFR received.  

Fire crews in Fort Worth have successfully put out a brush fire that started on Monday night. The Sansom Park Fire Department was dispatched to a brush fire at 2200 Andover Street at approximately 10:30 p.m. When fire crews arrived on scene, they found a large pile of brush on fire just a short distance behind several residences. The Tarrant County Fire Marshal was requested at the scene due to the apparent suspicious nature of the fire. Crews worked to put out the fire for several hours, using dozers and other heavy equipment to prevent a rekindle. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation by the Tarrant County Fire Marshal's Office.  

Emergency crews have been busy Wednesday morning as rainy weather conditions caused several car accidents through North Texas. Dallas Fire-Rescue officials said from midnight to 8 a.m. they responded to 54 major traffic accidents. Fort Worth Fire crews responded to 15 crashes from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. Officials however said that number is a "normal amount of crashes." One major accident near Carrollton caused traffic delays for hours as seven-vehicles and an 18-wheeler was involved. The crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. on I-35E northbound at Valwood Parkway. Vehicles have been advised to exit at Crosby while crews clean up oil spills from the scene. A police spokesperson said no injuries have been reported in connection with the crash. Another crash caused traffic delays in Dallas and involved a jackknifed 18-wheeler, according to officials.  

VIDEO: Large piles of scrap metal caught fire at an Opa-locka recycling plant, sending heavy plumes of smoke into the sky. The firefight, which began around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Trademark Metals Recycling Plant, stretched well into the evening. Firefighters said because of the metal that is burning, these type of fires take a long time to put out. 23 units were working to extinguish the fire they said is deeply seated in a large mound of metal. Below the junk pile, the core of the combustion made the fire fight even more challenging. Crews were forced to use foam trucks, but because of the junk yard's layout, just accessing the fire acted as a task in itself. The recycling plant is not new to dealing with fires. Back in January, the same facility dealt with another fire. While crews were able to put out those flames quickly, Tuesday's fire has proven to be much more difficult.  

Some ambulances have been forced to wait as long as 12 hours outside Memphis hospitals to drop off patients, according to the Memphis Fire Fighters Association. The problem appears to be tied to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases, which has brought many hospitals to capacity. Tuesday afternoon, the Memphis Fire Department confirmed ambulances were backed up at St. Francis' Park Avenue location as well as at Methodist South, where the wait time was reportedly an hour long. "I wish it was an hour ‘cause it's a lot longer than an hour that they've been waiting. We've had them wait as long as 10, 12 hours," said Thomas Malone, president of the Memphis Fire Fighters Association which also represents paramedics. Malone said ambulance wait times began building in early December –- around the same time COVID cases spiked. He worries to long waits will prevent ambulances from responding to emergencies. At a single hospital, he said 14 ambulances were waiting to drop off patients one day.  

A burglary and theft of $50,000 worth of firefighting and emergency equipment at a Woodland fire station could temporarily slow emergency services to the nearby rural community, fire officials said Tuesday. Cowlitz County Fire District 1 Assistant Chief Bob Kofstad said volunteers with the station discovered the break-in Monday, Dec. 28, while checking on Station 3 at 120 Woodland Heights Rd. The station is not staffed every day and does not have surveillance cameras, so the exact date of the burglary is unknown, Kofstad said. The Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office is investigating the incident, Kofstad said. Deputies could not be reached Tuesday to provide additional details about the investigation. Kofstad said that the suspected burglars broke in through the back of the station by ripping out an exterior wall and kicking down the interior wall.  

Firefighters in Massachusetts are sounding the alarm about delays in COVID-19 vaccinations for first responders. On Tuesday, Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, the statewide union, posted on Twitter claiming the state has "no viable plan" to vaccinate local firefighters. The union president says the union learned the state planned to place the responsibility for distributing vaccines to first responders on local city and town boards of health. "The local boards of health have been overworked, a lot of them are understaffed especially in smaller communities," Rich Mackinnon, MFFA President, told WBZ. Mackinnon said that more than 800 firefighters statewide currently have COVID-19, and another 650 are quarantined due to exposure.  

U.S. emergency medical personnel are getting quick access to COVID-19 vaccines in some parts of the United States while fire chiefs in other areas forecast a delay of weeks or months, highlighting the chaotic nature of a rollout that relies on states and counties to plan and administer distribution. A lack of detailed federal guidelines has forced U.S. states and counties to create their own plans for distributing initially limited doses of COVID-19 vaccines in hopes of curbing a raging pandemic that has killed more than 332,000 Americans. All states have prioritized nursing homes and frontline healthcare workers, following federal guidelines. But the federal plan does not define frontline health workers, and local decisions sometimes differ on whether the United State's roughly 430,000 emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, are included.