Houston fire crews battled a massive warehouse fire in northwest Houston Tuesday night. The warehouse, owned by Namco Manufacturing, is located at 1729 A Brittmore Road near Beltway 8. The fire was first reported at about 8:16 p.m. and heavy smoke and flames could be seen billowing from the building as crews worked to battle the blaze. Firefighters initially tried to make an offensive attack on the fire but had to back out, officials said. It took officials about 45 minutes to knock down the bulk of the fire. The building was empty when the fire broke out. the cause of the fire is under investigation.  

VIDEO: Fort Worth fire investigators are looking for the man responsible for an arson attack caught on camera. It happened late Sunday night at the Budget Host Inn in the 3700 block of Tanacross Drive. Surveillance video shows the suspect pouring liquid on the hotel clerk's desk. Investigators say the man demanded money and threatened to burn the clerk alive if he did not comply. The clerk appears to be calling for help when the suspect used a lighter to ignite the liquid and spark a fire. The clerk suffered minor burns, but is expected to fully recover. The hotel office had extensive fire damage. The suspect is believed to be a Hispanic male, who had long hair and was wearing a dark baseball cap and pink button-up shirt and teal short-sleeve shirt at the time of the crime, left the scene driving a white colored sedan — believed to be a Honda Accord, with a sunroof, dark tinted windows and rear spoiler.  

For two years, Austin-Travis County EMS had been discussing ways to best direct people who call 911. Not everyone who calls 911 needs to go to the hospital immediately. In some cases, a caller might not even need an ambulance. Austin-Travis County EMS leaders had been thinking of putting a trial system in place, through which medical professionals could advise callers about their best course of action. Then a deadly and highly contagious virus swept through the world, and suddenly, having such a system was crucial. The COVID Clinical Consultation Line is what emerged as EMS leaders decided how people in Travis County and the medics who serve them could best navigate the new normal the virus created. "We put very experienced clinicians in the call center, so that when the 911 call came in ... we would discuss with those patients what their symptoms were," Division Chief Ed Piker said.  

Lighting may have caused a fire that completely destroyed a West Side residence Sunday night, San Antonio Fire Department said. Firefighters were called to the 4400 block of Growden just after 9:30 p.m. for a structure fire. When crews arrived, the two-story residence was completely engulfed in flames, said a spokesman with SAFD. It took firefighters over an hour to get the fire under control and the home was a complete loss. Another West Side home, near the 9800 block of Prescott Drive caught fire around 1 a.m., but crews were quickly able to extinguish that blaze. Officials said a small fire had started in the kitchen, near the rear of the house, but did not give a cause for that fire. The blaze caused nearly $10,000 in damages.  

During a briefing at Tuesday morning's Smith County Commissioners Court meeting, Fire Marshal Jay Brooks said there was no playbook for dealing with COVID-19. Brooks said unlike other disasters, there was no mutual aid available because other counties were dealing with the same issues. "We were alone as a local government," Brooks said. And while the rate of new cases is down, Brooks told commissioners now is not the time to become complacent. "I can assure you, COVID-19 is not gone," Brooks said. "We just simply do not have all the facts about this virus. The data is still limited and being validated." As of Tuesday morning, there were 43 active cases in Smith County, along with 152 patients considered recovered. The peak came on April 9 with 80 active cases, according to Brooks. He said the growth of new cases also is slowing.  

VIDEO: The roof over a Haltom City market partially collapsed Tuesday morning as a fire burned through a strip shopping center. The fire broke out in the 4100 block of Denton Highway just after 8:30 a.m. Tuesday at the La Mexicana market. Customers and employees were inside the market when the fire broke out, though all were able to escape without injury, officials said. At 11 a.m., though smoke was no longer visible, firefighters told NBC 5 that the fire was not yet under control but that it had been contained to the market. By noon, fire officials said the fire had been tapped out. From Texas Sky Ranger, it was clear part of the roof at the rear of the building over the market had collapsed. Adjacent businesses, fire officials said, had suffered water damage and business owners were waiting for the all-clear to go back inside, but with the damage to the roof the structural integrity of the building will need to be determined before that can happen.  

Police and firefighters weren't forgotten when Congress passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package in March. Within a week of the law's enactment, aid began flowing to states and cities through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, run by the Justice Department. Much of that aid goes to police departments across the country, which have received more than $143 million so far, according to a CQ Roll Call analysis of grant recipients. But firefighters, who were promised $100 million, have yet to get a dime. The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, requires a cumbersome peer review process for grant awards that can take months. The result has been a frustrating wait for money designed to help fire departments buy personal protective equipment, thermometers, sanitizer sprayers and other material needed to fight fires during the pandemic.  

VIDEO: A tenacious fire fueled by an estimated 1,000 plastic crates containing tomato products burned for at least seven hours Tuesday in east Stockton, growing to five alarms as it sent a massive black plume of smoke into the clear morning air visible for miles in all directions. No structures were involved and no injuries were reported at the Mizkan America tomato-processing plant known for its Ragu and Bertolli pasta sauces near the southwest corner of Waterloo Road and D Street. One firefighter was transported to an area hospital suffering from heat exhaustion, according to the Stockton Fire Department. a quick attack, but the fire continued to grow. Several factors hampered their ability to quickly put out the blaze and that allowed it to spread to the plastic tomato crates in the middle of the pallet yard, according to Deputy Fire Chief Shannon Lewis.  

New Hampshire was the first state to offer all first responders "hazard pay" bonuses for being on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike Gov. Chris Sununu's other relief initiatives, few states or the federal government have followed this one. And the $300-per-week bonuses for New Hampshire's firefighters, police, EMS and corrections officers have drawn controversy. "Governor Chris Sununu you should be ashamed of yourself; to not include the doctors, nurses, hospital personnel, those who are keeping people safe at home on hospice and caregivers providing needed personal assistance, let alone the cashiers at grocery stores," Gayle Spence Davis posted on Facebook recently. "I have no idea who gave you this advice, but you have been horribly misguided. We are on the front lines every day and frankly, you do not really care. Open up the economy a little more and see where that lands us."  

Weeks after learning there is a federal Arizona-specific model, Arizona's top public health official released the model in an online blog post on Tuesday. Dr. Cara Christ posting in a blog post, that FEMA has authorized them to share the models publicly. The report release May 7 has a number of graphs and data charts that are specific to Arizona. Christ wrote in the blog, "This model previously predicted our peak resource utilization to occur around June 11, assuming our mitigation strategies were lifted at the end of the current Stay Home, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected order on April 30. That order was extended through May 15th and was just recently lifted. The most recent model, dated May 7 predicts, even with the mitigation strategies lifted, that our current resources, including inpatient beds, ICU beds, and ventilators, are sufficient to meet a healthcare surge due to COVID-19."