Houston Fire Capt. Tommy Searcy, 45, died Tuesday after a monthslong battle with coronavirus, the Fire Department confirmed to KPRC 2. The 18-year veteran of the department spent weeks in intensive care at Memorial Hermann in The Woodlands, according to the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association. In their effort to help save their colleague's life, members of Searcy's Station 67 crew and the fire union battled red tape to help him get an experimental drug. In the early hours of August 18, Searcy's coworkers even escorted the drug from Houston Methodist hospital to The Woodlands hospital where Searcy was being treated in the ICU. "His death will be classified as a line-of-duty death by HFD," the union wrote on Facebook. "He is the third Houston firefighter to die from complications of COVID-19."  

VIDEO: Two firefighters were injured Wednesday morning while battling a fire at a vacant house in Fort Worth, officials said. According to a spokesperson with the Fort Worth Fire Department, the incident occurred around 5:15 a.m. near 2881 Milam Street. Officials said a firefighter yelled, "Mayday" after the roof collapsed on him. An officer who was inside the vacant house at the time called other firefighters and they were able to get the injured firefighter out, according to the spokesperson. That firefighter suffered minor injuries, according to officials. A second firefighter suffered burns to the left side of his body and was transported to the hospital. He is expected to be OK, according to officials.  

North Texas firefighter Diana Jones, who died while helping battle one of the wildfires raging in California, is making her final journey home. The casket containing her remains will arrive at the Cresson Airport, 25 miles southwest of Fort Worth on Wednesday. It will then be taken to the training facility where Jones will "lie in repose"until her public memorial service in Granbury on Saturday. Jones was as an EMT and volunteer firefighter. She worked with the Cresson Volunteer Fire Department for more than five years. Jones and her son, Cresson VFD Capt. Ian Shelly, travel west and work for private contractors fighting fires during the fire season. They were working together on a fire northwest of Sacramento, California when she died in an accident while repositioning her truck during a firefight. The August Complex Fire — in Mendocino County — started as 37 separate lightning caused fires and has now burned close to 250,000 acres.  

There's been a setback in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. Tuesday, AstraZeneca, one of three drug companies in phase three human trials, put its study on pause over a suspected adverse reaction from a participant. It comes after an extraordinary pledge by drug company CEOs saying they wouldn't rush trials despite pressure from President Donald Trump. In addition to finding a vaccine, another challenge could lie ahead: Finding people to get it. A USA Today poll found two-thirds of Americans won't get the vaccine when it's first available. Allen Fire Department Chief Jonathan Boyd is participating in a clinical trial for a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Moderna. On any day, his department of more than 100 firefighters and paramedics answers calls from potential coronavirus patients, so few are more driven to be done with the disease.  

In partnership with Humble ISD, the Atascocita Fire Department AFD) began EMT classes for high school seniors Aug. 17. "This is the third year that AFD has offered this program which includes students from Atascocita High School, Humble High School, Kingwood High School and Kingwood Park High School. Upon successful completion of the course in the spring of 2021, the students will be eligible to take the National Registry Exam to become certified as emergency medical technicians," said Jerry Dilliard, public information officer for the AFD. The course is offered to a limited amount of high school students from around the district, who are hand-picked to participate in the program. "Each week, we have our students in class for a couple of days a week and they are administered a standard EMT curriculum," said Lt. Hans Grider, program director.  

Haylee's Hometown Heroes is a Facebook organization started by a mother and daughter team. They show support to their local firefighters, police officers, and medical staff by handing out free Gatorade and water. They were outside of their Kilgore home from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Up until a year ago, it was illegal to have a lemonade stand without a permit. Last year Governor Abbott made it legal to have a stand without one. Haylee's mother says she's happy it's legal. "I know that she would've upset her if she got shut down. I made sure to ask and everything. I'm just glad that he changed it that way so she was able to do this. That means a lot to her ,she's been wanting to do this for a while," says Shelby Keen, Haylee's mother.  

What started a massive salvage yard fire in the Bronx remains unknown, but fire investigators consider its cause suspicious. The blaze and smoke seen for miles prompted a 5-alarm response from the FDNY on Monday afternoon. The heat was so intense that vehicles parked on nearby streets were burned, a fire chief said. In the heart of the fire, car parts and wooden pallets burned. Nearly 200 members of the city's fire department responded to the fire on Drake Street in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. One firefighter did suffer a minor injury, according to the fire chief. Investigators say they don't believe anyone was inside the salvage yard at the time and the fact that the flames sparked in the middle of a holiday made the fire suspicious. Jasmine Ramos says she saw a video of the fire and recognized her parents' auto repair shop that sits next door to the junkyard.  

New Orleans is getting $15.9 million from the federal government to hire 62 firefighters, city officials announced on Tuesday. The grant will pay the full cost of the new hires' salary and benefits for three years, giving the city a way to expand the New Orleans Fire Department, which firefighters have said has been understaffed for years. "Having the grant award to pay for a three-year period allows us the cushion to pay for it," Mayor LaToya Cantrell said of the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant at a press conference on Tuesday. "We knew we needed to grow our department and this was the best way to do it." Staffing has long been a concern at the NOFD. Under former Mayor Mitch Landrieu, budget cuts required the department to scale back the number of firefighters assigned to each truck, something the firefighters' union objected to because it meant more vehicles had to arrive at a scene before there were enough personnel to safely enter buildings.  

Thirty-five years ago, on Labor Day in 1985, two Passaic boys unwittingly set a fire that would destroy an estimated 20% of the industrial base in a city already under considerable duress. In all, about 2.2 million square feet of industrial space burned down. The fire, known forever after as the Labor Day Fire, produced heat so intense it caused nearby buildings to combust before flames reached them. It left 2,000 jobless and hundreds homeless as the conflagration destroyed 17 multi-family homes and scores of businesses. A firefighter from Secaucus died of a heart attack after responding to a mutual aid call. "This was a huge deal," City Historian Mark Auerbach said. "Passaic's strength was based on its industry." The fire's scar remains. Seventeen acres of the 22 consumed are still either vacant or largely abandoned, costing the city millions in tax revenues.  

Ralph Gismondi knew he wasn't going to make it. The retired FDNY captain, who spent weeks on the smoldering wreckage of Ground Zero, only to find a second career as a JetBlue flight attendant, told his wife Ann in late March that he could no longer fight off the deadly coronavirus that had begun to ravage his 68-year-old body. Gismondi couldn't breathe without an oxygen mask and seemed to be in constant pain. And while Ann tried to encourage her husband of nearly 50 years to keep fighting, the end was near. Gismondi was placed on a ventilator March 20 and died April 5. "I didn't think he was going to die but he did. Ralph knew," Ann Gismondi said. "Here he was: a 9/11 survivor and this is what took him out." As the 19th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks approaches, Ralph Gismondi joins a growing list of 9/11 first responders who have faced a dual set of painful challenges — each originating from that clear Tuesday morning in lower Manhattan 19 years ago.  

PHOTOS: The Visalia Fire Department will have a step up in training thanks in partnership with California Water Service. Cal Water awarded VFD a grant worth $102,000, which allowed for the purchase of a 10-foot mobile pump pod for the fire agency. According to Cal Water administration analyst Chrissy Balderama, the new water-saving device is a self-contained unit that recirculates water that is used during firefighter training and pump testing. Water officials say it will save the fire department 4.5 million gallons of water per year. Firefighters demonstrated the new water-saving device, called the Direct Recirculation Apparatus Firefighter Training & Sustainability (D.R.A.F.T.S.) Unit, on Tuesday at Station 55 in northwest Visalia. "This unit is really an integral part of conservation," Cal Water district manager Steve Johnson said. "They can fill this thing up to 1,700 gallons a minute, put it into this D.R.A.F.T.S. unit with minimal water waste."