VIDEO: Houston fire crews are working to put out a fire at a Montrose-area building Friday morning. ABC13 cameras captured firefighters hosing down the building along Kipling at Hazard Street at about 9 a.m. A Houston fire chief could not go on camera but did confirm to ABC13 that it appears a gas line was hit by a construction crew. He said firefighters are trying to locate a spot where they can safely shut the gas off. One neighbor reported hearing loud burning sounds and seeing sparks on what she described as electricity wires. Crews are keeping plenty of water in the area to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings. It is still unclear if anyone was hurt.  

The City of College Station has made significant efforts to enhance its Emergency Medical Services (EMS) over the past couple of years, resulting in what they say are notable improvements in response times and overall patient care. The city says these initiatives demonstrate its commitment to maximizing efficiency and ensuring the well-being of its residents. These changes come as EMS providers across the country are grappling with shortages of equipment and personnel after the pandemic led to supply chain issues and job losses across the healthcare industry. One of the city's key initiatives implemented during 2021-2022 was the strategic streamlining of dispatch policies and processes. "Over the last couple of years, we've made a real investment in trying to supplement our EMS resources to make sure that we can meet the needs of this community as it continues to grow," said College Station Fire Chief Richard Mann.  

The Wichita County Sheriff's office is investigating after a man suffered an injury at an oil field. According to Wichita County Sheriff David Duke, Felipe Carrillo was impaled with a pipe on Thursday, November 16, 2023, at an oil field off Highway 25. Kamay and Electra Fire Departments, EMS and AMR all responded to the scene. Duke reported the pipe struck through Carrillo's shoulder and exited below the belt. The pipe was reportedly three feet deep when it hit the ground, with about 40-feet of pipe still above the victim after being impaled. Duke said his team called in Air Evac Lifeteam and had difficulty getting the victim and the pipe into the air ambulance even after trimming the pipe. There was still around two feet of pipe left in the victim. American Medical Response was called after failed attempts to get the impaled victim into the aircraft.  

Throughout this week, College Station city employees got to test their fitness level against firefighters. City employees participated in the College Station Fire Department's fitness training. The training is an entry-level physical agility test that happened Monday through Thursday. The tests feature firefighter workouts like climbing a ladder, carrying a hose for a distance of 75 feet, and crawling through a 20-foot tube. The city's wellness committee was formed this year to educate and inform employees on physical and mental wellness. The committee partnered with the Fire Department as part of their wellness initiatives. "It's just a fun way to either do it with your co-workers and compete, or to even see a baseline of where you're at, or see where you are compared to other firefighters," said Courtney Revilla, the Wellness Coordinator for the city of College Station.  

Firefighters spent nearly three hours battling an extra-alarm fire that started Thursday morning at a warehouse in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. The fire started at a warehouse at the Evans Food Group processing plant near 41st and Halsted around 8:30 a.m. Chicago Fire Department officials said the fire was later raised to a 3-11 alarm, bringing in extra crews to fight the flames. Heavy flames and thick black smoke could be seen coming from the roof of the warehouse. District Chief Jim McDonough said the fire spread from the original warehouse where it started to at least two connected buildings. The roofs of all three buildings collapsed during the fire. Crews used three tower ladder trucks and five large hand lines to contain the fire from the outside before it was safe to go inside to extinguish the remaining flames.  

A 12-year-old girl from Miller Middle School in San Jose has won $25,000 in a science fair for her invention of a new fire detection system that's faster, cheaper, and more reliable than smoke detectors. The Thermo Fischer Junior Innovator's Challenge claims to be the nation's premier STEM contest for middle schoolers, and Shanya Gill won over second and third-place inventions of a smartphone app that can detect certain cancers and an experimental method of generating electricity through plant cells. In the summer of 2022, a fire destroyed a restaurant behind Shanya's house. That incident inspired her to create a fire-detection system that involved connecting an affordable thermal camera to a compact computer.  

VIDEO: As the excitement builds for the Formula 1 race hitting the valley this weekend, local hospitals and first responders are taking proactive steps to ensure the safety of the drivers and hundreds of thousands of fans. Alison McKnickle, vice chief of trauma at UMC, shares insights into her team's extensive preparations over the last several months. Their motto: "Hope for the best, plan for the worst." "The trauma unit and the entire University Medical Center have worked on preparing for a potential incident involving formula participants or the community," she said. Regarding the safety of Formula 1 fans, Pamela O'Brien, who traveled from Vancouver, felt very comfortable at Thursday's grand opening. "There's a lot of security," O'Brien said. "Going into it, you feel safe. The checkpoints and all of the stuff like that. You feel secure."  

The inaugural Disaster Management Symposium was conducted Nov. 8, when consecutive hour-long webinars featured expert panelists exploring various aspects of the three main phases of a disaster for public safety and governments: planning, response and recovery. This virtual symposium was a joint effort of American City & County, IWCE's Urgent Communications and IWCE. If you attended the Disaster Management Symposium live and would like to revisit a session or listen to one you may have missed, check your e-mail for a link to archived recordings. For those who missed the live event entirely but would like to listen to the recorded webinars, visit the registration page to access the archived sessions.