Frisco Fire Department welcomed Kelly Kistner as the new Fire Marshal on Thursday, July 1, 2021. Kelly comes to Frisco after serving as the Fire Marshal for the City of San Marcos (TX) and has extensive experience at the private, municipal, county, and state levels. Kelly previously served as the Assistant State Fire Marshal for Texas, where he was responsible for the fire inspection, fire investigation, canine, outreach, policy, and research sections of the State Fire Marshal's Office. Marshal Kistner received his Bachelor's degree from Texas State University in Urban and Regional Planning and earned his Master's of Science in Forensic Sciences with a concentration in Arson and Explosion Investigations from Oklahoma State University. Kelly is a Certified Fire Protection Specialist with NFPA and holds the designation of Fire Marshal through the Center for Public Safety Excellence.  

Emergency officials report an uptick in calls around the 4th of July. Lubbock Fire and Rescue Captain Phillip Grandon said they have gotten a lot of calls about fireworks in the city limits. Grandon said it's more serious than people may realize. It's not just about getting a fine, but taking resources away from people who may need help. "We had extra units just staffed dedicated to responding to firework calls," Grandon said. The increase of calls about fireworks puts a higher demand over where emergency services are sent and the amount of time it takes to arrive. LFR said they have responded to 814 calls about fireworks since the end of June. "Even without those extra units, it still stressed our normal staff," Grandon said. "Because they went on just engines [fire trucks] alone — they went on 136 calls on July 4 in a short amount of time."  

A recent study of the operations and efficiency of the Grapevine Fire Department suggests it may need to reallocate resources to better meet community needs. Produced by Fitch & Associates, the study—which was presented to City Council on July 6 and looked at 2019 response times and the department's available resources—shows emergency medical services account for the largest number of requests from the community. With five stations located throughout the city, the fire department received 6,373 calls—or 17.5 calls per day—in 2019. Of those, 4,602 calls—or 12.6 calls per day—were EMS related. That means 72% of emergency calls to the department were EMS calls, as opposed to 25% that were fire related. Steven Knight, a partner with Fitch & Associates, said this suggests the department's resources should be EMS centric.  

A group of volunteer firefighters from departments across Panola County have spent the past several months taking part in a hybrid fire academy class from the Kilgore Fire Academy. It started back in February, when fire departments got together and talked about how volunteers could take training. Carthage Fire Marshal Randy Liedtke, who acted as lead instructor, said he initially thought they'd get eight to 10 people at their first meeting. They ended up having 30 sign up — and 27 of those made it through training and tests recently. "These guys and gals, men and women they gave a lot of their time as you know, as their family members, because they spent a lot of time on the computer studying, reading books and a lot of hands-on training," Liedtke said.  

VIDEO: Central Texas game wardens are investigating after a boater escaped serious injury when an inboard engine exploded after he launched from Frank's Marina on Lake Belton. The unidentified boater had just exited the no wake zone when the engine exploded, authorities said. He abandoned the boat and other boaters picked up him. He suffered minor injuries. Morgan's Point Resort firefighters, Marina 61 and Belton firefighters worked to put out the fire as the boat drifted toward shore.  

Firefighters in North Richland Hills battled a house fire Wednesday night, July 7. It's being investigated as a possible lightning strike fire.The call came in just before 9:00 p.m. in the 5600 block of Belfast Lane near Irish Lane. There had been storms in the area at that time.Heavy flames could be seen shooting from the roof and attic area as first responders arrived. There were no reports of any injuries and firefighters were able to extinguish the flames quickly.  

Dash camera video captured someone throw a lit firework into a car stopped at a Midtown intersection on the night of July 4. Kathy Kirby told News 2 that a car pulled up next to her son's convertible, as he was stopped at a traffic light along Church Street at 17th Avenue North Sunday night. Someone in that car then tossed a "large, lit firework" into the convertible, which had the top down, striking her son in the back of the head, Kirby explained. "He quickly reached back and picked it up to try and toss it away," Kirby said. "It burned him and he dropped it." She added, "It blew up then, first a small explosion and then a large very loud one." A friend driving behind him captured the incident on dash camera video. The driver, Colin Kirby told News 2 that the firework bounced after it hit him in the head and exploded on the convertible's top, which was closed.  

Some Toledo firefighters battling cancer are now battling something else. It's the City of Toledo itself. That's because the city is taking them to court over Worker's Comp claims that have already been accepted. It's a fight that could affect their long term health but in the short term it's causing lots of stress It all starts with a state law saying firefighters who contract cancer are presumed to have contracted it through their job and can get worker's compensation. The assumption was that would be the end of the story but the City of Toledo is digging in. We often think of the heroic things firefighters do when buildings are burning or people need help but we sometimes forget the human side. In this case it is cancer. "When this happened it was like being strapped into a roller coaster because basically I was just along for the ride," said Toledo firefighter Miguel Castillo.  

At the suggestion of Commissioner Michael Siers, the Nags Head Board of Commissioners during its July 7 meeting formed a task force to address fire safety issues in large oceanfront homes. The move comes several weeks after a two-alarm structure fire destroyed an 18-bedroom home on the oceanfront in Kill Devil Hills where more than 40 occupants had to be evacuated. "I know it's an uphill battle beyond all uphill battles, but this KDH fire kind of hit me off again," Siers told his fellow commissioners. "I've said it for the last three years – the larger homes are unsafe for multiple families. There were forty-two or forty-five people in that house. Thank goodness they all got out." While recognizing that the North Carolina Building Code Council holds the sole authority to adopt and amend the statewide building codes for residential properties.  

A man has been arrested after he reportedly taped a road flare to a propane tank, lit it and threw it at people outside a Boulder fire station. Mark Stephen Szyperek, 58, was arrested Monday on suspicion of four counts of attempted first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, fourth-degree arson and possession of explosives. According to an arrest affidavit, police were called at 6:49 p.m. Monday to a grassy area just west of a Boulder fire station at 1585 30th St. There, witnesses told police Szyperek had thrown some sort of flaming device at them before firefighters were able to put the device out. Police spoke to a firefighter who said the device was a road flare that had been taped to a foot-long propane cannister. The firefighter said that had the flare not been extinguished in time, it could have produced a serious explosion.  

VIDEO: The Spirit of Oklahoma firetruck just completed its journey from the northeast all the way back to its home state of Oklahoma. It's a truck that connects fire departments from here at home all the way to New York City. After 9/11, this truck was given as a gift from the state of Oklahoma to the New York City Fire Department for their sacrifice and strength. Now the Spirit of Oklahoma is officially back on Oklahoma soil. The journey from Massachusetts began earlier this week by an Oklahoma man who says the trip was personal. "Finally it's here, it's happening, it's not gonna go to scrapyard, it's not gonna go you know just away with history," said Brian Norton, Calera fire chief. Shortly after 9/11 Oklahoma students raised money to buy a firetruck as a thank you to the New York City Fire Department. 10 of the New York firefighters who helped in the Oklahoma City bombing died in 9/11.