According to New Braunfels Fire Chief Ruy Lozano, super-utilizers of 911 are those who call two or more times per month. In New Braunfels, these super-utilizers accounted for 4.5% of EMS callers and 10% of transport this past month. During this year alone, over 1,300 calls were made by super-utilizers to 911. The city of New Braunfels will begin a new program — the mobile integrated health (MIH) program — in order to accommodate these individuals. "It's really focused on being human-centric and being proactive in how we help our citizens," Lozano said. According to Lozano, EMS already takes up 73% of total calls and also shows up as standby on fire calls in case there is a firefighter or civilian casualty. Moreover, the EMS call volume is at an all-time high in New Braunfels.  

Several businesses were damaged and a dog was rescued during a late night two-alarm fire on the Northeast Side. The fire started around 8:30 p.m. Sunday at a strip mall off Rittiman Road near Loop 410. Fire department officials said more than 30 units responded to the fire that was located in a strip mall that had several businesses in it, including a tire shop. A second alarm was brought in as a precaution. It took several hours for firefighters to get the blaze under control. Officials said the fire was in the attic area and they were forced to fight the fire defensively due to the construction type. The fire did damage to several of the businesses in the strip mall. One business had fire, water and smoke damage, while the two others had water and smoke damage. No injuries were reported, but a dog was rescued from one of the buildings.  

It only takes two milligrams of fentanyl to kill a person, that's equal to 10 to 15 grains of salt to be considered a lethal dose. In part two of KGNS Special Report ‘Fentanyl the Silent Killer,' first responders and health experts explain the effects this drug has on the human body and what trends they have seen when responding to a suspected overdose. The job of a first responder comes with a lot of responsibility from having the proper training and applying it out in the field. So far, the Laredo Fire Department has responded to 188 possible overdose cases in town this year, and last year there were 193 reported. "We will simply treat signs and symptoms many of them are not responsiveness, shallow breathing, cyanosis lack of breathing, pinpoint pupils usually related to opioids," said Laredo Fire Paramedics Ricardo Oliva Jr.  

A fire on Sunday in Randall County burned around 200 acres of grassland. A multi-department response kept the grass fire from reaching neighborhoods in Timbercreek, Palisades and Lake Tanglewood even as some residents evacuated the fire; it is a reminder of how quickly it can spread in gusty winds. Property owners can take steps to reduce the risk of a home loss by working on their home ignition zone. "Yeah all it takes is just one spark," said Juan Rodriguez, wildland-urban interface coordinator for Texas A&M Forest Service. As a wildland fire is burning grass and is approaching your house on your property it's always a good idea to have defensible space around your house. "Using this last fire that just took place up here as an example, we're talking five to ten feet or maybe five to fifteen feet or maybe even up to thirty feet around the home," said Rodriguez.  

VIDEO: At least seven people were killed Monday in a slew of crashes along Interstate 55 in Louisiana's St. John the Baptist Parish that involved at least 158 vehicles, state police say. More than 25 people were taken to hospitals with injuries ranging from minor to critical, Louisiana State Police said in an evening news release. And many victims sought medical help on their own, authorities said. Meteorologists earlier said "super fog" had heavily impacted the area, just west of New Orleans, around the time of the pileups. Super fog is a thick fog that develops in damp, smoky conditions and can send visibilities plummeting to less than 10 feet, according to the National Weather Service. Some of the vehicles caught on fire after the initial crash, authorities said.  

PHOTOS: The old hose reel on its tall, spindly wheels was state-of-the-art fire equipment when it first hit the streets in about 1879. It responded to its last fire call more than 100 years ago, and largely disappeared from view. Today, following a full restoration job, it occupies a place of honor in the Fort Dodge firehouse. It is a reminder of a time when hose reels like it were key to saving lives and property when fire broke out. Fire Chief Steve Hergenreter said it had been in storage at the Fort Museum and Frontier Village. He said he talked to museum Director Tim Morris about it. Morris, he said, "saw value in us taking it and restoring it." It was moved to the firehouse at 1515 Central Ave. in the spring, where it sat in the garage behind some of the modern fire trucks. Hergenreter contacted Curt Bacon, owner of Curt Bacon Body Shop in Fort Dodge, to get his input on restoring the wooden and cast iron reel. He said Bacon volunteered his services to restore it.  

VIDEO: By the time the scuba dive boat sank off the Southern California coast after catching fire, 34 people had been killed in the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history. The Labor Day tragedy in 2019 spurred changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and civil lawsuits. Now four years later, a federal trial for the Conception's captain, Jerry Boylan, is set to begin Tuesday with jury selection in Los Angeles. It's been a long, frustrating wait for the families of those who perished. They say a judge's ruling that their loved ones should not be called "victims" at trial has only added to their pain. "The past four years have been like living in a nightmare that you don't wake up from," said Kathleen McIlvain, whose 44-year-old son Charles was killed. The 75-foot boat was anchored off the Channel Islands, about 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, on Sept. 2, 2019, when it caught fire before dawn on the last day of a three-day excursion, sinking less than 100 feet from shore.