VIDEO: Bexar County fire officials announced a new collaboration with multiple agencies to help fight and respond to grass or wildfires. The Wildfire Strike team is a special unit focused on covering fires in east and west Bexar County and unincorporated areas that have large pieces of land and dry vegetation. The strike team will use specialized equipment and gear to fight fires. The equipment includes a wildland apparatus, different trucks and engines to get to brush fires or rough terrain, and a water tender or tanker to get water in places that are hard to reach in the county. Bexar County fire officials said they have been responding to calls for grass and wildfires nearly every day, and this collaboration will help them coordinate and respond faster and stay on top of a fire before it spreads.  

The City of Tyler has released its 2024 budget proposal. Touted as making the city "Future Ready," the budget includes funding for road construction and improvements, upgrades to the water and sewer systems, as well as increases in funding for the fire and police departments. The proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 is listed as $242.4 million, marking a 5.83 percent increase from fiscal year 2023. About $21 million of this is listed as investment for things such as street reconstruction, an increase in drainage capacity and traffic signal improvements. Police and fire departments will receive nearly three-quarters of the general fund's allocation with $36.4 million and $25.1 million, respectively. This is 69 percent of the general fund and marks a 7.93 percent increase in funding from last year's budget.  

This week's first responders salute goes out to JS Roeseler. He's a member of the Shiro Volunteer Fire Department. A Grimes County community member says Roeseler, along with a few others, got together to get a woman without air conditioning a new window unit. When the woman found out, her face lit up. The community member says Roseler has always gone above and beyond for anyone in need of help.  

Crews continue to respond to a 50-acre brush fire in Cedar Park near Parmer Lane and Whitestone Boulevard. As of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Texas A&M Forest Service's incident viewer map shows that the "Parmer Lane Fire" has burned an estimated 50 acres and is 60% contained. The service and Cedar Park police said crews made significant progress overnight with building a containment line, with no further movement of the fire overnight. The number of acres burned has decreased from the original report of 120 acres. That estimate was based on "initial visual observation," according to Williamson County officials, but crews have since provided a more accurate size. More than 20 agencies and several hundred firefighters from multiple agencies are on the scene near 12820 W. Parmer Lane, at the Bexley at Silverado apartment complex near Whitestone Boulevard.  

The Biden administration on Wednesday launched a new information system to map emergency medical services (EMS) responses to heat-related illness across the country. The online dashboard is run by the Department of Health and Human Services in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The agencies said the system is meant to help public health officials ensure that outreach and medical aid reach the people who need it most during heat emergencies. "Heat is no longer a silent killer. From coast-to-coast, communities are battling to keep people cool, safe and alive due to the growing impacts of the climate crisis," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. "The EMS HeatTracker is a powerful tool from the Biden-Harris Administration that brings actionable information to prioritize outreach and interventions, helping prevent heat-related illnesses and death and build resilience across the nation," Becerra added.  

VIDEO: A Hazelwood school is one of the first elementary schools in the country to install a color-coded security measure designed to guide first responders in times of crisis. "If, unfortunately, something were to happen, having that system, people will know where to go quickly," said Hazelwood Assistant Superintendent Christopher Norman. "It's going to reduce response time for those officers once they get on scene," Ann Vastmans of St. Louis County Emergency Management said. "It doesn't require any technology. It is not something that relies on the internet. It is within the building. It's on the building. It's something that's going to be in their line of sight. Brown Elementary serves as a pilot school that has implemented colorful arrows in addition to colors on walls and room numbers as a guide through the building.  

VIDEO: Rockaway Beach reopened for swimming and surfing Wednesday after officials spent the morning scanning for sharks. "Drone and harbor unit surveillance this morning did not observe any shark sightings, and Rockaway Beach has reopened for swimming as of 10 a.m. NYC Parks, NYPD, and FDNY will continue land, drone, and boat surveillance on Rockaway Beach throughout the day and into the evening," the Parks Department tweeted. The waters off the beach were closed Tuesday after officials said a 65-year-old woman was bitten by a shark the evening before. She was taken to the hospital, where she remains in serious condition. This was the sixth reported shark bite in the state this summer, compared to eight last year.  

VIDEO: Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue workers went beyond the call of duty to help a woman with special needs get to her 31st-floor apartment. Floodwaters recently shut down her building's elevator, and that's when the first responders stepped in to help. The three firefighters will say they were just doing their jobs, but their job was not easy. In a typical commercial building, each floor is about 10-to-15-feet high. The firefighters went up 13 floors to get the woman where she needed to go, and they did it carrying her on their back, with her wheelchair and her belongings. "I was literally stuck on floor 31," said Haleigh Rosa. With the dilemma came a very important decision. "To either bring her down 20-plus stories to the next crossway to the other tower, or go up 13 and get across to a working elevator bank so she can get out of the building," said Fort Lauderdale Fire Battalion Chief Garrett Pingol.