Lester Tyra's short reign as chief of the Houston Fire Department has been filled with controversy. Can he quench the flames fast enough to save his job?
Harris County Judge Ed Emmett's official and final scorecard on local-government response to Hurricane Ike: "Pretty good."At a press conference Monday he addressed what worked and what didn't, and announced that most things worked out well."A state has the primary responsibility, if you will, and if we just
look at Hurricane Ike and the way it kept moving up the coast, they did
a pretty darn good job," he said. Among the trouble spots, though, were getting deliveries to PODs (and if you've
Critics of GoldStar ambulance service say it's late to emergencies, cares for profits over patients, and doctors its books. But without it, there's nothing.
Houston firefighters say the city has been playing Russian roulette by carrying crews of three members instead of four on its trucks. Last October, Jay Paul Jahnke anted up with his life.
Photo by Paul KnightA senior captain in the Houston Fire Department kept a noose hanging in his locker, and according to the Houston Black Firefighters Association, the fire department, city council and mayor haven't taken the incident seriously. "They basically gave him a slap on the wrist," firefighter Michael McCook tells Hair Balls. "The mayor said that he was probably just practicing tying knots, but there are no tactical procedures performed with a hangman's noose."The whole thing started
Via Swamplot, we've learned that College Station is a disaster. On purpose.Popular Mechanics offers a fascinating look at a 52-acre site near Aggieville that has been modeled to look like a town in the aftermath of a man-made or natural disaster. Finally, there is Disaster City itself, the urban search-and-rescue training ground. If you save lives, this is where you come for your skills training, to learn Superman moves like breaching building structures--being able to go through walls--and s
You know how there are things you know you're supposed to care about, but you just can't bring yourself to do it?That's kinda how we feel about the ongoing pissing match between city council member Jolanda Jones and firefighters union chief Jeff Caynon.As everyone knows, there's been a series of allegations that the fire department is home to racists and sexists. City council and the mayor have dithered on about it, asking for investigations and threatening the deployment of dreaded "diversit
