4,900 Houston firefighters received long-awaited backpay as the city council approved a $1.5 billion settlement deal involving $650 million in back pay and a 34% raise over the next five years.

Houston firefighters are seeking voter support for binding arbitration as an option to resolve workplace contract disputes and avoid city-instigated, taxpayer-funded litigation, according to the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association.

HOUSTON – Five Houston firefighters have returned home after roughly five weeks of helping coronavirus patients in El Paso. “We worked seven days a week, 12-hour shifts and the Houston Fire Department we took the night shifts,” Capt. Seven HFD members traveled across the state on Oct. 23 to help with the surge of COVID-19 cases in the region. There are an estimated 37,697 active cases in El Paso County, nearly double the 19,461 in Harris County, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services COVID-19 dashboard. However, Harris County has roughly five times the population of El Paso County.