{"id":261650,"date":"2026-04-22T20:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/261650\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T20:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T20:23:07","slug":"texas-fire-chiefs-association-awards-2025-medal-of-valor-to-missing-marble-falls-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/261650\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Fire Chiefs Association awards 2025 Medal of Valor to missing Marble Falls chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Texas Fire Chiefs Association has awarded its 2025 Medal of Valor to <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/missing-marble-falls-fire-chief-called-a-humble-hero-during-memorial-service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Chief Michael E. Phillips<\/a>, who <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/search-suspended-for-missing-marble-falls-volunteer-fire-chief\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">went missing<\/a> during the <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/flash-flood-emergency-ongoing-throughout-central-texas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Central Texas floods on July 5, 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Phillips was responding to emergency calls when his vehicle was swept away by rapidly rising floodwaters near <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/fast-tracked-cow-creek-bridge-to-be-rebuilt-in-60-days\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cow Creek<\/a> in Burnet County. His vehicle was later recovered approximately two miles from where he was last seen, but his body has not been found.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/missing-marble-falls-fire-chief-called-a-humble-hero-during-memorial-service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Missing Marble Falls Fire Chief called a &#8220;humble hero&#8221; during memorial service<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The association said the medal recognizes Phillips&#8217; &#8220;extraordinary courage and ultimate sacrifice,&#8221; noting that he placed others before himself without hesitation during the flooding emergency.<\/p>\n<p>Phillips dedicated more than 30 years to the fire service, including 26 years with the Marble Falls Area Volunteer Fire Department.<\/p>\n<p>His End of Watch was declared July 15, 2025, ten days after he went missing.<\/p>\n<p>Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n<p>BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of first responders from across Central Texas gathered in Marble Falls on July 29 for a <a href=\"https:\/\/cbsaustin.com\/news\/local\/missing-marble-falls-fire-chief-called-a-humble-hero-during-memorial-service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">memorial service<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Texas Fire Chiefs Association has awarded its 2025 Medal of Valor to Marble Falls&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-261650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}