The City of Chicago is suing a Rockford-based coffee company for trademark infringement, claiming the company's logo is an imitation of the Chicago Fire Department's symbol. Fire Department Coffee and the Fire Department both feature logos that consist of the letters D, F and C intertwined in a stylized monogram, which is likely to confuse consumers into thinking the city has endorsed or sponsored the business, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit also alleges that the company was aware of the Fire Department's logo and created a similar symbol "because it concluded that using a mark similar to the CFD mark would greatly enhance the sale of goods" and the business' success. According to the lawsuit, the city first used the CFD mark in commerce as early as Jan. 1, 1949, and features the logo on ambulances, trucks and on some uniforms.  

For law enforcement officers, responding to a call is both part of the job and something that presents a risk of injury. As a result, they are constantly considering the various scenarios that could stem from a call, in hopes of preventing serious injury to themselves or others. Jacksonville officers have been hit several times — intentionally or not — during the past two weeks, according to police. In one case, a person pushed hard when opening a screen door, causing it to hit the police officer waiting outside. In the other case, an officer was elbowed in the head while trying to place someone under arrest during a traffic stop.  

Firehouse Subs gives $25,000 to firefighters in Amboy and Lena. Members of the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation presented a check to the departments. They will use the funds for equipment that will help extricate people who get trapped in a car or vehicle accident. "Today we're at Firehouse Subs, celebrating a grant we received from them for 10 sets of structural firefighting gear and boots. Budgets are tight with a small department. New equipment is expensive and they don't realize how much they've helped us out. $25,000 is a big, big, big part," said Chief Brad Strong, Lena Fire Department. The foundation started in 2005. It provides money for lifesaving equipment, prevention education training and disaster relief for public safety organizations and first responders.  

Loves Park firefighters are on the scene of a blaze at a home in the 2000 block of Rivington Road. The call came around 11 a.m., and witnesses on the scene say smoke is billowing out of the windows. A spokesperson for the fire department tells 23 News that the home is vacant and a complete loss.  

The City of Chicago is suing a Rockford-based coffee company for trademark infringement, claiming the company's logo is an imitation of the Chicago Fire Department's symbol. Fire Department Coffee and the Fire Department both feature logos that consist of the letters D, F and C intertwined in a stylized monogram, which is likely to confuse consumers into thinking the city has endorsed or sponsored the business, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. The lawsuit also alleges that the company was aware of the Fire Department's logo and created a similar symbol "because it concluded that using a mark similar to the CFD mark would greatly enhance the sale of goods" and the business' success. According to the lawsuit, the city first used the CFD mark in commerce as early as Jan. 1, 1949, and features the logo on ambulances, trucks and on some uniforms.  

A Vancouver firefighter is heading across the state to become Kennewick's new fire chief. Chad Michael is leaving a spot as the deputy chief of operations at the Vancouver Fire Department to return to his roots in Eastern Washington. He starts March 16 and will be sworn in at the March 17 city council meeting. City officials are working on scheduling a community reception. "We are thrilled to welcome Chief Michael to our city team," City Manager Marie Mosley said in an official statement. "We are confident that his diverse skill set and his commitment to serving the community at the highest levels are the right fit to lead the exceptional men and women in the Kennewick Fire Department." While Michael, 45, has spent a large portion of his career in Western Washington fire departments, he started firefighting in 1992 as a firefighter with Spokane County Fire District 8.  

Top Fire Department officials told a City Council committee Jan. 28 that the department's policy of "promoting" Emergency Medical Technicians to become Firefighters, who are paid tens of thousands of dollars more a year, had produced a major gap in Emergency Medical Service staffing. As a consequence, they conceded that even as the city continued to set records for EMS call volume, and response times for those calls were rising, there had been a decline in the number of ambulance crews available, a circumstance they said would take "a couple of years" to rectify. The troubling admission came before the Council Committee on Fire and Emergency Management. Administration officials cited a confluence of factors: the physical limitations of the FDNY's Queens training facility at Fort Totten that's slated for a multi-million-dollar upgrade; a national shortage of EMTs and Paramedics; and "a churn" of 1,200 EMS members into firefighting jobs every four years when the promotion exam was offered.  

When Brian Kernohan complained to his doctor of merciless headaches two summers ago, he expected to get a prescription for a sinus infection, not a diagnosis of brain cancer. The 37-year-old firefighter's eardrums were curved inward, so his doctor suggested a CT scan. It found a tumor the size of a golf ball sitting on his right cerebral artery, daring a stroke with every heartbeat. "Not even 24 hours later," Kernohan said, "they called me and said ‘get your rear into the hospital.'" On Veteran's Day 2018, the mass was surgically removed and found to be a medulloblastoma, one of the most common brain tumors for children. A year and a half later, earlier this month, Kernohan finished his final chemotherapy session. The husband and father of two young sons is now the first firefighter in Jacksonville to receive job compensation for his treatment under a new Florida law declaring cancer as a line-of-duty illness and outlining its accompanying benefits.  

Residents displaced when flames tore through a 1960s-era Los Angeles apartment tower and injured 13 people this week are wondering why the management company didn't install sprinklers after another destructive blaze seven years ago. City officials said after the 2013 fire "that it shouldn't take another tragedy" to get sprinklers into older buildings that are exempt from retrofitting rules, City Councilman Mike Bonin said Thursday. "But it did." Bonin will introduce a measure Friday that would require sprinklers in residential buildings built more than 50 years ago, before regulations required fire-suppression systems in buildings taller than 75 feet (23 meters). It's an issue that officials in other U.S. cities have grappled with in recent years. Honolulu passed regulations requiring stricter safety rules for buildings with 10 floors or more after a fire raged through a 35-story condominium in 2017, killing four people. It was built in 1971, before the city required condos to have a sprinkler system.