In 2019, Christopher firefighter Kody Vanfossan died while fighting a structure fire. Three years later, the Christopher community still comes together to remember his life. Roughly a dozen first responder vehicles gathered to memorialize Kody on Thursday. He was 24 years old when he died. The parade started at Bill Dennison Park and ended at his final resting place. Kody's father uses the day to let people know what kind of person his son was. "He was your typical 24-year-old kid. He loved life, loved helping people. He didn't know a stranger. He loved being a fireman," said Brent Vanfossan. "He was following in my footsteps and he just loved helping people. He loved training as much as he loved fighting fires."  

Battalion Chief John Schneidwind -- one of three members of the Schaumburg Fire Department who traveled to the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack -- is retiring from the department this week after 34 years to become chief of the Itasca Fire Protection District. Schneidwind received his retirement plaque from Schaumburg Mayor Tom Dailly at last week's village board meeting and will shortly begin his new service in neighboring Itasca. For the past 20 years, Schneidwind has frequently been called upon to share memories of his five fateful days in New York City and how his perspective on them has changed over time. In September 2001, he had two young children at home who'd ask him when he was going to return every time they spoke on the phone. Today, he is a grandfather.  

Fire ripped through a large metal shed in rural Carlock Thursday afternoon destroying several vehicles inside. Several area departments were called to aid the Carlock Fire Protection District in fighting the blaze at 8540 U.S. Route 150, about 1 1/2-miles east of Carlock. The call came in about 12:55 p.m. A semi-tractor trailer, a pickup truck, and two or three motorcycles were lost as Fire Captain Michele Becker estimated damage at $300,000. She said no one was in the shed when the fire started, and no firefighters were hurt. A motorist driving on Route 150 said she saw smoke about a mile away from the fire scene. Several fire departments were called to help because "we needed lots of water," said Becker She said the cause of the fire is under investigation.  

VIDEO: An early morning apartment fire has displaced six people and destroyed five to six cars in Phoenix, the city's police department said. Phoenix and Glendale firefighters responded to the scene near 12th St & Maryland Friday morning, the department said. Heavy fire was coming from a single-story apartment when crews arrived. Firefighters discovered that the fire had spread to the back of the complex and had engulfed five or six cars, the department said. More units were requested and crews were able to aggressively attack the fire. 12 News has obtained security footage showing the moments before the fire engulfed the apartments and cars. A neighbor said he believes the footage shows the person responsible for setting the fire. Fire officials are still working to determine the cause of the fire.  

Ten firefighters were transported to the hospital, three of whom were administered naloxone, after becoming ill while at the scene of a house fire Wednesday afternoon on Webster Road in the town of Portland. All of the first responders have since been released and are recovering at home, Portland Fire Chief David McIntyre said. In his decades of fire service, McIntyre said he's never come across a situation in which so many firefighters have been stricken with illness at one time. He said there are "rumors and guesses" as to what the firefighters were exposed to while battling the remnants of the blaze, but nothing has been made official. Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone on Wednesday confirmed several firefighters had been "overcome with fumes" while at the scene. The firefighters were transported to hospitals in Westfield and Dunkirk.  

PHOTO: A piece of Baltimore history has a new home in Timonium. The fireboat "Tommy" rolled into the Fire Museum of Maryland on a flatbed truck Thursday morning. The boat is named after former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., who served the city for 59 years and is the father of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In 2015, the city decommissioned the vessel, and for the past several years, it sat at Tradepoint Atlantic. Although much of the boat was scrapped, portions were able to be preserved, and the museum has big plans for its display. "It's been about three years that we've been working on this and what you see here is the fruition of hundreds of telephone calls, emails and plans to have the boat cut down further," said Stephen Heaver, director of the Fire Museum of Maryland.  

VIDEO: A duo in Hernando County are bringing the beverages to events around the Tampa Bay area in a very unique way. Jeffrey Jackson and Devin Mormando volunteered in the 1991 fire truck they now run for events. They saw the truck in an auction and new they had to have it. "We used to volunteer on it back at our volunteer department locally. We saw it on the auction block, decided we wanted to pick it up before it went anywhere else, and started just shooting ideas back and forth," said Jackson. "Came up with a beer truck. Mostly, a tap truck. So we can do anything through here, not just beer or liquor. We can do multiple different beverages." Finding the truck they began their careers on as volunteers was astounding. But, it's not an opportunity Mormando and Jackson initially jumped on.  

VIDEO: For the first time in months, daily hospital admission levels and new COVID-19-related deaths in the United States are both projected to increase over the next four weeks, according to updated forecast models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The projected increases come after weeks of steady upticks in infections across the country, subsequent to the removal of masking requirements and mitigation measures in many states and cities. The forecast now predicts that approximately 5,000 deaths will occur over the next two weeks, with Ohio, New York and New Jersey projected to see the largest totals of daily deaths in the weeks to come. "We are still in the middle of a pandemic, to be sure -- there's no confusion about that," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told Foreign Policy last week.