A 77-year-old man died after a fire broke out at a McHenry apartment building early Thursday morning. McHenry Fire Chief Steve Spraker said the fire started around 12:07 a.m. and was contained inside a single unit in the two-story complex in the 800-block of North Southgate Street. The victim was sitting in the living room lighting a cigarette when he accidentally dropped it and the couch caught fire, Spraker said. Spraker said the victim's 70-year-old wife managed to escape the flames, but her husband, who is visually impaired, was unable to make it out. His identity has not yet been released by the McHenry County Coroner's Office. The woman who escaped the fire was treated on the scene for minor smoke inhalation, Spraker said. No other injuries were reported. Two of the other units in the building have been deemed uninhabitable by the city.  

The Naperville Fire Department in Illinois is mourning the loss of one of their members following a crash in southeast Wisconsin. The crash happened around 3:22 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 30. Authorities say 27-year-old Alexander Gard was traveling westbound on I-794 at a high rate of speed when he took the exit ramp to Jackson and Van Buren Streets. Officials say Gard was not able to maneuver the curve and he left the roadway, hitting a pillar to the overpass. The mid-size SUV Gard was driving became fully engulfed in flames and he was pinned inside the vehicle. According to a report from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office, the Milwaukee Fire Department had to use the jaws of life to remove Gard. He did not survive. "It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that the Naperville Fire Department reports the off duty passing of one of our own," the Naperville Fire Department said.  

A woman died Friday morning in a fire in a condo building in north suburban Prospect Heights. Firefighters responded to the fire around 6:45 a.m. at Lake Run Condos, a 5-story multifamily building at 16 E Old Willow Road, according to Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Jones. The fire started in a second-floor unit, and crews evacuated the entire building as firefighters worked to extinguish the fire. Although firefighters were able to put the fire out within two minutes, the woman who lived in the unit where the fire started died, according to Jones. The fire was contained to that unit, and after clearing smoke from the common areas of the building, the other residents were able to go back inside by 8 a.m.  

A woman has been charged with child endangerment in the August fire deaths of her five young children, who she allegedly left in a southwest Illinois apartment without adult supervision. Sabrina Dunigan, 34, of East St. Louis, faces five felony counts of endangering the life/health of a child in St. Clair County, and online court records indicate there are pending grand jury actions in the case, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Charging documents said the children had been left without adult supervision, which was a proximate cause of their Aug. 6 fire deaths, according to the Belleville News-Democrat. Deontae Davis Jr., 9; 8-year-old twins Neveah Dunigan and Heaven Dunigan; Jabari Johnson, 4; and Loy'el Dunigan, 2, were killed. Four of them died at the scene and the fifth died at a local hospital.  

The Lemont Fire Protection District will be purchasing nozzles and water appliances for their fire engines allowing the district to add a second hose line at a fire thanks to a grant from Illinois American Water (IAW). The IAW 2021 Firefighter Grant Program provides financial assistance to fire and emergency organizations serving communities in its service areas. This year, over $92,000 will be shared by over 90 Illinois fire departments. Since 2010, over 770 grants totaling over $760,000 have been awarded to Illinois fire and emergency organizations in the Company's service area. "We know the importance and value water has in protecting homes and businesses; we also understand the need to support our local heroes. This program allows us to continue to provide support to the local departments," said Justin Ladner, Illinois American Water President.  

VIDEO: It took 100 firefighters about an hour and a half to get the upper hand on a blaze that gutted a Koreatown karaoke bar and pool hall at 207 S. Vermont Ave. on Thursday. The Los Angeles Fire Department said they were actually able to get crews inside the building at first, but the intensity of the fire grew in the attic. Crews cut some holes in the roof, but the flames spread too fast and firefighters were forced to pull back. Shortly thereafter, the roof collapsed. "All of our members on the inside, they recognized the signs that this was not gonna be a fire they were gonna get a hold of, and the roof companies that were up on top, they were already feeling the roof was getting soft," said Steve Hissong, Incident Commander with LAFD. Witness John Wesley said it's not the first time this strip mall has seen what he referred to as "odd fires."  

VIDEO: A Lubbock native is headed to Chicago in December as he embarks on a new role in the hit television show Chicago Fire. First, he wanted to stop by and learn from his hometown heroes. "I think it's very, very important whenever you can become this character months before," Ynez Spencer said. "And, I think it's very important to show up ready to go." That's a lesson in acting but also a lesson in being a rookie firefighter he learned during his time touring Lubbock Fire Station 1 on Thursday. "I'm sure he's gonna have great people there advising him," LFR Captain Phillip Grandon said. "It's just different, though. A show is not the same as real life. So, I did want him to know when a rookie shows up to the fire station, this is what they do. It's a lot of work. You're the new guy. You're having to prove yourself to the other crew members with a lot of little trivial things. As a rookie, are you willing to be humble to do all these trivial things really well."  

The Seminole County Fire Department says golf carts and other low-emission vehicles are becoming more popular in Central Florida but they are also causing a fire concern. "The big problem we are worried about with hydrogen gas is the explosiveness of the hydrogen gas it has a wide flammable range," said Lt. Todd Zellers of the agency's special hazards team. In the last three months the department has received three calls of carbon monoxide alarms going of but in reality, he says, the alarms were picking up hydrogen gas caused by overcharged batteries. "We go there in time. We were able to isolate it to the golf cart in the garage on all three events and get the battery unplugged," said Zellers. Hydrogen gas isn't as toxic as carbon monoxide but could cause fire and explosions.  

The North Carolina Department of Justice filed suit Thursday against more than a dozen manufacturers of firefighting foam that contains toxic "forever chemicals," accusing the companies of failing to tell those using the foam how to properly handle it, leading to groundwater contamination at four sites across the state. N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein is announcing the lawsuits this morning at a Charlotte briefing alongside members of the Charlotte International Association of Fire Fighters Local 660 and the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. "We want the companies that manufactured this product, knew or should have known of its risks and then sold it to either the local government for the firefighters or the federal government to pay to clean up the PFAS and remove the risk to North Carolinians," Stein told The News & Observer.  

The U.S. has settled into an uneasy, drawn-out exit from the delta surge that took hold over the summer. For many weeks, declining cases and hospitalizations have offered hope ahead of the holiday season, when Americans travel and spend more time indoors, but progress has stalled recently, with cases rising or plateauing in more than 20 states. In fact, the country's daily average of cases has hovered around 72,000 infections for the past two weeks as outbreaks smolder, particularly in the northern half of the country. About 40,000 people are in the hospital with COVID-19, under half of the peak in early September. The Mountain West — where vaccination coverage tends to be lower — is the worst off, especially Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Parts of the Southwest and Midwest are also trying to control an uptick.