Eight residents are out of a home after an apartment fire on West Hillcrest Drive Thursday damaged two units, said DeKalb Fire Chief Jeff McMaster. Two apartments were damaged after a blaze in the College Park apartment complex, 1121 West Hillcrest Drive. A two-story unit, where the fire started, displaced six people, McMaster said, while the neighboring unit suffered smoke and heat damage and displaced two more. There were no reported injuries to tenants of the complex owned by Hunter Star Properties, or to firefighters, he said. McMaster said crews responded to reports of a structure fire about 5:46 p.m. Thursday. "We had a report of heavy smoke in the area, so when they arrived on scene, they had heavy fire on the first and second floor throughout the building," McMaster said. "They did an aggressive interior attack." McMaster said firefighters determined most residents had evacuated the building already, but did a sweep of the inside just in case.  

Several area fire departments have gotten a fire under control at a house that exploded north of Urbana on Friday morning. One adult male occupant is currently being treated at Carle Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, according to Champaign County sheriff's Lt. Curt Apperson. The office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal has been asked to help determine what sparked the explosion and fire at 2108 Willow Road just after 9 a.m. The house is just south of Interstate 74 and west of U.S. 45. "Nearby people or maybe employees at the Cracker Barrel came to his help, pulling him out of the rubble. The house appears to be significantly damaged," Apperson said of the ranch home. At least four fire departments are helping the Eastern Prairie Fire Department. Preliminary reports are that the fire is under control. Apperson said deputies are at the hospital waiting to talk to the occupant.  

An apartment complex was heavily damaged by a fire in southwest suburban Woodridge Friday morning. Chopper7 was over the scene in the 7800 block of Woodward Avenue just before 7 a.m. Firefighters appeared to have controlled the fire, but the roof of one of the buildings in the complex was completely destroyed. Drivers are urged to avoid the area. As of 7 a.m., Woodward Avenue was blocked south of 75th Street. Darien-Woodridge Fire Chief Steven Gorsky said no one was injured. It's not clear how many residents have been displaced.  

Three minors were transported to area hospitals with minor injuries after a school bus carrying East Dubuque's cross country team was in a single vehicle accident in rural Ogle County on Thursday evening according to a news release by the Ogle County Sheriff's office. At 6:12 p.m. deputies responded to Illinois 64 and Illinois 26 for a report of the crash. The bus, driven by Melvin Ehrler, 74, of East Dubuque was traveling west on Illinois 64 and failed to stop at the stop sign at Illinois 26. The bus traveled approximately 423 feet into a grass field and came to a stop, the release said. Polo Fire Chief Tony Karrow assisted at the scene and said the accident may have been caused by the sun being in the driver's eyes. "I'm assuming he ran the stop sign because he couldn't see," Karrow said.  

New Yorkers can now download a free app to their smartphones that will alert them if they come near people who test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday the launch of the state's new COVID Alert NY app. New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware will offer their own versions of the app as well. The app uses the phone's existing Bluetooth technology to alert the user when they come within close contact of an infected person, defined as 6 feet. The app talks to other people's apps. When someone reports to the Department of Health that they are infected, contact tracers will ask if they have the app and are willing to share their contact list, which is automatically generated by being within 6 feet of someone for more than 10 minutes and who also activated the app.  

Officers with the Riverside Police Department had a woman in a pink dress stand up outside their patrol car for witnesses to identify after she allegedly stole a fire truck and took it on a joy ride Thursday night. The 31-year-old woman is suspected of stealing a Riverside Fire Department truck and taking it on a joyride while first responders were handling a life-threatening medical emergency. "Two police officers responded first, they began CPR," Riverside police Sgt. Juan Munoz said. "They saved the man's life." Munoz said that while firefighters were getting that man, who had stopped breathing, into an ambulance, the woman hopped inside their engine at Hole Avenue and drove it three miles away — to the eastbound Adams Street off-ramp on the 91 Freeway — colliding with at least two cars along the way. And when the fire engine finally came to a stop at the off-ramp, officers said the woman attempted to get into at least two other cars.  

The City of Glendale has a new peer support program they hope will help end suicide growing rates among firefighters. The program is one of the first of its kind in the state, addressing nationwide statistics that firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than on the job. One hundred twenty times a day, that's the amount firefighters here in Glendale are called to duty. This makes them one of the busiest fire departments in the US. "We see everything from gunshot wounds stabbings, child codes drowning, heart attacks," said Captain Ashley Losch with Glendale Fire. And often, In these cases, they arrive first on the scene. In particular, one call has stuck with Captain Ashley Losch, the night she responded to a double murder-suicide. "Truth be told, it's been ten years since that call, and I didn't know I was struggling with this all this time," said Losch. "A father that had killed his two children, they were lying in their beds, and he shot himself, and he videotaped himself doing that, the whole act."'  

Springfield firefighters have released a series of videos in honor of Fire Prevention Month. According to the City of Springfield, the videos will be released throughout October on the Springfield Fire Department's social media pages. Here is a list of all seven of the educational videos: Cooking Safety (by Firefighter Justine, for fourth and fifth graders); Firefighters Are Our Friends (by Firefighter Tanner, for PreK-K); Stay Away From Dangerous Things (by Firefighter Geoff, for PreK-K); Recognizing Home Hazards (by Firefighter Tanner, for first-graders); Escape Drills in the Home (by Firefighter Mark, for second-graders); How and When to Call 911 (by Firefighter Mark, for third-graders); and The Fire Triangle (by Firefighter Geoff, for fifth-graders). "Community Risk Reduction is about prioritizing our risks as a community and working together to invest the time and resources necessary to reduce them," said Fire Chief David Pennington.  

A very cool historical look at the volunteer fire service in Maryland from WMAR-TV in Baltimore. The half-hour documentary is from October 10, 1969 and has film from fire companies in a number of counties throughout the state. There is also a section on University of Maryland's Fire Service Extension, the forerunner to Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute. Many thanks to Rusty Leftwich for sending this to STATter911.