The Peoria Fire Department is investigating a vehicle arson that occurred at approximately 5:27 p.m. Thursday. According to a Peoria fire press release, when fire crews arrived on the scene at 2301 W. Garden St. they located a vehicle on fire, with the fire extending to a building it was parked next to. Crews worked quickly and extinguished the fire. There were no occupants in the vehicle or the building at the time of the fire. A fire investigator was called to the scene and determined the cause of the fire to be arson. No injuries related to this fire have been reported at this time.  

The west side of Jacksonville dealt with a major power outage due to strong winds downing a tree limb that caught fire after severing a power line. Representatives of the Jacksonville Fire Department, South Jacksonville Fire Department, and Ameren-Illinois were called out to a power line and downed tree limb that had caught fire on Mound Road at Sycamore Street at approximately 3:30PM. Brian Bretsch, Communications Executive with Ameren-Illinois, says a sizable limb fell on to a primary power line causing the limb to catch fire. At the same time, the limb burnt up a section of the power line causing it to drop to the ground.  

The American Red Cross is urging citizens to participate in this year's Fire Prevention Week, which takes place from Oct. 9 to Oct. 15, by practicing a two-minute home fire escape plan. The threat of home fires rises with colder temperatures. According to a news release from Red Cross of Northwest Illinois, home fires make up roughly 60,000 of the disasters that the organization responds to each year in the U.S. "Two minutes is the amount of time that fire experts say you may have to safely escape a home fire before it's too late," according to the news release. For these reasons, the Red Cross wants everyone to plan and practice a two-minute escape plan. Every escape plan should include at least two ways to exit every room in the house and a meeting spot at a safe distance away from your home where everyone knows to meet.  

Several animals are missing after a massive fire tore through a Fort Myers home early Friday morning. Firefighters quickly responded to the home on Sunset Road around 2:30 a.m. Numerous dogs and a cage of parrots made it out ok; however, many cats and two monkeys are missing, according to the Fort Myers Police Department. A car inside the garage is destroyed as well. No injuries were reported in the blaze, but a woman was treated by an EMT. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.  

Fire service and homeland security leaders discussed issues ranging from wildfires in the wildland-urban interface and improving firefighter safety to fostering more diverse and inclusive fire departments at the U.S. Fire Administrator's Summit on Fire Prevention and Control on Tuesday at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md. "I can't begin to tell you how very important this summit is," U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell said, calling the event "historic" after a morning roundtable that included Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John Tien, National Security Council Senior Director for Resilience and Response Caitlin Durkovich, and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. "We've identified some very real issues and we have a lot of work yet to do."  

Firefighters help their community. They respond to emergencies, but what if there's an emergency in their personal life? Houston Fire Department is hosting a new clinic to help firefighters navigate hurdles in their nuptials, so they can continue to safely and effectively serve their community. Executive Assistant Fire Chief of Houston Fire Department Rodney West said, "It is an opportunity for men and women who take more home than sometimes they bring when they leave a shift to enhance themselves in a personal world." This is why HFD is offering its staff a Firefighter Marriage Clinic, a partnership between HFD, Houston First Baptist Church, and Christ Way Counseling Services. "We realized in the Houston Fire Department our most valuable asset is not the multi-million dollar fire stations, it's not the $1.2 million ladder trucks, it's the men and women that serve, and we realize we have to make or at least provide positive outlooks for the things money can't buy," explained West.  

VIDEO: On Saturday, Oct. 8, the emergency room staff at St. Michael Medical Center in Silverdale had to call in firefighters to help treat patients. The fire chief, Jason Christian, said a charge nurse called around 10:30 p.m. and said her staff was drowning and they needed help. "She expressed that this was a bit of an unprecedented request, and she said the conditions in the emergency room were horrible," Christian said. The nurse called the backline to a 911 dispatcher, and that dispatcher called the battalion chief for Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue. The battalion chief dispatched two firefighter EMTs to help. "She was describing to the dispatcher that they only had five nurses on duty and they had over 45 patients just in the waiting room," Christian said. The firefighters helped in the ER for about an hour and a half.  

AAA is raising awareness on Kentucky's Move Over Law, which looks to protect those who put their lives on the line while keeping roads and drivers safe. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, 28 people were killed in Kentucky after being hit while outside a disabled vehicle between 2016 and 2020. "Everybody just wants to go home at the end of the day," said Seth Pierce, a fleet supervisor with AAA. Pierce has been on the side of the road lending a helping hand, with cars racing by at high speeds. "A split second decision can be the difference in you going home or you going to jail for vehicular manslaughter," said Pierce. That's why his crews go through training to help keep themselves safe while out loading disabled vehicles. It's also where the state's move over law comes into play.