Questions remain after a mother from Rolling Meadows and five children were killed in a fiery crash on I-90 in McHenry County Sunday. That sole survivor of the crash, Thomas Dobosz, 32, remains hospitalized at Loyola University Medical Center. A neighbor told ABC7 he lost his wife and all of his children in the crash. Investigators said just after 2 a.m. Sunday, Dobosz was driving westbound on I-90 near Hampshire in a blue Chevy van when the driver of a gray Acura, identified as 22-year-old Jennifer Fernandes of Carpentersville, was driving in the opposite direction and collided with Dobosz's vehicle head on. Both cars became totally engulfed in flames. Troopers said they found Fernandes dead on scene as well as all of Dobosz's passengers, identified as 31-year-old Lauren Dobosz and five children: two 13-year-old girls, 7- and 6-year-old boys, and a 5-year-old girl.  

PHOTOS: The Plainfield Fire Protection District is pleased to announce the arrival of a new ladder truck. The 2022 Pierce Tower Ladder was put into service on Friday, July 29th at Fire Station 1. This tower ladder has a 100ft main aerial ladder and 188ft of ground ladders. It also carries 500 gallons of water and has a 2,000 gallon per minute pump. In addition to the ladders the truck also carry tools for firefighting and various types of rescues for example vehicle extrication tools. The tower ladder will also be advanced life support equipped with emergency medical supplies for treating patients.  

A woman called 911, worried her friend might commit suicide after seeing a concerning photo on social media and thinking she may have slit her wrist. When a mental health response team arrived at the friend's home on Chicago's South Side earlier this month as part of a new city effort, the team's members were able to get the woman to talk to the team. The woman told them her daughter had died and her partner had left her. "She didn't want to die, but she had been trying to get help for so long, and different places that she called had given her the runaround," said Gabrielle Mitchell, a mental health clinician with the response team, which now goes out on some Chicago 911 calls. "She really just wanted somebody to come and talk to her." In the weeks after the mental health team met the woman, she has set up a job interview and Mitchell has talked to her about going to counseling once she is employed.  

Firefighters said they found spent fireworks packages in a charred area after they responded to a fire last week in Darien. The fire was reported about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at 7319 Darien Lane, according to the Tri-State Fire Protection District. Patch obtained Tri-State's report through a public records request. A neighbor guided firefighters to the fire on the deck of the house in question, according to the report. No flames were seen, but light smoke was evident, firefighters said. Residents had apparently put out most of the fire with two fire extinguishers and a garden hose, Deputy Fire Chief Patrick Brenn said in an email last week. The fire was listed as unintentional. Fireworks were identified as the cause. Last week, Brenn blamed the fire on the "careless" use of fireworks.  

Two firefighters were taken to an area hospital after they were injured while battling a two-alarm house fire in New Castle County, Delaware. According to officials, the fire began at about 9:45 p.m. in the 100 block of Belmont Drive in Pike Creek. When crews arrived, heavy smoke was showing from a two-story home. Everyone inside the home was able to get out safety, but two firefighters were injured. Their condition was not made available.  

PHOTOS: It has raced to fires, rolled through parades, is part of a museum and still works. One hundred years after "Old Engine One" first rolled into Caribou, the 1922 American LaFrance pumper is still the pride and joy of the city's fire and EMS department. In a time when old vehicles end up in metal compactors, the city of Caribou sees the treasure in its first fire truck and works hard to preserve it. "It's like a [time] capsule; it's been part of this town for years," said firefighter Adam Chartier. "My grandfather [Gus McCarthy] rode on that truck in the 1940s." Though Caribou has gone through numerous engine trucks since Old Engine One retired in 1956, the truck has connected firefighters of multiple generations. Old Engine One has brought firefighters on their "last rides" after their deaths and is part of local family histories.  

Firefighters, their families, departments and community leaders gathered in Sacramento on Saturday to pay tribute to the 82 California firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty with a memorial ceremony at the Safe Credit Union Convention Center. "It's solemn, but we also want it be as uplifting as it can be to help those family members remember," said Rick Martinez, the executive director of the California Fire Foundation. Marking 20 years of the California Firefighters Memorial in Sacramento's Capitol Park and the first in-person memorial event since the start of the pandemic, the ceremony honored families who lost a loved one in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Families of each fallen firefighter were presented with a flag during the memorial.  

It's rare for an electric bus to burst into flames in the way a state-operated one did last month at a Hamden bus depot, but the same can't be said for all electric vehicles, according to industry experts. And the National Transportation Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates significant transportation accidents, has joined the efforts to determine the exact cause of the fire. "Working with Connecticut State Police and state officials, NTSB is investigating a fire that consumed a CTtransit battery electric bus (July 23) in Hamden, Connecticut. The bus was in a maintenance facility at the time," the NTSB tweeted Friday afternoon. The fire, which destroyed one of CTtransit's dozen electric buses, was the first of its kind for the state's fleet. The rest of the electric fleet was pulled from service since then.  

VIDEO: Fire departments across the country are using various different tactics to recruit more females. Efforts are happening at a boot camp in Boise, Idaho, a girl's summer camp in Charlotte, North Carolina, to recruiting college athletes in Columbus, Ohio, and changing public perception in Lexington, Kentucky. Fire departments across the country are doing various different events and recruitment strategies to get more women interested in careers in firefighting and EMS. Longtime female leaders in the fire service say it starts with department culture. "I think that if an organizational culture is not inclusive or is not welcoming and open to everybody, that can make a really tough atmosphere for any outsider to come in," noted Amy Hanifan, president of the organization Women in Fire.