A firefighter was injured Sunday evening when an extra-alarm fire broke out in west suburban Bellwood. Around 6:30 p.m., the Bellwood Fire Department was called to 2513 W. St. Charles Rd. in Bellwood for a call of a fire in a building with a business on the first floor and apartments on the second. Firefighters arrived to find heavy fire on the first floor and people trying to escape from the second, according to Bellwood Fire Chief Douglas Dombek. The fire was raised to a third alarm, and firefighters battled the fire while assisting residents out, Dombek said. One firefighter was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. He was believed to be in good condition. "I suspect we'll be on the scene chasing hot spots until tomorrow morning," Dombek said. The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago has been contacted, Dombek said.  

Dozens of cars were lit on fire Monday in two separate arsons in Gresham and West Pullman on the city's South and Far South sides. About midnight, someone entered a fenced lot in the 300 block of East 115th Street and set fire to eight abandoned vehicles, according to Chicago police and fire officials. At 12:37 a.m., someone entered a private towing yard in the 8800 block of South Genoa Avenue and set 30 cars on fire, police and fire officials said. No injuries were reported in either incident and no one is in custody, authorities said. It was not immediately clear whether the two arsons were related, police said. The CPD Arson Unit is investigating.  

The residents and pets of a Streator home are OK after a Saturday morning fire. Streator firefighters were called at 9:55 a.m. Saturday to 921 Maple St. and arrived in less than five minutes to find heavy fire coming from the rear of the home, according to a press release issued by the Streator Fire Department. Firefighters were told by the residents who had exited safely from the home that their two dogs and a cat were still inside. The two dogs and cat were found and rescued after about 10 minutes of searching. The pets were administered oxygen by Streator Animal Control and Streator firefighters. The fire was contained in less than 15 minutes and firefighters remained on scene for more than two hours. Nine Streator firefighters worked to extinguish the fire. One Streator firefighter was treated at the scene by Advanced Medical Transport for a minor injury.  

Four adults and two children were displaced Friday afternoon after a blaze Springfield fire officials say was caused accidentally. Fire Chief Allen Reyne said crews were called to a single-story house in the 1900 block of Watch Avenue and spotted heavy flames coming from the front of the structure. He said it took about 10 minutes for the fire to be extinguished. The house's occupants are being assisted by the American Red Cross. No injuries were reported at the scene. Reyne said a damage estimate was not available Friday afternoon.  

Faced with an unprecedented string of wildfires across California, overtime costs for firefighters have surged by 65% in the last decade, pushing annual wages to nearly $5 billion, according to a Times analysis of state payroll records. The overtime spending is further evidence of a statewide toll: Wildfires have destroyed thousands of homes, killed scores of residents and disrupted power supplies across large swaths of the state — and, increasingly, they are chewing through government budgets. With overtime, firefighters are among the best-paid workers in California government, in some cases earning sums that rival their commanders. In the city and county fire departments in Los Angeles, for example, the number of firefighters earning more than $100,000 in overtime alone has surged from 41 in 2011 to 1,085 last year.  

Summit Fire & EMS firefighter Ken Jones, 46, died after falling about 60 feet from the roof of a Copper Mountain condo building early Saturday, when crews were working to battle a fire at that location, according to Summit Fire & EMS officials. The fire at Bridge End — 860 Copper Road, near the base of Copper Mountain Resort — was first reported by a call to 911 at 1:51 a.m. Saturday. Jones and a crew from the Copper fire station were the first on scene minutes later, according to Summit Fire spokesman Steve Lipsher. Jones headed to the roof of the five-story building to find a way to access the fire. He fell to his death shortly before 2 a.m., according to Lipsher. After the fall, emergency workers called to ask for help from another fire station outside of the Summit Fire department.  

Five minutes ago, Kassie Scott was driving the ambulance down Main Street with lights on and siren blaring, but now she and paramedic Steve Smith are parked in front of the response address, sitting in silence, waiting for the police to arrive. The caller said the person was violent. Scott and Smith are trained and equipped to save lives, not defend their own. Protocol requires law enforcement to go in first, but they've beaten them there. They're both anxious to go in—they chose this career to help people—but you never know what's on the other side of the door: someone high on drugs or having a psychotic breakdown or armed or maybe all three at the same time. A police cruiser pulls in, and Scott and Smith follow the officer into the home. A terrified young woman there thinks a serial killer has been stalking her and now knows her location.  

The firefighter and EMT union president in Washington D.C. is disputing recent claims by the East Chicago city administration as it justified controversial new shifts for city firefighters. Mayor Anthony Copeland and Fire Chief Anthony Serna recently told The Times the firefighters shifts were being changed to save taxpayer dollars, a move they claimed was successful in Washington, D.C. But Dabney Scott Hudson, president of the District of Columbia FireFighters Association, told The Times on Saturday those claims were incorrect. "Our case went to arbitration, and we prevailed in the arbitration case, keeping our 24-hour shift. In the arbitration, the city testified that the change would in fact increase costs to the city. Additionally, the health and safety, as well as cognitive function of the workers significantly, decrease working rotating shifts such as the ones they are proposing," Hudson said in a statement.  

One person was hit and injured by a vehicle in Arroyo Grande on Friday morning — and the incident happened right in front of a Five Cities Fire Authority station. Five Cities Fire Authority Chief Steve Lieberman told The Tribune a woman was crossing the street where there was no marked crosswalk in Arroyo Grande outside of the Village when she appears to have been hit by a car. She has been transported to the trauma center at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, he said. Soon after the incident, the Fire Department — which serves Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach and Oceano — tweeted that thanks to the new Pulse Point app, which notifies the public of medical and emergency incidents in their vicinity, FCFA crews could respond immediately and begin life-saving measures before dispatch notified them of the crash.