On Saturday, March 30, 2024, Mount Prospect Fire Department Lieutenant Timothy S. Evans, of Peotone, lost his battle with cancer. He is survived by his wife, Sandy, and two children, Cole and McKenna. Tim began his career as a Firefighter/Paramedic with the Mount Prospect Fire Department on July 25, 1995. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on February 23, 2005, a position he held until his passing. During his 29 years with the department, Tim served as a member of the Hazardous Materials Response Team, managed equipment inventory, and oversaw the maintenance and upkeep of Station 14. The Village of Mount Prospect is grateful for Lieutenant Evans' service to the community, and he will be deeply missed by all who knew him.  

PHOTO: All residents of a 25-unit apartment building for senior citizens were displaced after a fire tore through the attic of the three-story building in Wauconda Tuesday afternoon. The Wauconda Fire District and Wauconda Police Department responded around 3:12 p.m. Tuesday to the John Kuester Manor, 310 Osage Street in Wauconda, for a report of a smell of smoke. Several additional 911 calls were made and one of them reported heavy smoke billowing from the roof of the 25-unit senior apartment building, which is operated by the Lake County Housing Authority. The incident was upgraded to a structure fire response and fire crews arrived on the scene in less than three minutes, according to Wauconda Fire District Battalion Chief Jason Daun.  

PHOTOS: It was a close call this week for several students who had to be rescued from a school bus stuck in floodwaters in Wilmington, Illinois, about 60 miles south of Chicago. At 7:49 p.m. Tuesday amid heavy rain, the Wilmington Fire Protection District was called to Leasure Road east of Route 102 for a school bus with special needs students on board that got stuck in the water. The fire district got in contact with a bus monitor, who reporter there were five special needs children on the bus – as well as the driver and himself. Fire District Swiftwater Rescue personnel were called into the water to the bus – which was about 300 feet from the water's edge. Everyone was evacuated safely, and no one needed to go to the hospital, the fire district said. The students were put on an alternate school bus.  

Minneapolis crews are battling a fire at a vacant apartment building early Thursday morning. The fire started just before midnight at the corner of Fifth Avenue South and 19th Street, just south of downtown. Firefighters say flames were burning from the top floor of the boarded-up building. Crews tried to put out the fire from inside, but they had to get out when the top floor started to collapse. As of 5:45 a.m., crews are still battling the blaze. Minneapolis Deputy Fire Chief Staffan Swanson believes squatters likely sparked the fire. Officials said several boards that were supposed to cover first-floor windows had been tampered with or removed. "When we got here, and got the doors open, a lot of squatters came pouring out, about 15 to 20," explained Swanson.  

PHOTOS: Larry Lechmanski opened the door and there the four beauties posed, shining, immaculate, waiting for their next public event. Four Shelter Island Fire Department vehicles, ranging in years from 1929 to 1964, were right at home in the Cobbetts Lane Firehouse, the brick structure built into the side of the hill and known as the Potato House, from the time it was used to store harvested potatoes, once a profitable cash crop for the Island. It's fitting the antique trucks live in the Potato House, because they contain within their metal, rubber and glass, important eras in the history of the Department. The beautifully restored and maintained vehicles, polished and gleaming, aligned on either side of a middle aisle of the concrete floor — with Marine 10, one of the Department's fire boats at the rear — are a 1964 Ford "Class A" pumper (meaning it is certified to fight fires), a 1957 Ford Class A pumper, a diminutive 1929 Chevrolet, and a 1931 Mack.  

Thursday marks one year since the massive warehouse fire in West Easton. We'd be hard pressed to find someone in the Easton area who doesn't remember this day last year. You either were far enough away to just see the smoke, or you were close enough where you could smell it. Some had soot and ash falling on your cars and homes. The warehouse on Lehigh Drive went up in flames, knocking out power to roughly 7,000 people and requiring the help of agencies from all across our region. "The house shook, the windows shook," nearby resident Diane Smereczynsky told our 69 News crew covering the fire last year. "Within minutes, we heard the sirens and all the companies coming down the street."  

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced a new rule on Tuesday requiring two-person crews on railroads in a move to bolster safety as rail regulation has come into the spotlight after the East Palestine, Ohio, derailment last year. "This is a good day for the safety of rail workers, rail passengers and every American who lives near a rail line all across this country because America's rails are safer today than they were yesterday," Buttigieg said at a news conference on Tuesday. The Federal Railroad Administration's provision establishes a minimum crew size for all railroads, including freight, passenger, and commuter trains, requiring at least two crew members. Buttigieg called a second crew member "vital" to train safety operations, like handling track switches and assisting in emergencies. Before the rule, he said a railroad could unilaterally decide to employ a one-person crew without checking in with the Transportation Department.