The Danville Fire Department responded to three separate structure fires Wednesday morning, one of which resulted in firefighters suffering minor injuries. The first was a small fire inside a garage in the 1700 block of Deerwood at 5:27a.m. Firefighters were on scene for approximately an hour. There was minor damage and no injuries were reported. The second fire was called in at 5:50 a.m. to a house in the 100 block of North Beard. Upon arrival firefighters reported heavy smoke from the second story. The house was vacant and a total loss. Firefighters were on scene for approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes. There were no injuries reported. The fire is listed as suspicious. The third fire call came at 9:47 a.m. to a house in the 700 block of West Seminary. The occupant was not home at the time but returned to find smoke coming from the residence and called 911.  

Chicago police have opened an arson investigation after three vehicles were damaged by fire in a Loop garage early Thursday morning. CPD responded just before 12:15 a.m. to a fire in the garage of a high-rise building at Ninth Street and Wabash Avenue. When officers arrived, Chicago fire crews were extinguishing three vehicles. Further investigation determined arson was the cause of the blaze, Chicago police said. No one was in custody later Thursday morning, and police did not immediately provide any information about a possible suspect or suspects.  

Luckily, we didn't hear tornado sirens in our area Wednesday after severe weather chances lessened, but city officials say they're always keeping an eye on the sky during these storms. Some cities activate their sirens when winds go higher than 70 miles per hour, but Springfield isn't one of them. There are a lot of agencies involved in deciding whether to activate the tornado sirens, but it's the Springfield Fire Department who physically pushes the button. Chief Brandon Blough says they stay in constant contact with the National Weather Service in these situations. They look for tornado warnings, or active rotations in the Springfield, Sangamon County area before setting off the alarm.  

Three local fire departments received grants from the Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office as part of the 2022 Small Equipment Grant Program. A total of $2.5 million was awarded to 104 fire departments and EMS providers across the state. The program was established to provide grants of up to $26,000 each, for the purchase of small firefighting and ambulance equipment. The Mazon Fire Department received a $25,000, South Wilmington Volunteer Fire Department got $26,000 and Dwight EMS was awarded $17,600.  

A risk of explosion and toxic smoke from a raging fire at a food processing plant in south Salinas has prompted the Salinas Fire Department to begin evacuating nearby residents. The evacuation notice is for the areas near the fire -- at the Taylor Farms Processing Facility -- between South Main Street, East Alisal Street, Alisal Road and Harris Road. The order is due to the potential for an explosion and hazmat plume of ammonia that can change the impacted areas based on shifts in wind direction, according to a 2:19 a.m. news release from city officials. The blaze has now closed four nearby elementary schools, city officials announced shortly after 5:30 a.m. -- Lincoln Elementary, Monterey Park Elementary, Sherwood Elementary and Los Padres Elementary. Nearly 100 firefighters from 22 fire units across Monterey County are reportedly on the scene battling the four-alarm blaze, which started shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday.  

There's a big red bag on board the Special Operations vehicle for Pennsylvania Ambulance, and it's not just extra medical supplies. Bruce Beauvais from Pennsylvania Ambulance says every time they respond to a fire, this kit will go with them. Inside is equipment to check for carbon monoxide levels in a victim's bloodstream and the air around them, along with an antidote for hydrogen cyanide poisoning, which can happen when you inhale too much smoke. "We had an idea of what it was for, but we didn't realize that it had a good implication for use in structure fires. We thought maybe for chemical fires and stuff like that, but we what we didn't realize was all the different types of chemicals that burn, and modern-day furniture and modern-day flooring that actually pose a greater issue than, say, a chemical fire, just a regular structure fire, so we thought it's a no-brainer," Beauvais said.  

John Orndorff says he's an adrenaline junky - that's one of the reasons he became a firefighter more than 17 years ago. But being a lieutenant at Frederick County Fire and Rescue in Winchester, Virginia, means some days are a little less high octane. "We have an elderly community back here behind us that we service," Orndorff says. "One lady back there is a diabetic and I physically sat down and had dinner with her twice because her sugar was low." It wasn't a hard fall or building collapse that caused Orndorff's back injury. It was a combination of hauling 100 pounds of protective clothing and gear and lifting elderly neighbors who had fallen that caused the discs in his spine to deteriorate. "The continual stress of picking stuff up, it just builds and builds," Orndorff says.  

VIDEO: The difference between a click and a call matters in a dispatch center, and before April 5, dispatchers at the Thornton Emergency Communication Center had to call other agencies to be able to dispatch them, instead of seeing in real time where they were, and clicking to send them. "So it could take up to one to two to almost three minutes sometimes, depending," said Brandi Seaton, the Communications Center Supervisor. The difference between one and three minutes in her job, she says, is "a life." But those extra steps went away when the new system, called the CAD to CAD Project, went live. "And it just saves so much time for us in here, and stress," Seaton said. Thornton Deputy Fire Chief Steve Kelley has been part of a team working on this integrated dispatch system for five years.  

The World Health Organization and the Biden administration are both saying that COVID-19 remains a public health emergency, even as global deaths from the virus have reached the lowest levels since March 2020. Both the WHO and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services first declared COVID-19 a public health emergency in January 2020. More than two years later, the pandemic situation has improved, but global health experts believe the virus is still a major health threat. More needs to be done before the WHO can lift this designation, the organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday during a press conference. "Some countries are still witnessing serious spikes in cases, which is putting pressure on hospitals. And our ability to monitor trends is compromised as testing has significantly reduced," he said.