Four people, including two children, were hospitalized after a fire broke out in Englewood Wednesday on the South Side. Firefighters responded to the blaze about 8:40 p.m. in the 6800 block of South Perry Avenue, Chicago fire officials said. Two children were taken to Comer Children's Hospital in good condition, officials said. Two adults were taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in fair-to-serious condition. Animal Care and Control was called for three pets who died in the fire, officials said. The blaze was extinguished by 9:30 p.m., officials said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

Kankakee Fire Department Deputy Chief Eric Boness will retire from the city fire force in mid-January. Boness will conclude his 30-year career on Jan. 16. He has been a member of the city force since December 1990. A 1986 graduate of Central High School, Boness took his new role of deputy chief on Feb. 1, 2020, when he replaced former Deputy Chief Jeff Bruno, who had retired. A captain with the force, Boness had also previously served as the department's EMS coordinator, training officer and shift commander. Fire Chief Damon Schuldt said the department will not fill the deputy chief position this budget year, which concludes April 30. He was unsure when the position would be filled. When Boness officially leaves the department, it will have 47 sworn firefighters. Schuldt noted Boness has devoted the past 30 years of his life to the department and to the area's fire service.  

A firefighter sustained minor injuries in a Springfield house fire. Springfield firefighters responded to a residential fire in the 1200 block of South 11th Street at 12:42 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 30. Upon arrival, emergency crews saw heavy smoke and flames coming from the home. The house's roof collapsed in the fire. No one was inside the house at the time and no other injuries were reported. Fire crews left the scene at 5:03 a.m. on Wednesday. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.  

No one was injured when a grain elevator caught fire in Homer. The fire was reported at approximately 7:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 30. The grain elevator, located at 402 E. Coffeen St., is owned by Bunge Grain. The Homer Fire Protection District said the fire happened when a motor caught on fire and the flames spread to the elevator. Officials said the flames took "several hours" to extinguish.  

VIDEO: Firefighters rushed to a Berwyn home Thursday for an emergency of a different kind. Sirens were turned on for Ronald Vinyard. The former Berwyn fire chief turned 80 Thursday. The department celebrated with a parade outside Vinyard's home. The celebration brought some joy to Vinyard who's been home-bound due to the pandemic and health issues. He spent 36 years in the fire department. Vinyard also served in the firefighters' union. Vinyard is so beloved in Berwyn, there's an award named after him.  

VIDEO: Las Vegas Fire & Rescue was battling a massive 2nd-alarm fire at a tire shop near Meadows Lane and Decatur Boulevard Wednesday afternoon. SKY 3 appeared to show the structure fully engulfed as of 4:45 p.m. and fire officials called a second-alarm due to the extensiveness of the blaze. Authorities believed employees at the Econo Lube N Tube were working on a fuel tank on a vehicle when they dropped the tank, causing the fire to quickly spread. A fire spokesperson reported that the fire was out by about 5:30 p.m. but several road closures were in the area as an investigation took place. Las Vegas Fire & Rescue initially reported that everyone inside the tire store was okay but later reported that two individuals had suffered minor injuries. The cause of the fire was ruled accidental Wednesday night with an estimated $1 million in damage, according to a tweet by the department.  

PHOTOS: Dayton's newest mural stretches an entire city block and tells the history of the city's Fire Department. It starts at the corner of Main and Buckeye Streets, then runs down Buckeye, all the way to Dayton Fire Station Number Eleven. For this long mural, Tiffany Clark used classic comic book style, borrowing from mid-century versions of Spiderman and the Fantastic Four. She says it was harder than she expected. "My brain was like, ‘Yeah! Comics! That will be easy!'" Clark says. "But it is not my style and it is a very signature style. It took me a while to figure out how to do it properly." Clark was intentional in what characters she used to tell each story. For example, she recreated a popular 1970s Black Panther comic book cover, but now it's Dayton's first black firefighter, Radolph Tams, who joined the force in 1907. She says she learned a lot of Dayton history over the four months the mural took to complete.  

A new poster and fact sheet from NIOSH are designed to help educate firefighters about the unique nature of row house fires and how to stay safe when fighting these blazes. Row houses are dwellings connected by shared sidewalls that form a single building. The resources outline typical features of exterior and interior row houses, tactics for fighting fires in these locations, and common areas where fires may spread. Fires that start in the basement of a row house potentially can spread vertically up walls, NIOSH says, extending to an attic or loft as a result of a lack of a fire wall or fire stops. Windows, doors and openings can create airflow paths that help spread the fire. NIOSH recommends firefighters conduct a community risk assessment to understand row houses in their jurisdiction, noting that architectural modernization efforts "may mean the exterior is refaced and interior has a different floor plan." Additionally, materials used for row house modernization or construction may burn more rapidly.  

VIDEO: Union County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Castrogiovanni, a former NYPD officer, was at the scene of 9/11. "I had been looking at those buildings my whole life so to see what happened was just, it's so surreal," Castrogiovanni said. Castrogiovanni worked in and around Ground Zero for about seven weeks and then again during the holiday season that year. "New Year's Eve, we found six firefighters where the Marriot was, and one of them was a guy I went to high school with," Castrogiovanni told Channel 9. "That was the last time I was down there." Castrogiovanni is active but later noticed issues with his breathing and got pneumonia twice. He was diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus and lung nodules, among other conditions, as a result of his exposure to toxins at the site. That's put him and fellow 9/11 first responders and survivors, many who live in the Charlotte area, at risk for COVID-19 complications.  

PHOTOS: North Beach Volunteer Fire Department (NBVFD) is pleased to announce the arrival of an iconic piece of the department's history. In 1947, the department took delivery of an FMC John Bean high pressure pumper built on a KB International chassis. The truck served the Twin Beaches communities for a number of years before being sold and lost track of. The department was recently contacted by Robb Johnson, a vintage vehicle collector whose brother discovered the truck in a barn on a piece of property the brother bought in North Carolina. Mr. Johnson's son noticed a faded "NBVFD" on the truck's hood which led the him to do some research, find us and offer the truck back to the department. The truck arrived back in the Twin Beaches courtesy of Tim Jones, a retired DCFD Lt. and close friend to several NBVFD members. "We have set a goal of restoring the truck back to working order in time for the department's 100th anniversary in 2026."