Chicago firefighters are hitting the picket lines after promotional exams were cancelled because of technical problems last week. Many carried signs Wednesday that said "exam scam 2020," referring to the oral exams scheduled for roughly 1,600 firefighters vying to become lieutenants and 120 candidates for battalion chief. "When you get a test every 10, 11, 12 years, you may only have one or two opportunities in your whole career to take an exam," said Mark Egan of the Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2. Firefighters reported to McCormick Place last Monday and Tuesday for the test. Computers started failing on the first day, delaying the test takers for hours. Many were sent home without taking the exam. When problems continued on Tuesday, Fire Commissioner Richard Ford went to McCormick Place to see what was happening and cancelled the exam.  

A storage shed and its contents, worth about $500,000, were destroyed Wednesday morning in a fire at Nachusa Grasslands. Franklin Grove Fire Department responded to 2075 S. Lowden Road around 6:45 a.m. The Morton pole storage barn stored plenty of the Grasslands' mobile apparatus: six water trailer sprayers, six utility trailers, a tractor and a pickup truck are a total loss, said Gelasia Croom, spokeswoman for the Nature Conservancy, which owns the 3,600-acre prairie and wooded area. An estimated $500,000 worth of damage was done, Franklin Grove Fire Lt. David Haas said. The fire took 4 hours to contain and did not spread to nearby fields or affect the nearby bison habitat. A replacement shed will be rebuilt, Nachusa Project Director Bill Kleiman said Wednesday afternoon. Arson is not suspected, and the state fire marshal is investigating the cause. No one was injured.  

Fire investigators determined where a fire started Wednesday morning in a north Quincy home, but not the cause. Quincy Fire Department Assistant Chief James Pioch said the fire started in a utility closet off the living room in the home at 1803 Highland Drive North. "It looks like it started at the bottom close to the base of the water heater or at the base of the water heater, but they can't say for sure what caused it," Pioch said. "There was too much damage to actually say it was the water heater or it was the furnace next to it, but it was in that area where it started. There was nothing at all suspicious about it." Four people were displaced in the blaze. Firefighters were called at 5:40 a.m. on a report of structure fire. "There was heavy fire and smoke visible when they got on the scene," Pioch said. "They attacked the fire from outside and eventually worked their way inside."  

Steve Langheim received the Firefighter of the Year award for the fourth time on Saturday night, Feb. 1, at the Shoal Creek Fire Protection District's annual banquet. The event was held at the Sorento Firehouse. Langheim was recognized for his attendance at fires, training and all that he does for the district. He received a plaque and a Thin Red Line watch. This is the 32nd year for the Firefighter of the Year award. Receiving special recognition as Rookie of the Year was Daniel Revell for the work he has done during the past year, his attendance at fires and training. He also received a plaque.  

Authorities resuscitated several dogs after a house fire began in Decatur. Firefighters said they were dispatched at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to 5177 E. William Street Road, where they found heavy smoke coming from the home. They said an aggressive interior attack helped to extinguish the flames. Responders recovered three dogs and a cat from the home. Rescue efforts saved two of the animals, and all of them appeared to be fine after the response. Three adults and three children were relocated. No people were injured in the fire. Ameren Illinois and the Red Cross assisted after the fire. The Decatur Fire Department Investigations Bureau is looking into a cause.  

VIDEOS: Boston firefighters battled a 4-alarm fire in the city's South Boston neighborhood, and spent most of the evening working to put out remaining hotspots. The fire started in the basement of an unoccupied building that is being renovated on East 7th Street shortly after 5 p.m., and quickly spread to the floors above as well as an attached building that was occupied, Boston Fire officials said. "It's a building under construction, so there was no plaster on the walls," said Jack Dempsey, Boston Fire Department's Chief of Operations. "So the fire started in the basement area and quickly went up throughout the building, because there's nothing to contain it." Geoffrey Spooner, who lives three doors down, ran outside with his family when he heard the commotion.  

VIDEO: The Santa Maria Airport just purchased new equipment that allows the fire department to test its fire-fighting foam, while protecting the environment. The device meets a new FAA regulation regarding foam testing for the airport fire department. It's called NoFoam System. The device is used to test the concentration of water versus foam. The Santa Maria Fire Department said that usually for fuel fires, like ones involving aircraft, the concentration should normally be about 3 to 6 percent foam and the rest water. In the past, testing the concentration meant allowing the foam to run off in the concrete. The new device means testing the foam will not affect groundwater or small animals. "We are not putting that foam out on the ground anymore," said Mike Farmer, Battalion Chief for the City of Santa Maria Fire Department. "It's actually running through the system that we purchased, keeps the foam inside the vehicle, and doesn't put the foam out into the environment."  

In response to a deadly fire in a Minneapolis high-rise last fall, a group of Minnesota lawmakers on Wednesday, Feb. 5, proposed legislation that would require nearly all tall apartment buildings to install automatic sprinkler systems. Five people died Nov. 27, 2019, in an early-morning fire at Cedar High Apartments, a 25-story building near downtown Minneapolis. Those deaths could have been prevented if the 1960s-era building had sprinklers on its upper floors, Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, said at a Capitol news conference announcing the bill. "Sprinklers are the best protection you can have," Steve Zaccard, St. Paul's former fire marshal, told reporters. A 1979 law requires all new government-owned buildings to install sprinkler systems, but up to 40 buildings constructed before that year do not have sprinklers. Twenty-six of those high-rises are in Minneapolis, Dziedzic said.  

VIDEO: Two Papillion firefighters are still recovering after what is called a smoke explosion during a fire Saturday night. A video of that blast is shown from a Sarpy County deputy's cruiser cam. A blast of fire and air that caught three Papillion firefighters off guard and too close. One of them is Joe Lapuzza silhouetted against the flames. Joe LaPuzza said, "And I shut the water off so I could put my gloves on and advance up to the door and the next thing I knew I was thrown back and felt like I was on fire. I didn't know what happened I just know it wasn't good." The six-year Papillion firefighter suffered burns to the top of his hands that are healing with pig's skin. Though the gloves were off this is the protective gear he wore and Chief Bill Bowes says that worked as designed. Chief Bill Bowes said," Just a little bit of singing here. It kept all the heat from him so he got not burns other than what was exposed."  

A Commonwealth Court panel Wednesday thwarted an attempt by the state attorney general's office to forcibly dissolve a volunteer fire company that refused to participate in a government-organized merger. The ruling means that, for now at least, Independent Fire Company No. 1 in South Williamsport can continue to exist as a nonprofit entity and might even resume fighting fires outside the borough. As Judge Patricia A. McCullough noted in the state court's opinion, Independent came to be in the AG's crosshairs after it refused to join the borough's two other fire companies to form the South Williamsport Fire Department in 2016. Borough council then passed an ordinance barring Independent from answering emergency calls in town.