Chicago-area industrialist George F. Getz Jr. and his wife, Olive Atwater Getz, were driving through Wilmette, Illinois, when they saw a broken-down fire truck on the side of the road. George casually remarked he would like the 1924, Type 12 American La France fire engine. Considering the Globe Corp. chairman had everything, Olive surprised him with the old fire engine for Christmas in 1955. The gift led to a hobby on his part of collecting antique and historic firefighting equipment. This resulted in his creating the Hall of Flame Museum of Firefighting, now located in Phoenix, in 1961. It houses the world's largest collection of firefighting equipment and memorabilia. "Somehow they kept it a secret from him," said Mark Moorhead of the Hall of Flame Museum about George's present.  

The City of Vienna is reeling from a fire at one of the town's landmark businesses. Bob Harper Ford, which has stood at the intersection of Illinois Route 146 and 45 for 38 years, was completely destroyed by the blaze on January 8th. According to Vienna Fire Chief Brent Williams, Vienna Fire Department was alerted to a fire at a commercial structure at approximately 7:38 p.m. Upon arrival, firefighters experienced heavy smoke and fire throughout the structure. There were a total of 21 Fire apparatus from 10 Fire Departments with over 70 Firefighters on scene. Mutual aid was provided from 9 additional fire departments including Buncombe Fire, Cypress Fire, Goreville Fire, New Burnside Fire, Pope County Fire Protection Dist., Lake of Egypt Fire Protection, Massac County Fire Protection, Carrier Mills Fire, and Stonefort Fire Department. Williams also extended a special thank you to Endrizzi Contracting for providing a trackhoe to help clear debris from the building collapse.  

At approximately 9:20 p.m. on January 12, 2021, the Wheaton Fire Department was dispatched to a reported structure fire in the 500 block of West Childs Street. Upon arrival, fire crews identified a detached garage with extensive fire in the rear of the building. The fire was brought under control within minutes. The building was unoccupied at the time of the incident and the incident did not result in any injuries. The fire caused extensive damage to the rear of the structure, but it did not extend to any adjoining structures. Investigators from the Wheaton Fire Department conducted a fire investigation. The cause of the fire did not appear suspicious in nature, but the exact cause is undetermined. Damage estimates are unavailable at this time. The City of Wheaton Building Department was on the scene. The Wheaton Fire Department was also assisted on the scene by the Wheaton Police Department and several fire departments from neighboring communities. The building was turned back over to the property owner after the fire.  

An entire load of ice cream was destroyed in a truck fire on Tuesday. The incident happened on January 12th along Interstate 90 near North Park, Illinois. According to My Stateline News, no one was injured in the blaze, but an entire load of Breyers ice cream was destroyed. The reason behind the fire is not clear. "Sad day," wrote the Boone County Fire Department.  

VIDEO: A large fire broke out at an apartment complex near the Industrial Canal in New Orleans East Wednesday night. The cause of the fire is not yet known, but it appears to have broken out at or near the Gentilly Ridge apartment complex off of Chef Menteur Highway. NOFD officials say the complex has about 100 units in it, about 90 of them occupied. The building does have firewalls, but officials said the flames spread through the attic, bypassing many of them. No injuries were reported Wednesday night, but firefighters are still processing the scene to make sure all of the residents made it out safely. A traffic camera on I-10 near Old Gentilly Road appears to show a plume of dark smoke rising from a fire near the Industrial Canal.  

The Thornton Fire Department is one of the first in the country to use new technology to monitor firefighters who were exposed to COVID-19. The department is using the Masimo Pulse Oximeter on quarantined firefighters to check their health status and be notified of a health decline. The device measures oxygen saturation, pulse and breathing rate, circulation and respiratory quality. "Each call, incident, and encounter continued to place firefighters at risk," said Thornton Fire Community Safety & Information Officer Sabrina Iacovetta. "Precautions were taken to protect firefighters with equipment, policy and guidelines, and despite all efforts, individuals were affected." Alerts for abnormal readings are available 24/7, the department says.  

Electric vehicle fires pose safety risks to first responders and guidelines from manufacturers about how to deal with them have been inadequate, according to U.S. investigators. There are also gaps in industry safety standards and research on high-voltage lithium-ion battery fires, especially in high-speed, severe crashes, the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday. The agency, which has no enforcement powers and can only make recommendations, called for manufacturers to write vehicle-specific response guides for fighting battery fires and limiting chemical thermal runaway and reignition. The guidelines also should include information on how to safely store vehicles with damaged lithium-ion batteries. The recommendations come at a time when automakers are rolling out multiple new electric vehicle models, with many in the industry perceiving an inflection point in switching from gasoline power to cleaner electricity.  

To the known risk factors for developing severe COVID-19—age, male sex, or any of a series of underlying conditions—a new study adds one more: high levels of the virus in your saliva. Standard COVID-19 tests sample the nasal passage. But several new tests look for SARS-CoV-2, the pandemic coronavirus, in saliva, and the new work finds a striking correlation between high virus levels there and later hospitalization or death. If the results are confirmed, saliva tests could help doctors prioritize which patients in the early stages of the disease should receive medicines that drive down levels of the virus. "I thought it was pretty striking," says Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, who was not involved with the research. Crotty notes the results suggest virus levels in saliva reflect viral load deep in the lungs, where the disease does much of its damage in severe cases. "That is a fundamentally valuable insight," Crotty says.  

Broadview Heights Fire Chief Jeffrey Hajek is giving 19 News a first-hand look at a new piece of technology his department uses to save precious seconds when getting to an emergency. It's called the HAAS Safety Cloud System. The device alerts drivers to move over because emergency vehicles are coming through. Hajek knows has seen the frustrating problem himself of cars not getting out of the way. "We've had accidents & they've actually gone higher because people are more distracted with technology," he said. So how does it work? The small device sends notifications to any GPS Navigation software like Waze or Apple Maps. "Saying these vehicles are here & they are coming towards you or have stopped on the side of the road, so it's real-time, so it's great for drivers," Hajek said. The alerts can not only save the life of a person in dire need of help… but it can save an EMT or firefighter from getting into a tragic accident while racing to the scene of an emergency.