Everyone is OK after a Thursday morning house fire that left the home "more than likely a total loss." Peoria firefighters responded to the 1400 block of West Ann Street to a home fully engulfed in flames. Battalion Chief Clint Kuhlman said the fire appeared to start on the front porch and extended into the first and second floors, as well as the attic. Kuhlman said this made fighting the fire very difficult -- ultimately taking between 30-35 minutes to put out the flames. The home's occupants were outside when firefighters arrived. The cause is under investigation. Damage is estimated to be $85,000.  

A deadly crash brought a massive response from police just across the river from the Gateway Arch on Wednesday. The East St. Louis Police Department, the fire department, Illinois State Police, and the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department rushed to Martin Luther King Drive and Collinsville Avenue around 11:25 a.m. The scene was right at the entrance/exit ramps for the MLK Bridge into Downtown St. Louis. The driver of a red Dodge sedan was traveling west on MLK and going so fast the car nearly became airborne over Metrolink tracks there, a witness said. He ran a stop sign and hit a gray/brown Cadillac SUV, according to Illinois State Police. The driver of the car was the only person in that vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not release his name but said he was a 24-year old man from Madison, Illinois.  

An explosive device was intentionally thrown into an Evanston home and detonated late Tuesday, causing significant damage to the house but no significant injuries to the people inside. Someone broke a window around 11:30 p.m. and threw in the "explosive device" in the 1400 block of Brown Avenue, Evanston police Cmdr. Ryan Glew said in a statement. The blast caused "significant" damage to the house, including breaking the first floor windows, Glew said. It's unclear what the device was. People who lived on the first and second floors were evacuated, he said. Evanston police and the State Fire Marshal were investigating the explosion. No one was in custody.  

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) announced today that three additional FEMA Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) teams arrived in Illinois this week—bringing the total to 11 teams across the state—to distribute information about COVID-19 vaccination sites, assist residents with accessing the vaccine, and raise awareness about FEMA's funeral assistance program. "These community outreach teams are invaluable to this administration's vaccination plan," said IEMA Director Alicia Tate-Nadeau. "These individuals are working in our communities, serving as force multipliers for our local health departments, to expand outreach, education and awareness of vaccine availability. As we move into the next phase of our COVID-19 response, it is important to continue to focus on equity, accessibility and work with our communities to find ways to add vaccine convenience to the equation."  

VIDEO: A massive 2-alarm fire at a Northeast Side apartment complex looks to be intentionally set, according to San Antonio Fire Department officials. The fire started just after 4 a.m. Thursday at the Cottages at Terrell Hills apartments on Harry Wurzbach Road near Rittiman Road. Firefighters immediately went defensive due to the size of the fire, using ladder companies and fighting the fire from above, as flames were shooting through the roof of one of the buildings. Part of the roof has collapsed during their battle. Fire Department Chief Charles Hood says that firefighters immediately began knocking on doors to get everyone out of the building, as the fire quickly spread. He said they were able to account for everyone in the building, and they are being housed inside the apartment clubhouse at this time.  

VIDEO: When rioters set fire to parts of the Twin Cities last summer, the world was watching. So were investigators, who were about to take on one of the biggest tasks of their careers. More than 160 arson investigations are connected to the unrest last May, according to Jeffery Reed, assistant special agent in charge for the ATF's St. Paul Field division. "When I saw that from the air, it was likened to a battlefield scene, actual battlefield video footage that I'd seen before," Reed said. "That's the immediate analogy that I drew because it looked like missile strikes." Reed watched the unrest last May knowing his team would be called to step in. "It was daunting," Reed said. The FBI was also watching from Washington D.C., then the ATF's national response teams came in from across America.  

The Black Hawk helicopter that crashed in Leesburg killing four onboard was conducting a test flight with a newly installed piece of firefighting equipment when a piece came off and swung into the blades, the preliminary crash report from the National Transportation Safety Board shows. The Black Hawk helicopter crashed during a training exercise May 25 near the Leesburg airport. Leesburg city officials said all four crew members died. Their bodies were recovered in the wreckage but officials have yet to release their names. The aircraft was registered to Brainerd Helicopters Inc./Firehawk Helicopters, which contracts with the federal government for firefighting and other services. The Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB are investigating the crash. On Wednesday, the NTSB released its aviation accident preliminary report.  

An internal audit of the city's fire department is raising alarms at city hall. It shows response times are too slow. And some fire stations have had to temporarily shut down. Chief Scott Wolverton went before the a city council committee to answer to the results. The audit showed that the department's overall response times have fallen below national standards. It looked at data from four straight years beginning in 2016. It showed that Shreveport's fire trucks are too slow getting out of the station about half the time, and too slow getting to the scene almost a third of the time. Wolverton blamed it on an aging fleet of trucks that are breaking down. Sometimes that means shutting down a fire station. He explained that after the engine at Fire Station 1 went down, he was forced to move the engine from Fire Station 2 to over to Station 1 "to best cover the city." But that meant the temporary closure of Station 2.  

Reforms for cutting, welding, and hot work that stem from the death of two Boston firefighters seven years ago were again at the forefront of a legislative hearing Monday with first responders saying legislation is needed to prevent further deaths and hold violating companies accountable. A Sen. Nick Collins bill (S 1554) would implement recommendations from a special commission created and named after Boston firefighters Edward Walsh and Michael Kennedy, who died in a 2014 fire reportedly caused by welders working on a building next door to a brownstone in the Back Bay. Walsh and Kennedy were trapped in the basement of the building as winds helped fan a nine-alarm fire at 298 Beacon Street. A Boston fire investigation found that an unpermitted and improper welding operation started the blaze, according to local media reports.