On Sunday, Rockford fire crews were called to the 500 block of Buckbee Street at 6:03 a.m. for reports of smoke coming from the roof line of a single-story vacant building. Crews forced entry into the building to find heavy hoarding conditions inside. Engine 3 was the first Engine company on scene and used an attack line to put out the fire on the north end of the building. The fire was under control in 12 minutes, and the quick response enabled personnel to contain the fire to a small area of the building. 22 firefighters responded to the scene and no injuries were reported. The loss is estimated to be around $3,000 and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.  

The Peoria Heights Village Board of Trustees has wrestled with whether or not to outsource its volunteer fire department, but there were talks of transferring the services to the City of Peoria during last week's board meeting. Jodi Ford is a former dispatcher. Her mother's life was saved by a Peoria Heights firefighter who showed up on the scene before police and EMS crews arrived. "She was having respiratory distress," said Jody Ford. "Having a medical background, I can tell you without that oxygen she probably would have gone into cardiac arrest." A few years ago, Ford said the village contracted with AMT for its ambulatory service. On Monday, she addressed her concerns that moving this to Peoria would be a step in the wrong direction for the village.  

VIDEO: A building on the campus of a southeast Charlotte prep school was destroyed by a three-alarm fire Monday night, officials said. Charlotte firefighters responded to a fire at Charlotte Preparatory School on Boyce Road a little before 11 p.m. When firefighters arrived, they saw heavy smoke and flames coming from the building. It took a team of over 60 firefighters about 90 minutes to get the fire under control. Officials said Tuesday the fire caused $2.5 million in damage. A video shared on Twitter by the Charlotte Fire Department showed the remnants of a building marked "Lower School." Officials said no one was hurt during the fire. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police and Mecklenburg EMS also responded to the school. WCNC Charlotte confirmed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is assisting with the investigation.  

Hundreds of safe e-bike and scooter charging and storage stations will soon be installed across New York City's public housing buildings as a way to prevent battery fires. Mayor Eric Adams, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on Sunday announced plans to install 173 outdoor stations at 53 NYCHA developments starting next year, with a total of 327 stations planned. The announcement comes just days after a fire at an e-bike repair shop in Chinatown killed four people and injured several others. The initiative is funded through a $25 million emergency grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The city plans to install a total of 327 stations across the city's public housing complexes, with roughly 67 residents served at each station, according to Adams. The stations will be able to charge bike batteries significantly faster than the six or seven hours it takes to fully charge them at stores like the one in Chinatown.  

VIDEO: Firefighters have a new tool for rescues in rural areas of northern Santa Barbara County. Fire Station 21 in Old Town Orcutt has a new UTV which can be used to quickly reach injured hikers or anyone trapped in a remote area. Every second counts when someone's injured and trapped in a hard-to-reach location. "A helicopter may not be available due to weather conditions," explained Santa Barbara County Fire Public Information Officer Scott Safechuck. The new Utility Task Vehicle at Fire Station 21 is the latest addition to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department's growing fleet of UTVs. "It really opens up the manner in which we can respond to people in need in rural areas. If they're out on Guadalupe dunes, they're in the riverbed or during a storm event—we can really get to them in a safe manner," said Safechuck.  

Pennsylvania has just over 1,800 registered fire departments. Nearly all – 98.6 percent to be exact – are registered volunteer or mostly volunteer departments with the Keystone State ranking third in the country behind Delaware and Minnesota. Those who volunteer with their local companies in their local communities are heroes in almost every sense of the word. They do it because they want to. They respond to the need to volunteer for their community. But how long can the Commonwealth depend on the goodwill of its citizens for this service? State Sen. Frank Farry (R-Bucks) says likely not much longer. And when the numbers decrease, Pennsylvania residents will have to pony up for fire protection in a similar fashion to other civic services. Farry has been a volunteer firefighter for 33 years, including the last 22 years as chief of the Langhorne-Middletown Fire Company in Bucks County since 2001.  

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday warned of the return of locally acquired cases of malaria, meaning the infections were not linked to foreign travel and appear to have been transmitted by mosquitoes in the U.S. carrying the parasite. So far, there have been four locally acquired cases of malaria in Florida and one in Texas within the last two months. There's no evidence suggesting the cases in the two states are connected. "Malaria is a medical emergency and should be treated accordingly," the CDC wrote in a Health Alert Network Health Advisory. "Patients suspected of having malaria should be urgently evaluated in a facility that is able to provide rapid diagnosis and treatment, within 24 hours of presentation." Each year, around 2,000 cases of malaria are diagnosed in the U.S., but they're usually connected to people who've traveled out of the country.