A man and his infant daughter died early Monday morning after a fire at their residence. According to the Edgar County Coroner the deceased victims are Michael J. Phipps, 35 and his daughter, Nettie L. Phipps. The child was two months old. The Paris Fire Department found the structure 102 Water Street in Vermilion to be fully engulfed in flames around 2:00 a.m. A woman and two young children met firefighters. She informed them her boyfriend and their infant daughter were still inside. After making entry, firefighters found the bodies of the deceased victims. Official cause of death will be determined following autopsies Tuesday. The incident and the fire is under investigation by the Illinois State Police zone 5 investigations, the office of the State Fire Marshal, the Edgar County Sheriff's department, the Paris Fire Department, and the Edgar County Coroner.  

A serious fire broke out in Downtown Wood River on Monday night in the 100 block of Wood River Avenue. The building next to the structure on fire was at one time a bank. Tenants in the building were in the process of moving out this week and it was mostly vacant. The structure on fire was across the street on Wood River Avenue from Night Train Bar. Firefighters worked diligently to get the fire under control, all in unison. Wood River Fire Department,Edwardsville Fire Department , East Alton Fire Department, Roxana Fire Department, Rosewood Heights Fire Department, Alton Memorial Ambulance, Madison County Emergency Management and Wood River Police were at the scene. A track hoe was brought in around 9 p.m. Monday to apparently get a better look inside the structure. Water continued to be poured on to the building as of 9:20 p.m. Monday.  

William "Bill" Rosenfelder Jr. loved two family traditions: running hardware stores and fighting fires. Rosenfelder, a former chief of the Geneva Fire Department, died last Wednesday at age 86. He was a lifelong resident of Geneva, except for a stint in the Army, where he was trained as a medic. He pursued that passion as a volunteer emergency medical technician for the Geneva Fire Department, where his father had served. Rosenfelder joined the department in 1959, according to the department's website. He retired in 1980. He also joined the family's hardware business. An uncle started it in 1917; Rosenfelder's father took it over. The store burned down in February 1953. It then reopened in a new space at 124 W. State St. and affiliated itself with the Ace Hardware corporation.  

VIDEO: Rockford firefighters rescued two men who were left stranded after the sheet of ice they were fishing on broke off into the Rock River on Monday afternoon. According to Rockford fire officials, an individual called 911 to inform dispatchers that the two men were stranded on the sheet of ice, which had begun to float down the Rock River just before 2 p.m. Monday. Units arrived on the scene within minutes, spotting the men floating near the Jefferson Street bridge. The men were sitting on top of a mattress, and were floating slowly along with the current. Fire department divers were able to use a boat to reach the men on the ice sheet, and both men were safely rescued and brought to shore. Neither man suffered any injuries, and both were assessed at the scene by paramedics as a precaution.  

VIDEO: Residents in suburban Glenview will rally this weekend in an attempt to save a local fire station, saying that the move would put their safety at risk, but village officials say the closure would actually result in better service. Fire Station 13 is the subject of the Saturday rally, according to organizers. Village officials plan to close the station on April 1, rerouting resources from the station to four other stations within the community. The local firefighters' union has reservations about the plan, citing a potential impact on public safety, and residents say that outside consultants have also come out in opposition to the plan, stoking worries that the closure could put their safety at risk. "It's the station that covers my home in case there's an emergency, and I'm afraid that if the station is closed that response times will increase," resident Kim Lombardo said. Village officials, who voted unanimously to close the station, say they understand the concerns of the public, but say that the closure will help to better allocate resources around the village.  

VIDEO: A firefighter was injured while battling a 3-alarm blaze in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood on Monday afternoon. The fire was first reported around 5 p.m. in a 6-family home at the corner of Southwood and Edgewood streets. Heavy flames and smoke could be seen upon arrival. Aerial video from the scene showed numerous ladder trucks and other fire apparatus surrounding the scene. All 10 residents -- six adults and four children -- made it out safely, but one woman was wheeled away on a stretcher and taken to an area hospital for evaluation. A firefighter was also hospitalized after being hit by falling chimney bricks. "I was driving down the street and I smelled the smoke and I looked up to see where the smoke was coming from and the house was on fire," said Thelbert Foster, a witness to the blaze. "So first thing I did was call the fire department and they came out here pretty quickly."  

VIDEO: All Colorado firefighters who are diagnosed with breast cancer will now receive benefits from the Colorado Firefighter Heart and Cancer Benefits (CFHCB) Trust, thanks to a Westminster fire lieutenant who appealed the denial of her claim. "I needed to find the thing that will show them that breast cancer is a firefighter's disease," Lt. Tracy Post told 9NEWS. "As exhausted as I was, I knew if I didn't do it, somebody else was going to have to. I was just frustrated enough at the situation that I was like, well, I'm going to find a way to make this happen." Post was diagnosed with stage two invasive ductal carcinoma in 2019; a type of breast cancer that forms in the milk duct of a breast and can invade into the surrounding breast tissue. It is also a type of cancer that is not covered for firefighter benefits in Colorado. "Quite often we do not know what we do not know," Westminster Fire Chief Doug Hall told us.  

VIDEO: A 115-year-old fire engine has been on display downtown since 2006, but today it returned to its rightful owner, the Utica Fire Department. It was the very first fire engine the city ever purchased back in 1906 and It took 3 horses to move the engine. It was sold for scrap in 1938, but was never dismantled. Since then, it's been on display in the office of Utica National Insurance Group. The Group recently decided to donate the engine to the Utica Fire Department. On Saturday members of the department were there to help transport the engine to its new home. "This was a fire apparatus that was purchased by the city of Utica in 1906. And it was in service until the department was motorized in 1917. So it's a huge part of our department history," said Deputy Fire Chief John Kelly. The engine was taken by truck to the Utica Fire Academy on Bleecker Street. Officials with the city hope to get the engine moving again when the next parade takes place in Utica.  

VIDEO: There's a new program at Toledo Public Schools TPS that aims to prepare high school students for a career in local law enforcement or firefighting and emergency medical services EMS. The three-year program is called PS 419. The PS stands for public schools and public safety. It was developed in partnership with Owens Community College, Toledo Fire and Rescue and the Toledo Police Department. The program begins for students during their sophomore year with an exploratory course and then in grades 11 and 12, there's a more dedicated focus for both policing and firefighting careers. Second semester seniors can enroll as college students at Owens Community College to earn criminal justice credit or their basic EMT certification.  

VIDEO: Thanks to efforts in recent years to educate drivers, we've all become familiar with the problem of work zone deaths and injuries. Many public safety workers are also killed at the scene of accidents often by drivers who are paying attention to the crash rather than the road. That's why the North Carolina Department of Transportation's development of a hands-on training facility that engineers expect will save lives at accident scenes has won an award. "Whenever you get called to a highway wreck it's always dangerous. You never really know who's coming, who's going, who can see you, who can't see you," Garner Firefighter and emergency medical technician Tim Inman said. We caught up with Inman at the NCDOT's new Traffic Incident Management Training Track where he was taking part in a demonstration of the facility.