Assisted living facilities will be charged $800 each time they call the Peoria Fire Department to help pick up a patient who has fallen. During a remote meeting where none of the council members but Mayor Jim Ardis were in City Hall, the group voted unanimously to approve the fee, which doubled from the initial amount after they heard the true cost of sending a truck and firefighters to a facility was about $1,250. Peoria Fire Chief Tony Ardis told the council the idea was deterrence and that since the idea was floated last month, there haven't been any calls. Such calls are fairly commonly heard on the fire radio frequencies by those who listen to a scanner. "These facilities have medical staff on site who can handle these type of situations. We are spread very thin and have changed other areas in attempt to keep our machines available for emergency incidents," Tony Ardis said during the discussion last month.  

At least 94 employees of the Chicago Fire Department have tested positive for the coronavirus, the department reported Tuesday. Of those, 18 members have already returned to duty, according to CFD spokesman Larry Merritt. Nineteen members of the department are being quarantined after being exposed to someone with COVID-19, he said. On Monday, CFD buried the first member of the department to die from the coronavirus. Mario Araujo, 49, joined the fire department in October 2003 and spent most of his career on Truck 25, which operates out of Engine 102 in Rogers Park on the North Side. He died April 7.  

Suburban police and fire departments Tuesday began stocking up on the 240,000 N95 masks Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said officials will be distributing in the next two days to combat coronavirus. "At the beginning of this year most of us had no idea that a mask could literally be the difference between life and death, but today, that's our reality," Preckwinkle said at a news conference announcing the county's distribution of the masks. "We have an obligation to come together as a community and, as one Cook County, to fight this pandemic with everything we have." The protective gear was donated by the U.S. Department of Defense in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Preckwinkle said at the county's Emergency Operation Center in Oak Forest, where she was joined by first responders from the suburbs.  

No injuries have been reported after a fire broke out Tuesday morning at the Blommer Chocolate Company in Chicago's Fulton River District. Firefighters responded 11:12 a.m. to a fire at the building in the 400 block of Jefferson Street, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Merritt. Crews remain on scene, battling a fire that is sending black smoke from the roof, Merritt said. No one was injured after a fire broke out Tuesday morning on the roof of the Blommer Chocolate Co.'s Fulton River District factory — known for sending cocoa scents adrift through downtown. Firefighters responded at 11:12 a.m. for black smoke coming from the roof of the factory at 400 N. Jefferson St., according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. "They have roasters up there (on the roof) and something malfunctioned," Langford said.  

Four people along with four dogs were rescued from a house fire Wednesday in west suburban Riverside. According to Riverside Fire Department Chief Matthew Buckley, around 12:23 a.m. firefighters responded to a report of a structure fire in the 200-block of Quincy Street. The blaze started in the rear of the building before spreading to the front of the property, fire officials said. Two adults and two children were inside of the residence at the time of the fire but they were all able to escape safely before responders arrived on scene, Chief Buckley said. Firefighters rescued four dogs that were still inside the residence, officials said. The crew used special oxygen masks designed for animals to give the dogs CPR. All four dogs were transported to a local animal hospital for treatment, Buckley said.  

Fire and smoke heavily damaged an apartment in the Fair Oaks housing complex in Danville on Tuesday evening. Fire Capt. Justin Watt said firefighters were called to 1014 Belton Drive at 4:56 p.m., where they found flames and smoke coming from a first-floor window on the rear side of the building. The fire was hot enough to break the window and vent the fire upward to a second-story apartment. The building has only two stories. Watt said the fire was mostly contained to the first-floor bedroom where it started but there was smoke damage throughout. Although the cause has not been nailed down, Watt said it is being called accidental.  

For the first time, a Princeton company is offering military-grade technology to first responders that they hope will save lives during this pandemic. They are called the X2 MR Glasses. "What these glasses are essentially are basically a phone on your face," said Nick Cherukuri, the CEO of ThirdEye Gen. ThirdEye Gen says the glasses have a thermal sensor that allows a paramedic to take a patient's temperature without ever touching them. And they send real-time audio and video back to the hospital. "And a doctor located 100 miles away could see exactly what the medic sees live from the camera point of view of the glasses. So the medic is handsfree, they can still be helping out the patient," said Cherukuri The glasses can show multiple screens with face recognition technology that can link to a patient's medical history within seconds.  

The Town of Hanover has launched a mobile integrated health program, which is described as an innovative approach toward meeting the health needs of residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is in partnership with South Shore Health, which obtained a temporary license from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health for the Town of Hanover to take part. Hanover is the first municipality in Massachusetts to launch such a program. "The Hanover Fire Department has been looking for quite a while to participate in the mobile integrated health program," Hanover Fire Chief Jeffrey Blanchard told Boston 25 News. "The COVID-19 emergency opened the door to move things along." When the coronavirus started to spread in Massachusetts, South Shore Health reached out to local municipalities to see if they wanted to take part in the program and treat COVID-19 patients in their city or town.  

California has evacuation plans for earthquakes, floods, mudslides and, of course, wildfires, but what if one of those disasters occurs as the state is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak when everyone is being urged to stay home? State and local officials are trying to figure that out. "That's something that is being looked at, but it's challenging," said California Office of Emergency Services' spokesman Brian Ferguson. Kim Zagaris, longtime fire and rescue chief for the emergency services agency, came out of retirement to help with planning during the virus crisis. "One of the basic premises is to plan and be prepared for all types and kind of emergencies," he said. "We're disaster-prone, so you have to be prepared for multiple things at multiple times." But as officials scramble to catch up, there is a disconnect between local and state authorities on who should be developing the guidelines.  

To protect themselves from coronavirus, firefighters in Jefferson have a new way of wiping down their equipment after making runs. They're applying a mixture of bleach and water to the insides their ambulances and fire engines as well as on the surfaces of their gear. "Any of the equipment that is actually in the ambulance -- the cot, the monitor -- is available to be decontaminated with the same product," said Jefferson Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Wendt. Wendt says it was protocol before coronavirus to disinfect everything after a run. But the wipes they were using were getting hard to come by. So they switched to the water and bleach concoction the Centers for Disease Control has recommended. Wendt believes it's turned out to be more effective.  

The global novel coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 120,000 lives around the world. The United States now has more than 600,000 diagnosed cases and suffered at least 25,000 deaths. The death toll in New York, the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., has surpassed 10,000. Since the novel coronavirus hit the U.S., John Moore, a senior staff photographer and special correspondent for Getty Images, has documented several aspects of the crisis. His work has included stories on the impact of the pandemic on undocumented Honduran immigrants, virus testing, families isolating at home, as well as the initial outbreak in Washington state. This month the photographer spent time documenting the work of Empress emergency medical services personnel in Westchester County and the Bronx in New York. Empress EMS has 575 EMTs and paramedics treating and transporting patients to hospitals throughout Westchester County and parts of New York City.