The Champaign Fire Department responded to 2 house fires early Wednesday morning. Firefighters responded to the 500 Block of S. Duncan Road at 3:12 a.m. to a report of a house fire. When crews arrived on scene they found a garage on fire and quickly got to work to extinguish the flames. The cause of the fire is under investigation. The people living in the house are displaced due to damage. The second fire happened at 3:32 a.m. in the 900 Block of S. Duncan Road. The Champaign Fire Department said people living in the house were alerted by their smoke-detector. When firefighters arrived on scene they found a fire in a bedroom. Investigators say the cause of the fire was due to an "improperly disposed smoke material". No one was hurt, but the people living in the home were displaced due to damage.  

Eleven months retroactively, Hoffman Estates village board members Monday approved a three-year contract with the firefighters union granting annual salary increases for firefighter-paramedics of 2.5%, 2.25% and 2.25%, respectively, through Dec. 31, 2023. The contract also includes additional equity adjustments in the pay of lieutenants and captains -- 0.75% in 2021 and 1% in both 2022 and 2023. The vote was 6-0 with Trustee Karen Mills absent. Hoffman Estates Village Manager Eric Palm said he didn't recognize any specific reasons for the length of the negotiations, least of all the absence of a permanent village manager and fire chief on Jan. 1, when the new contract was intended to take effect and ultimately has. "Some things just take a little longer," Palm said. "I was very impressed with the leadership of the union and the good spirit of negotiations."  

A lot of firefighters near Round Lake did not get much sleep overnight Monday into Tuesday. They spent all night battling a stubborn fire inside the Northern Insulation company. At 12:29 a.m. Tuesday, crews from the Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District were called to Northern Insulation Inc., 702 Magna Dr. for the fire. A box truck containing industrial chemicals had caught fire inside the building. Firefighters from 11 towns showed up to fight the blaze. It took about six hours for the last ones to leave. The fire was declared under control around 2 a.m., but a propeller-driven airboat also had to be used to clear the building of smoke. The business was closed at the time, and one was hurt in the fire.  

Firefighters responded to a business fire Tuesday night, according to the Springfield Firefighters Local 37 Facebook page. The fire broke out just after 9 p.m. in the 500 Block of N. Dirksen Parkway. Firefighters reported seeing heavy flames coming from the building. WAND News was on scene and saw major damage to the roof. The Springfield Fire Department shut down a portion of Dirksen Parkway while firefighters worked to extinguish the flames.  

The more than 500 men and women – many of them volunteers – who have worked for the Lyons Fire Department over the past 125 years will not be forgotten, officials of the Village of Lyons said Nov. 28, 2021. A red-brick memorial topped with a firefighter's helmet and sitting outside the fire station, 4043 Joliet Ave., was dedicated on Nov. 28. About 200 attended. Behind the memorial stands a new 35-foot flagpole topped with a 6-by-10-foot American flag. "It's fantastic. A great day. A great day for Lyons," Fire Chief Gordon Nord, Jr., said. Mayor Christopher Getty said the memorial pays tribute "to all those past and present who helped create and shape the great organization of the Lyons Fire Department into what it is today."  

VIDEO:An explosion blew through the lower levels of a home in the Cypress Hills section of Brooklyn, injuring six and leaving dozens homeless. The blast, which was caught on camera, collapsed the first floor of the Vermont Street home into the cellar just after midnight. Six residents were treated for remarkably minor injuries, two of them taken to Brookdale University Hospital. The other four were treated at the scene. Some 54 residents of adjoining buildings were left temporarily homeless as firefighters battled the flames. "It was extending to the exposures 2 and 4 of the adjoining buildings, and also it was wrapping around," said FDNY Deputy Chief Patrick Sherian. "We had a building on Jamaica Avenue. It was running up the rear of that building, so we had to do searches, evacuate."  

Hall County plans to spend up to $300,000 for rebranding the fire department to Hall County Fire and Rescue. In a video announcing the changes, Hall County Fire Chief Chris Armstrong said the impetus to transition from Hall County Fire Services was a $10,000 pay incentive for paramedics adopted in March. Previously, paramedics received a 7.5% pay bump over the firefighter salary. "That was all part of us trying to change our culture and really heighten the importance of the EMS part of what we do," Armstrong said. "… Hall County Fire Services has been the name of the department, but, in my opinion, didn't really reflect all the other services that we provided." County spokeswoman Katie Crumley said $138,000 of the budgeted funds would go toward uniforms while the rest is for branding on the vehicles. While going through this rebranding process, Armstrong said he wanted to "dig a little deeper into our mission statement and really get to the root cause of why we do what we do."  

PHOTO: A 1954 fire truck that was used by the Chippewa Falls Fire Department until it was sold in 1987 is returning to the city, and when the public gets a chance to see it, the antique vehicle will look shiny new. The fire truck has been restored and will be on display at the new Chippewa Area History Center that is under construction along Bridgewater Avenue. The building is slated to open next spring or early summer. Jack Running, Township Fire Department chief, is in the group of area firefighters who acquired the aging truck in 2010 and spent the past decade restoring it. "We found it sitting in a field in Durand," Running said. The non-profit group, a chapter of the Society for the Preservation & Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America (SPAAMFAA), purchased the machine for $1,500 and began the process of restoring it.  

Millions of financial support for North Carolina firefighters fighting cancers will be available at the start of 2022 as part of the newly approved state budget. Studies show firefighters are 9% more likely to get cancer compared to everyone else, and 14% more likely to die from cancer. With the use of $15 million, the goal is to save firefighters' lives by helping to cover the cost of the cancer treatments that are necessary. Families could expect a $25,000 lump-sum payment for each diagnosis, along with $12,000 for out-of-pocket medical expenses, and 75% of a firefighter's pay for disability if they are too sick to work. "We deserve it, we deserve to have something to help us," Drowning Creek volunteer firefighter Melissa Stevenson said.  

VIDEO: People who dial 911 from a cell phone in San Antonio may video chat with an emergency dispatcher. To connect, callers must only click on the link the dispatcher sends, sometimes seconds after they pick up the phone. This 'GoodSAM' technology allows trained paramedics to coach bystanders through life-saving procedures while first responders are en route. "It's a wild success," SAFD spokesperson Joe Arrington said. "This is the future of 9-1-1, of medicine, and of pre-hospital care." San Antonio's fire department was among the first agencies in the U.S. to use the technology, which experts developed in the United Kingdom. The special computer program allows dispatchers, who are all trained paramedics, to assess situations before sending an emergency response unit.