The Central Illinois Emergency Expo is returning to the Shoppes at Grand Prairie July 12 from 4-7 p.m. Local emergency response agencies from around Central Illinois will display their emergency equipment in the parking lot between Dick's Sporting Goods and IL Route 91. Equipment being featured at the expo include fire engines and apparatuses, medical helicopters, police cruisers, armored vehicles, rescue boats and more. Families are invited to explore vehicles, talk with professional first responders, and try on gear during this free community event.  

It was a start to the day no one wanted in Watseka. When people living in an apartment downtown woke up to smoke filling their rooms. "It was difficult all around," Nick Peters, deputy fire chief, said. The Watseka Fire Department got the call around 5:30 in the morning. They got on scene and started trying to contain the flames, but they said it spread to the attic and the 100-year-old building wasn't built for fire crews working side by side. "Very few ways that we could get in and really attack this fire and get our crews in there to work," he said. There were several other things working against them, like the heat and the size of their crew. That's why 17 other departments. From Kankakee to Hoopeston, showed up to help.  

Three firefighters were injured while battling a warehouse fire that took nearly 100 firefighters and more than 30 firefighting tools to control. According to Louisville Fire Department Maj. Bobby Cooper, one of the firefighters was injured after being shocked by a down power line. The firefighter was transported to the hospital and was conscious and alert, Cooper said. All three were taken to a local hospital for observation. No others were hurt. Cooper said the call initially came in around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday on a reported structure fire in the 3000 block of River Park Drive. That's in Louisville's Russell neighborhood. Because the warehouse is just a few blocks away from a fire station, firefighters were able to get on scene within a minute, Cooper said. Once on scene, the 2-story vacant warehouse was already engulfed in flames.  

The victim of yesterday's Calhoun County kidnapping "could have been anyone," according to Sheriff Matthew Wade. Instead, it was a woman known to most area law enforcement and emergency workers for almost three decades as a steady, steadying presence at crime scenes and accident sites. "She's a super, super woman," said Calhoun County Coroner Pat Brown about Betty Cobb, 75, who was found Monday, bound with duct tape in the closet of an Anniston home hours after she was snatched from her home on Choccolocco Road in rural Calhoun County. Wade said investigators believe Cobb was followed home, after an Independence Day shopping trip, by 47-year-old Tony Lamar White of Anniston, who is currently the subject of an intense manhunt. White, who has had previous arrests for domestic violence and third-degree robbery, faces charges of kidnapping and burglary.  

VIDEO: Several firefighters rescued a woman who was trapped under a CT Transit bus in Stamford on Tuesday. The incident happened at the intersection of Broad and Atlantic streets about 3 p.m. Officials said they received several 911 calls reporting the incident. Responding officials said a woman was trapped under the front axle of a tandem-style CT Transit bus. Crews said the woman was conscious, alert and able to talk to firefighters. In a video from the Stamford Fire Department, crews can be seen trying to get the woman out from under the bus. Firefighters were able to rescue the woman by using high-pressure air bags. She was taken to Stamford Hospital for evaluation and treatment. Officials said the entire extrication process took 10 minutes.  

VIDEO: Firefighters have a dangerous job to begin with, putting out risky and potentially deadly fires. They don't expect to deal with gunfire in the process. A holiday fire call turned dangerous Monday night with first responders dodging bullets after Lauderhill Fire Rescue crews arrived to the scene of a house fire that was possibly started by fireworks. "The crews on scene last night were in a lot of danger, not only the fire crews but also some of the residents that were outside celebrating," said Lauderhill Fire Rescue Lt. Joseph Panczak. As firefighters were putting out the flames, numerous gunshots rang out while hundreds of people were out celebrating the Fourth of July along the 2100 block of Northwest 59th Terrace, sending stray bullets flying. One of those bullets pierced a fire rescue truck windshield.  

VIDEO: Imagine having doctors, first responders, and paramedics go through real life training before they ever enter the field, without the real life consequences. That's what students from Roanoke County Fire and Rescue experienced as part of a research study to see how these simulations affect a student's critical thinking. Ryan Lanning with Roanoke County Fire and Rescue Department says he wanted to be more hands on in the community. That is why he decided to start training to be a paramedic. Lanning says, "I just enjoy the whole medical side of things. At the end of the day, we are here to serve the public and that is how we are going to do so the most." Lanning started training last winter. His class did a lot of in classroom exercises but recently they were part of only 200 students across the nation to try out a new hands-on virtual reality program.