Four people were seriously injured Tuesday when a minivan slammed into a concrete wall on the Dan Ryan Expressway. The incident happened on the Chinatown feeder ramp to the expressway near Cermak Road. The minivan was traveling in the left lane when for unknown reasons, it veered off and hit the barrier wall —where it caught fire. Illinois State Troopers jumped out of their cruisers to help fight the fire. Four people got out of the minivan alive. Police pulled a passenger out of the front seat, while firefighters rescued the driver. The rear passengers were able to get out on their own. CBS 2 is told all four people in the minivan were seriously hurt. All lanes were shut down from 9 to 10 a.m.  

Bradley finally has itself a full-time fire chief. On Tuesday, the Bradley Village Board approved the appointment of Assistant Chief Don Kaderabek as its new chief, taking over the position which had been manned on a part-time basis by Bourbonnais Fire Protection District Deputy Chief Jim Keener. Keener had been working under an intergovernmental agreement between Bradley and the BFPD. Bradley Mayor Pro Tem Mike Watson said Kaderabek will take over the department on July 1. His first-year salary will be $110,000. Kaderabek has been with the Bradley department since early January on a part-time basis, earning $40 an hour. His responsibilities included officer development, strategic planning/cost containment, training and recruitment. The village had been without a full-time fire chief since longtime fire chief Jim Travis resigned in 2018.  

One person lost their life in a Wednesday crash involving two vehicles, deputies said. According to the Iroquois County Sheriff's Office, the crash happened on County Road 1900 N and 500 E. Road. Deputies said Christopher Benz of Onarga failed to stop at a stop sign while moving southbound on 500 E. Road, then struck a different vehicle, which was heading westbound on 1900 N. A male passenger in the vehicle that was struck died, per the sheriff's office. He passed at Riverside Hospital. Authorities are withholding his name until family can be notified. Gilman firefighters joined the sheriff's office in responding to the crash. Benz went to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He was cited for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident and disregarding a stop sign.  

No one is hurt after an afternoon house fire in Rockford. Around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Rockford Fire Department responded to the 300 block of Salem Street for reports of a structure fire with smoke showing from the second story. Crews were able to bring the fire under control in about six minutes. The tenant and his dog evacuated the home before firefighters arrived on scene. The fire was determined to be accidental and the result of an electrical fire. The building was deemed uninhabitable, and the Red Cross is assisting the tenant with temporary housing. Damages are estimated at $15,000.  

Police and firefighters weren't forgotten when Congress passed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package in March. Within a week of the law's enactment, aid began flowing to states and cities through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program, run by the Justice Department. Much of that aid goes to police departments across the country, which have received more than $143 million so far, according to a CQ Roll Call analysis of grant recipients. But firefighters, who were promised $100 million, have yet to get a dime. The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, requires a cumbersome peer review process for grant awards that can take months. The result has been a frustrating wait for money designed to help fire departments buy personal protective equipment, thermometers, sanitizer sprayers and other material needed to fight fires during the pandemic.  

VIDEO: A tenacious fire fueled by an estimated 1,000 plastic crates containing tomato products burned for at least seven hours Tuesday in east Stockton, growing to five alarms as it sent a massive black plume of smoke into the clear morning air visible for miles in all directions. No structures were involved and no injuries were reported at the Mizkan America tomato-processing plant known for its Ragu and Bertolli pasta sauces near the southwest corner of Waterloo Road and D Street. One firefighter was transported to an area hospital suffering from heat exhaustion, according to the Stockton Fire Department. a quick attack, but the fire continued to grow. Several factors hampered their ability to quickly put out the blaze and that allowed it to spread to the plastic tomato crates in the middle of the pallet yard, according to Deputy Fire Chief Shannon Lewis.  

New Hampshire was the first state to offer all first responders "hazard pay" bonuses for being on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. But unlike Gov. Chris Sununu's other relief initiatives, few states or the federal government have followed this one. And the $300-per-week bonuses for New Hampshire's firefighters, police, EMS and corrections officers have drawn controversy. "Governor Chris Sununu you should be ashamed of yourself; to not include the doctors, nurses, hospital personnel, those who are keeping people safe at home on hospice and caregivers providing needed personal assistance, let alone the cashiers at grocery stores," Gayle Spence Davis posted on Facebook recently. "I have no idea who gave you this advice, but you have been horribly misguided. We are on the front lines every day and frankly, you do not really care. Open up the economy a little more and see where that lands us."  

Weeks after learning there is a federal Arizona-specific model, Arizona's top public health official released the model in an online blog post on Tuesday. Dr. Cara Christ posting in a blog post, that FEMA has authorized them to share the models publicly. The report release May 7 has a number of graphs and data charts that are specific to Arizona. Christ wrote in the blog, "This model previously predicted our peak resource utilization to occur around June 11, assuming our mitigation strategies were lifted at the end of the current Stay Home, Stay Healthy, Stay Connected order on April 30. That order was extended through May 15th and was just recently lifted. The most recent model, dated May 7 predicts, even with the mitigation strategies lifted, that our current resources, including inpatient beds, ICU beds, and ventilators, are sufficient to meet a healthcare surge due to COVID-19."