The Peoria City Council approved a settlement with the union that represents the city's firefighters that will allow one of the fire houses that was to be closed to remain open for six months. The vote, 9-1 with Councilman Zach Oyler voting no, involved Local 50 dropping an unfair labor practice grievance it had filed against the city two years ago in return for the city keeping House 20 open. Also part of the settlement was an agreement to have no layoffs through March 30. Earlier this fall, the city shuttered two fire houses as a way to close a budget hole created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Local 50 had won on the appellate level but agreed to give up the $500,000 judgment it got in return for the fire house, which covers the far north portion of the city, open. That judgment is roughly the cost of keeping a fire house and its accompanying truck open for about six months.  

There were 22 people displaced from their homes after an apartment building fire in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood Tuesday night. Firefighters were called to the three-story, 12-unit building located at 1306 North Kildare Avenue around 11:30 p.m. "It was terrible, it was scary," a resident told CBS 2. Another resident told CBS 2 she woke up to firefighters knocking on her door. She then noticed the fire and escaped. Emergency crews rescued people and pets from the burning building. Firefighters gave oxygen to cats as residents were reunited with their pets. No injuries were reported. Seventeen adults and five children were displaced.  

McNabb and Lostant fire departments recently were awarded Assistance to Firefighters grants from the Department of Homeland Security for their joint grant application to purchase a Life Pack 15 Cardiac Monitor for each department. The equipment totaled $90,000 and allowed each department to replace outdated equipment that is no longer serviceable. Without funding, it would have been a five- to six-year commitment to raise funds to purchase it new. U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Channahon, toured the Putnam County EMS building Tuesday and got the opportunity to learn about the lifesaving equipment purchased through the grants. Putnam County EMS Director Andy Jackson told Kinzinger that the equipment is used on nearly every call to evaluate patients' heart rates and health, and, in fact, it had just been used to diagnose a massive heart attack in a man who otherwise would have died at home had he not been evaluated.  

Crews from Jacksonville and Alexander fire departments, along with Illinois State Police, were called Tuesday morning to the scene of a semitractor-trailer reporting a diesel fuel leak on Interstate 72 East near Exit 76. "The driver seems to think he hit some sort of debris," Jacksonville Fire Department Capt. Matt Summers said. There were no injuries and the driver was able to get himself out of his truck and to the shoulder of the highway. Interstate 72 was down to one lane of traffic while fire crews secured the area and stopped diesel fuel from leaking onto the road. "We tried to secure the leak as best as we could," Summers said, adding that they used a rubber plug as a temporary fix. The fire crew used protocols similar to those used in a chemical spill to secure the area, making sure everyone was safe and no flames would ignite from the engine while fuel was leaking, Summers said.  

A massive fire destroyed an apartment complex under construction Wednesday morning in west Harris County. At least one firefighter was injured. Flames turned the morning sky orange just before sunrise. Heavy smoke could be seen from miles away. Two four-story apartment buildings were leveled by the 3-alarm fire off the Grand Parkway near Katy. There were 50 to 60 apartments in each one. A fire department spokesman said the fire was so big, they maxed out the water system early on and couldn't stop the flames from spreading to the second building. "The guys that could get close to the fire were driven back by raging heat so they couldn't get hose lines on the fire," he said. The complex had been under construction for six or seven months and appeared to be completed on the outside but the interior wasn't finished.  

VIDEO: Every year, local fire departments and KSBY team up to visit elementary schools across the Central Coast for the Burn Relay to teach kids fire safety and prevention. Due to COVID-19 and distance learning, the Burn Relay couldn't happen last week so firefighters with the Atascadero Fire Department got creative instead. With the help of a local video production company, the firefighters created an eight-minute video discussing fire safety set to music. songs for Fire Prevention Week. Proving they are truly "all-risk" and multi-talented, the firefighters covered World In Union's hit song "On Top Of The World" and put a spin on Lil Nas X's wildly popular song "Old Town Road." Atascadero city officials say between shifts, the firefighters produced the video, wrote the songs and practiced their singing and dancing.  

When residential fires happen at night while families are sleeping, deaths are more likely to occur. Smoke alarms are important for preventing these deaths, yet research has shown that many pre-teenage children don't wake up to traditional high-frequency tone alarms. Researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy and the Sleep Disorders Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital conducted a series of studies to identify smoke alarm signals that would more effectively awaken children and other members of the household in the event of a fire. In a recent study published online in Pediatric Research, researchers examined four different smoke alarms to determine which ones worked best to wake children from deep sleep and prompt them to perform an escape procedure: a male voice, female voice, combination of a low-frequency tone plus a female voice (hybrid alarm), or high-frequency tone.  

VIDEO: For the first time in the United States, a robotic firefighting vehicle was used Tuesday to battle a major emergency fire in downtown Los Angeles, officials said. The fire broke out in a textile business and spread to an adjacent building, and more than 130 firefighters extinguished the flames and prevented them from spreading further. The greater-alarm fire broke out before 4:45 a.m. in a one-story building in the 800 block of South Crocker Street. Crews arrived on scene to find that the building contained "stacks of rolled textiles," the L.A. Fire Department reports. The textiles served as fuel to help spread the flames, prompting the fire department to declare it a greater-alarm fire. "What we have inside is an abundance of rolled goods, fabrics, textiles that are smoldering, piled very high," LAFD Capt. Erik Scott said. The blaze was initially brought under control within about 40 minutes. However, there was a flare-up on the northwest side of the building that forced LAFD to call in more crews.  

VIDEO: Doctors will say some of the most painful recoveries come in the burn unit. A Detroit firefighter just lived through a recovery and he has a unique perspective. He's in charge of the department's clown team that works to cheer up child burn victims. Firefighter Mark Taylor went inside a burning vacant home to see if there was anybody inside and that's when the roof collapsed on him. His partner was in the house too. Two stories of burning roof buried Taylor and his partner. Their fellow firefighters broke out chainsaws and sounded the alarm. Taylor couldn't move and flames burned more than 60 percent of his body. "It didn't feel like that was the end. I had to wonder if that was it? Is this what death is gonna feel like for me?" he said. Taylor spent three weeks in the receiving hospital burn unit.