The sheriff's department in Madison County is using a P.I.N. Sticker Program (potentially impaired or non-verbal person) to let law enforcement, firefighters and EMS partners know that someone may have a communication barrier, and if authorities try to talk with them, they may be non-verbal. "Any tool that we can have in our arsenal that allows us to seamlessly communicate effectively, especially in times of crisis, going into an incident or a situation, already knowing that there's a communication barrier, we can prepare for that, we can prepare ourselves to effectively communicate," Madison County Sheriff's Department Capt. Kristopher Tharp said. Those with communication barriers are asked to pick up a free sticker and place it on the back window of their car and on their front door, or front window glass.  

Veteran firefighter Robert Morgan, who died unexpectedly on Wednesday while vacationing in the Dominican Republic, is being remembered as someone who embraced adventure and devoted his life to public service. Morgan, 50, was found dead in his hotel room on Wednesday morning, Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard said in a statement. A cause of death has not yet been determined. "My son was a national and international traveler," said Sandra Morgan, Morgan's mother. "He was an adventurer. He loved zip-lining, bungee jumping, parachuting out of airplanes. He even got a chance to fly a plane once." A Calumet City native who graduated from Thornwood High School and Western Illinois University, Morgan was equally passionate about serving others, his mother said. Morgan was a social worker after college and was looking through job listings for his clients one day.  

Fire crews from the tri-state area worked through the night to extinguish a fire at an East Dubuque business located off of Highway 20. The fire happened at T&T Iron & Metals, a recycling center located on Barge Terminal Road. The East Dubuque Fire Department was one of many fire departments that responded to the reported structure fire. Fire Chief Joe Heim told TV9 crews found a large pile of recycled materials burning away from the structure. According to Chief Heim, two firefighters were taken to the hospital for overheating and smoke inhalation after battling the fire. However, he said they are in good condition now. The fire chief said a preliminary investigation determined T&T personnel were conducting a cutting operation in the area where the fire started. He said the biggest challenge was the pile itself and how it was constructed.  

The Springfield City Council is aiming to pass an ordinance in two weeks that will replenish the Springfield Fire Department's depleted budget after they themselves cut the budget less than five months ago. Springfield Firefighters Local 37 Union President Vince Zummo said he is happy about the potential move to replenish the $1.4 million to the Springfield Fire Department budget, but he says it never should have been cut in the first place. Zummo said the city was picking on the department, which he said has not grown in manpower, stations or apparatuses in 30 years, despite the city continuing to grow. The union and the city have been pointing fingers for months about this budget cut.  

A man was caught on surveillance video running away from the scene of a crime n Franklin Park — with no pants on. As CBS 2's Jackie Kostek reported Thursday, Police believe he is one of two men who set fire to a pizza shop in Franklin Park. Police in the western suburb are still on the hunt for those suspects after they set fire to the business early Monday morning. The windows of Wow Pizzeria, at 9745 Franklin Ave. in Franklin Park, are boarded up and there are still shards of glass on the ground. "I want to just only cry. I want to only cry. Now I lose everything," said Wow Pizzeria owner Marco Morocho. When we met Morocho, he was surveying what was left of his family business after two arsonists set fire to the building around 2:20 a.m. Monday.  

VIDEO: Numerous public safety agencies are working around the clock to keep tens of thousands of fans safe at the MLB All-Star Game and all the events surrounding it in Downtown Denver. Usually, agencies start preparing for an event of this magnitude up to two years ahead of time. But this year, Denver had just three months notice. "We're as ready as we can be," said Lt. Jake McCaig, of Denver Health Paramedics. McCaig said the plan is to have up to 10 paramedics staffed at Coors Field and up to 20 ambulances in and around downtown. Plus, Denver Health will have paramedics on bikes and in large, powerful golf carts. Paramedics also have special permission to fly a drone with an infrared camera around Coors Field.  

As he arrived at Fire Station 13 in Tampa to spend 12 hours shadowing some of Tampa's firefighters, Luis Viera kept his reasoning simple: "I'm looking in this city's budget for some robust and significant help for this fire station," he said. The Tampa city councilman has been working for more than a year to ease the stress on the crews of Fire Station 13 – the city's busiest – a location plagued by nearly never-ending calls for service. "They have about 10,000 calls a year. You do the math, that's about 30 calls a day," Viera explained. "The nickname of this fire station is ‘Nightmare on Annie Street,' because they say if you work here, you're not going to sleep." Thursday, Viera is pulling a 12-hour shift at the station to raise awareness of the need for additional resources.  

PHOTO: The Athens Cultural Affairs Commission has announced the installation of new public art work for Athens-Clarke County Fire Station #2, located at 265 Cleveland Road. "Hero's Path", by Baton Rouge-based artist Aaron Hussey, was installed by the artist on Friday, June 18, 2021 and funded by Athens-Clarke County SPLOST. "Hero's Path" is a 16ft aluminum and steel sculpture with upward-reaching ladders, and castings of a helmet and coat used by firefighters. The base features the ACC EMA logo on one side and the "Firefighter's Prayer" (written by A.W. "Smokey" Linn, a Kansas firefighter, in 1958) on the other. Hussey's proposal was selected by a panel of ACC firefighters and approved by the Mayor and Commission in Spring 2019.  

Over 13 years ago, Arlington's fire and police departments first teamed up to better address active shooter situations. Since then, their partnership — called the Rescue Task Force — has become the standard for when police and fire personnel respond together to high-threat situations, according to The National Fire Protection Association. The departments' model was even adopted for the 2012 London Olympics. In recent years, the task force has taken on a new threat requiring teamwork between police and fire: explosives. The expanding role of the task force reflects how the fire department's responsibilities have evolved over the last decade, as well as an increased need for intra-agency cooperation to handle complex situations. As public safety threats have changed, so too have the duties of firefighters. Gone are the days when they just fought fires — now, they save lives in active shooter situations and defuse bombs.  

Twenty-four states have seen an uptick of at least 10% in COVID-19 cases over the past week, Johns Hopkins University data shows, as health experts and the federal government keep pressing for more people to get vaccinated. The rapid spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has only ratcheted up the pressure. That variant, first identified in India, accounted for 51.7% of all new COVID-19 infections in the country over the two weeks that ended Saturday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated. "We should think about the Delta variant as the 2020 version of COVID-19 on steroids," Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to Joe Biden's COVID Response Team, told CNN on Wednesday. "It's twice as infectious. Fortunately, unlike 2020, we actually have a tool that stops the Delta variant in its tracks: It's called vaccine."