Between alarms, you might have seen Lt. Leroy Hearon gliding around his Chicago firehouse, perfecting the steps to the tango, a dance that whirled him around the world. Tango first entranced Mr. Hearon more than 25 years ago, when he arrived at Club 720 on Wells Street expecting some bubbly, bouncy salsa. When he saw the Argentinian art form — sensual, melancholy and urgent — he instantly was determined to learn it. He used to say, "If I'm not at the firehouse, I'm at tango," according to his friend Phoebe Grant, a fellow tango instructor. Eventually, he taught tango and would travel every year to Buenos Aires, staying for weeks to take lessons and perform at dance halls.  

The sirens have been ringing much more this year compared to last year in Rockford. The Rockford Fire Department said they have responded to 300 calls for fires in the Forest City during the last 5 months. That's 51 more than last year at this time or a 20% increase. Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten says in the days after residential fires, prevention crews come by to raise awareness, make sure community members have working fire detectors, and know of carbon monoxide hazards. He says this can happen to anyone at any time people just need to be prepared. "We track this on a daily basis, weekly, and then we do monthly reports for all of our Aldermen, for the media, just to let them know what's happening, what trends there are." Bergsten says.  

The Waukegan Fire Department in Illinois is urging people to not keep hand sanitizer in their cars due to the risk of fire. Firefighters responded to a car fire Thursday afternoon. A preliminary investigation revealed the fire appeared to be caused by a small bottle of hand sanitizer that was left on the dashboard. "The owner had been refilling with 80% alcohol sanitizer that was supplied by their employer. It appears sunlight shining through the windshield onto the sanitizer was enough to cause ignition," the fire department said on Facebook. Photos from the fire show the aftermath of the indecent. The dashboard was badly melted and the windshield was covered in soot.  

Fire destroyed a vacant house early Thursday in the 600 block of Monroe Street in Belleville. Chief Tom Pour of the Belleville Fire Department said the call came in around 1 a.m. The house was in flames when firefighters arrived. Fire investigators are trying to find the cause. No one was injured. Pour said the owner had just turned electricity on at the house, but no one was living there. It took 30-45 minutes to knock down the main body of the fire, Pour said. It took two hours total before it was extinguished, he said. "The street department brought a bulldozer in to knock the walls down and pull the roof out that had collapsed to help us gain access," Pour said.  

The Bloomington Fire department posted a parody video based on the opening to the sitcom Full House Wednesday.The video includes Chief Brian Mohr and other firefighters and staff from the Bloomington fire station's Lee St. headquarters to the song "Everywhere You Look." In the Facebook post, the Bloomington fire department said they drew inspiration for the video after watching "countless hours of Netflix." The Facebook post also has an Indeed link to a job opening in the fire department.  

VIDEO: Firefighters battled a massive house fire in Billerica Thursday evening that left the home a total loss. Crews responding to the scene on Riveredge Road found smoke and flames pouring out of the house. "I was sleeping on the farmer's porch and the smoke just came out right around me," homeowner Rob Rawson said. "Panic city." Within minutes, the flames destroyed the years of work Rawson put into his home. SKY 7 HD flew over the scene around 6 p.m. to find it totally engulfed. By about 6:15 the flames had been mostly extinguished. Rawson said that as soon as he began smelling smoke, he ran through banging on doors to make sure he and his two roommates would escape safely. "I'm shocked I got the guy upstairs out. Shocked," he told 7NEWS. "There were lots of sparks the lines were catching on fire. it just moved very quickly." Multiple explosions could be heard within the inferno as nearby vehicles caught on fire — including an Xfinity van parked in the driveway.  

The union representing Baltimore's firefighters is calling on residents living in certain neighborhoods to oppose possible firehouse closures. The two firehouses slated to close are Engine 4 on Cold Spring Lane in north Baltimore and Engine 55 on Bush Street in Pigtown. The city fire union said both companies are responsible for bringing water to fires and have life-saving medical equipment. Baltimore City Councilman Bill Henry, D-District 4, released a statement Thursday calling on Mayor Jack Young to keep the companies open. Henry's statement said, in part: "As far as I know, every member of the City Council is against these closures. We voted for cuts to other parts of the budget which would have provided the mayor with sufficient funds to restore the two fire companies that are being shut down. The mayor has chosen not to use that money and is closing the fire companies anyway.  

After a serious storm, it's not uncommon to see the world come to a standstill. Traffic lights often go out, homes are ruined and businesses stay closed, but one restaurant tends to stay operational and consistent, despite the chaos and damage. In many places, Waffle House has become synonymous with stormy skies; the business is able to make decisions in the face of serious storms that have caught the eye of first responders and federal officials like Craig Fugate. Fugate was the Director for the Emergency Management Division for the state of Florida when he first noticed the trend. "What we had seen was the Waffle House was getting open before anything else did," he said. Fugate was responding to Hurricane Charley in 2004 when he first thought up the "Waffle House Index."  

Every week there are numerous scientific studies published. Here's a look at some of the more interesting ones: Researchers with the Cleveland Clinic developed a first risk prediction model for healthcare providers to predict an individual patient's likelihood of a positive COVID-19 test, in addition to predicting their outcomes from the disease. The model, called a nomogram, evaluates the relevance of age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, vaccination history and current medications in COVID-19 risk. The results were published in the journal CHEST. The actual test can be found here. "The ability to accurately predict whether or not a patient is likely to test positive for COVID-19, as well as potential outcomes including disease severity and hospitalization, will be paramount in effectively managing our resources and triaging care," said Lara Jehi, Cleveland Clinic's Chief Research Information Officer and corresponding author of the study. "As we continue to battle this pandemic and prepare for a potential second wave, understanding a person's risk is the first step in potential care and treatment planning."  

VIDEO: The Indianapolis Fire Department (IFD) has become the first fire department in the country to develop an in-house fire gear cleaning system. IFD said "Project Washout" integrates advanced ozone technology with comprehensive gear maintenance, management and repair. On Wednesday, IFD Chief Ernest Malone unveiled the new system which fire officials said "was created for the sole purpose of better protecting our suppression personnel and implementing cancer preventive initiatives, to help fight the unseen enemies our personnel face every day, including COVID19." IFD explained the new process uses ArtiClean Ozone, which provides firefighters with hospital-grade sanitation and cancer carcinogen removal, which was only previously available through outsourcing. "The idea of putting a gear washer in every fire station was quickly identified as too costly and for some stations, not logistically possible," fire officials said.