VIDEO: Two people were found dead late Sunday in a house fire in northwest suburban Inverness. Firefighters from neighboring Palatine were called to 219 Bradwell Rd. in Inverness just before 6 p.m. They arrived to find flames coming from the back of the house. A couple believed to be in their 80s did not make it out. A neighbor spoke to the victims earlier in the day and had planned to have them over later. "It was a devastating loss for all of us," said neighbor Tom Kennedy. "I'm still, I guess, in a little bit of a state of shock. I just can't accept it. You're talking to him – an hour later, you find out he died." There was no word on the cause of the fire late Sunday. The fire chief said aside from firefighters having to crawl over a few snowbanks, the weather was not a factor in fighting the fire.  

During his 42-year career with Bourbonnais Fire Protection District, Ed St. Louis has been on thousands of calls. He's seen the department go from all volunteer to now one that has full-time members manning the Armour Road station 24/7. One memory he cherishes is when the raffle tickets are mailed out for the department's annual Sweetheart Dance. "It is the people. We mail these out between Christmas and New Year's every year," St. Louis recalled last week discussing his pending retirement on Feb. 28. "A few days later, people come walking up and into the station with their checks and ticket stubs. Some would just drop off a check. Not return the raffle tickets. "I had a woman this year who dropped off her tickets. She apologized for being late," he said. "She said money was tight this year but she wanted to show her support."  

Dylan Mercier was not unlike any number of boys growing up. He loved playing with toy cars and trucks. The St. Anne man, who recently had his Mack semi-tractor and trailer wrapped to pay tribute to firefighters, is now stepping into a world he never could have imagined. Mercier, who will soon turn the age of 20, was contacted by die cast toy manufacturer First Gear, Inc. The Peosta, Iowa-based company is an officially licensed custom die cast manufacturer of metal replica cars, trucks and construction equipment. It will be transforming his unique ride into a collectible die cast model. The die cast will be on a 1/64 scale of his truck, meaning is will be only several inches in length. If all goes as planned, the first production of the truck will be completed by late February to early March. And that's not all. Mercier is not just taking all the cash — one of the die cast trucks would likely sell in the $100 range — and putting it into his pocket.  

A solitary firefighter might have the grim task of carrying a dead child down a smoke-filled stairwell. But that firefighter doesn't have to carry the resulting emotional burden alone. "I like to encourage peer support every day," said Tom Howard, a suburban firefighter and executive director of the Illinois Firefighter Peer Support Team, which was founded in the belief that no emergency responder "would have to go through pain or suffering alone." Firefighters throughout the suburbs, many of whom responded in support roles to Wednesday's horrific fire in Des Plaines, say their hearts are with their brothers and sisters in the Des Plaines Fire Department who battled the blaze that killed Citahaly Zamiodo, 25, and her children -- 6-year-old Renata P. Espinosa, 5-year-old Genesis A. Espinosa, 3-year-old Allizon V. Espinosa and 1-year-old Grace Espinosa.  

A firefighter was hospitalized Friday after a blaze in a vacant apartment building in Woodlawn on the South Side. The fire started about 10 p.m. at a vacant apartment building in the 6400-block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, according to the Chicago Fire Department. "I got a knock on the door, saying that there was a fire they thought was in my house. I stay in the house behind me. I come out and this fire has been going for about five to 20 minutes or something out here," witness Patricia Johnson said. One firefighter was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in good condition with "minor injuries," the fire department said. No other injuries were reported, and the fire was extinguished by 10:50 p.m., the fire department said.  

VIDEO: A huge fire broke out overnight inside a recycling plant in New Jersey. The 11-alarm fire is contained but is still not under control at Atlantic Fiber Company that started just after midnight Saturday. Firefighters from over 20 departments including Rutherford, Paterson, Lodi and Wallington responded to the fire on the brutally cold night. Officials say it may take days till the fire is out, but the goal is to extinguish it before the impending winter storm. The massive structure, which is filled with combustible materials such as recycling paper and cardboard, has largely collapsed onto itself. The facility recycles single-steam consumer recyclables, mainly paper - 30,000 to 40,000 tons a month, according to the company. There are no signs of the blaze slowing after officials say several explosions from inside could be heard and the building collapsed into itself.  

PHOTOS: A crew from Lakeside Fire House was sent to the hospital Sunday morning when their firetruck rolled off the road while it was snowing. Henrico Fire tweeted on Sunday, Jan. 31 around 10:50 a.m. that it received a call that one of its units -- Henrico Fire Engine 305 -- was involved in a rollover accident.Fire officials said the roads were very slippery and it was snowing at the time of the crash. They added, that there were no other vehicles involved in the accident. According to Henrico Fire, all four firefighters who were on the truck were able to exit it on their own and were taken to the nearby hospitals to be treated. There's no word on what condition they are in at this time.  

Dylan Mercier was not unlike any number of boys growing up. He loved playing with toy cars and trucks. The St. Anne man, who recently had his Mack semi-tractor and trailer wrapped to pay tribute to firefighters, is now stepping into a world he never could have imagined. Mercier, who will soon turn the age of 20, was contacted by die cast toy manufacturer First Gear, Inc. The Peosta, Iowa-based company is an officially licensed custom die cast manufacturer of metal replica cars, trucks and construction equipment. It will be transforming his unique ride into a collectible die cast model. The die cast will be on a 1/64 scale of his truck, meaning is will be only several inches in length. If all goes as planned, the first production of the truck will be completed by late February to early March. And that's not all. Mercier is not just taking all the cash — one of the die cast trucks would likely sell in the $100 range — and putting it into his pocket.  

A Durham company is developing a new technology that will help fight COVID-19. It's what EmitBio said will potentially save millions of lives. The handheld device is inserted into the mouth aims precise wavelengths of targeted light at a spot in the back of the throat known as your oropharynx. It's turned on for five minutes, and later that same day the treatment is repeated. The light it emits interacts with the cells of the body and COVID-19. "So, the virus wants to make many copies of itself so it's doing that continuously inside the cell. And we're able to disable that property and that takes care of everything," said EmitBio Executive Chairman Neal Hunter. Hunter said the technology stops the virus from making copies of itself. The key is that you need to have mild to moderate symptoms within 72 hours for it to be most effective.  

VIDEO: Beautiful, hand-made wooden American flags to benefit local fire departments -- that's the idea behind Flags for Frontlines. Michael Jolley is a 17-year-old volunteer firefighter at Ryegate Fire Department. "I just have a passion for volunteer firefighting, I went to emergency services and criminal justice at Riverbank Career and Technical Center in Bradford where I just really found my passion in Emergency Services through that," he says. And he knows first-hand just how far a couple extra bucks go at the station. "Fire departments need a lot of things but the budgets just don't allow it. Like, fire gear for one, a lot of people don't know that fire gear costs anywhere between $2,500 to $3,000 just for a set of fire gear," Jolley explains. He spent the summer thinking about how he could help raise money for these small departments, and decided to use his woodworking background and local connections to make a difference.