VIDEO: At least one person was injured in a fire at a motel near O'Hare International Airport. Officials say the fire started around 2 a.m. Monday at the O'Hare Kitchenette Motel, located at 2301 Mannheim Road. Frigid conditions made the fire extremely difficult to extinguish, and caused water issues in the motel. Fire departments from four different suburbs responded. As many as 100 people may have been inside the motel when the fire started. The entire second floor has been destroyed, which is where long-term residents lived. Victims have been put up in other motels around the area. The cause of the fire in under investigation.  

Firefighters battled extreme cold along with flames Sunday evening as a fire raged in multiple houses in Harvey. The fire broke out Sunday night at 152nd Street and Lexington Avenue in the south suburb. Several homes caught fire, and smoke and blames were sent billowing into the frigid air. No injuries were reported as of 10:40 p.m.  

Springfield Fire responded to a chimney fire in the on the 1800 block of S. 5th street Sunday evening around 5. Springfield Fire Battalion Chief Eric Helms said a resident had a fire going in the fire place and the fire breached the chimney setting the attic on fire. The fire was contained to the attic, but there is smoke and water throughout the home. The resident will be displaced but is uninjured.  

On Friday, Feb. 12, the Aurora Regional Fire Museum is hosting a "History Chat" on the new traveling exhibit "Innovations from Battlefield Medicine to Modern Civilian EMS," developed in partnership with the National EMS Museum. The program will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. via Zoom. Get your free ticket via www.facebook.com/AuroraRegionalFireMuseum/. The program will be led by Mike Williams. His background includes a 20-year career in the U.S. Air Force as a medic, pilot and commander and working in civilian emergency medical services since 1972 as an ambulance driver, emergency medical technician, paramedic, State EMS Director, and CEO of the nation's largest ambulance provider. Williams has been a participant in the evolution of emergency medical services for almost 50 years on both the military and civilian side. He will be sharing his story and experiences in this special presentation.  

One person is dead and four firefighters suffered injuries after a car crashed into the back of a fire truck early Saturday morning in Vermilion. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, crews were responding to a separate rollover crash on State Route 2 near Baumhart Road around 3:12 a.m. when a Honda Insight slammed into the rear of the engine. The driver of that vehicle later died from his injuries at Mercy Health - Lorain Hospital, while one firefighter was taken to the same hospital but later released. Three other firefighters were hurt, but declined further medical treatment. The driver of the car that originally crashed was rescued from their vehicle and airlifted to a local hospital with "serious" injuries. The deceased driver has been identified as 56-year-old John Goolman, of Berlin Heights. The incident is under investigation.  

VIDEO: The Abilene Fire Department said an early morning fire at an apartment complex was intentionally set. Kevin Earl Spurlock, 31, is charged with arson and terror threat of family or household. His bond has not yet been set. The fire at the Briarwood Apartments started around 6:15 a.m. Sunday. The complex is located in the 3200 block of N. 3rd Street, between Willis and Mockingbird. Tim Porter said he heard a loud bang and walked out to see massive flames. The fire department said it was upgraded to a 3rd alarm around 6:30 a.m. Crews worked until 4 p.m. to extinguish it. They will remain on scene for the remainder of the day. The smoke could be seen from blocks away. The video below was shot by a KTXS viewer at Willis and N. 10th. The fire department said "crews were forced to make a defensive, exterior attack." At least 60 residents and 21 apartment units were affected by the fire. The American Red Cross is assisting.  

About 10 p.m. on the night of Feb. 8, 1933, guests staying on the fourth floor of the Millard Hotel in downtown Omaha began to notice flames licking out of windows on floors below. Minutes later, the hotel's lights went dark. By 10:04 p.m., the first alarms were called into Omaha fire stations, according to World-Herald archives. Firefighters climbed the ladders and directed jets of water through upper-story windows. Any water that missed froze immediately, coating surfaces and forming dangerous slicks in the streets and alleys below. The temperature that night plunged to minus 15 degrees, and many firefighters later suffered frostbite from the spray. About 11 p.m., parts of the roof and upper floors collapsed, possibly because of an explosion in the hotel's paint shop, and the outer north wall blew outward. Firefighters on ladders and in the alley were crushed by a searing hot blast of bricks and debris.  

The newest Franklin firefighter is the second female firefighter in the city's history, and the first in a while. Diversity is a priority of the Franklin Fire Department, and one that is starting to come to fruition. Casey Whitaker is not new to Franklin or public safety. She worked for Seals Ambulance Service since 2016, and was an EMT for nine years. In her new position, she takes a different ride and a different role at the same scenes she has responded to for years. The step toward diversity is part of a city-wide effort to make the Franklin Fire Department look more like the city's general population, said Matt Culp, Franklin's fire chief. To accomplish that, 24 more women and a few racial minorities would need to be hired for the crew of 48 full-time firefighters to mirror the city, the population of which is made up of 51% women and 5% racial minorities, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. "We are trying to be as proactive as possible," Culp said.  

The mutant coronavirus strain first identified in the United Kingdom remains at low levels in the United States but is doubling its reach approximately every 10 days, according to a study published by researchers on Sunday. The study bolstered modeling done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which predicted last month that the more contagious variant could be the dominant strain in the U.S. by March. The U.S. still has time to take steps to slow down the new virus strain, the researchers wrote, but they warned that without "decisive and immediate public health action" the variant "will likely have devastating consequences to COVID-19 mortality and morbidity in the U.S. in a few months." The research, funded in part by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health as well as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, was posted to medRxiv, a preprint server, and has not yet been peer-reviewed.