A firefighter was injured Sunday in a blaze at a home in Gresham on the South Side. Crews responded to a house fire in the 8700 block of South Bishop Street and were still working to put the fire out about 10:45 p.m., according to a fire department tweet. One firefighter was taken to a local hospital with a "heat related issue," according to fire officials. Their condition was stabilized. No other injuries have been reported.  

The Joliet Fire Department extinguished two separate house fires as well as four grass fires and five trash bin fires over the July 4th weekend. All of these fires were related to fireworks, according to Joliet Fire Chief Greg Blaskey. One house fire happened at 11:05 p.m. on Friday, July 3, at 5309 Whispering Oaks Drive. The blaze began in the garage, which is where the owners were storing their fireworks, the fire department said. Nobody was injured at that incident. Joliet Fire Stations 9, 10 and 8 responded and confined the damage to the garage area. The rest of the house remains liveable, the fire chief noted. The second house fire related to fireworks happened at 12:50 a.m. Sunday, July 5. That fire happened at 3703 Landings Road, and the fire broke out on the exterior of the house, damaging the garage.  

Several Decatur firefighters responded to a house fire north of downtown Saturday evening. Crews were called to the 1800 block of North Church Street around 9:20 Saturday evening. When crews arrived on scene the structure was fully engulfed in flames and spreading to the house at 1837 North Church Street. The house was reportedly full of garbage, making it unsafe for fire fighters to enter and had to fight the fire from the outside. The owner of the home was displaced. Fire crews said in a release that the neighboring house fire was quickly brought under control. the house did sustain some damage, but the occupants were not displaced. The cause of the fire is unknown and is still under investigation with Fire Marshals saying fireworks could be a possible cause at this time. No one was injured.  

Peoria Firefighters were called to Expo Gardens at 1601 W. Northmoor Rd. around 12:50 a.m. Sunday after a report of a fire near a building. When fire crews arrived, they found a large dumpster and the exterior of a pole barn was on fire. Crews extinguished the fire on the outside of the barn as well as additional fire on the inside. According to Peoria Fire Battalion Chief Kurt Hanold, there were large amounts of firework debris around the building as well as in and around the dumpster. "It was determined that inappropriate discard of used fireworks likely caused the fire," said Chief Hanold. There were no injuries were reported.  

Naperville firefighters responded about 10:39 p.m. Saturday July 4, 2020 for a smoke investigation following a fire in a recycling bin in the block of 300 Leeds Court. Firefighters arrived and learned that a resident of the single-family home had used an extinguisher to put out flames in a recycling bing after fireworks were placed in the recycling bin. The residents call the fire department because after the fire in the recycling bin was extinguished, there was still smoke coming from an interior wall in the garage. Firefighters checked the was with a thermal camera and extinguished fire found behind the garage wall and in void spaces above the garage. The fire was extinguished within about 30 minutes of arrival. Additional time and work was involved to extinguish smoldering materials during the overhaul phase.  

A Spring Valley business owner has donated $2,500 to the fire department to go towards equipment repair. Drew Martinez, owner of Drewskies and Outer Limitz in the Valley, donated because he saw a fundraiser to be held by the department to repair aerial equipment and replace outdated air bottles was canceled due to COVID-19. Fire Chief Todd Bogatitus currently is working on getting estimates to fix the aerial equipment, something much needed by the department due to the Walmart Distribution Center, High Rise and other buildings. The council will vote at an upcoming meeting how to fund the repairs, which could cost anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000. They also will need to spend about $25,000 to replace the air bottles.  

The Houston Fire Department said its firefighters are running on empty as they try to keep up with the city's pandemic surge. HFD Chief Sam Pena said about 300 firefighters are in quarantine. Pena said the ones not in quarantine are overworked and there is no end in sight. "Yes, they're being stretched thin, and yes, they're being overworked and it is stressful for them," Pena said. "There's no question Houston firefighters are working long hours, they're working extra shifts, and it's all a result of the impact of the staffing that we're having to deal with right now." Firefighters who are able to work are facing an increasing number of emergency calls and work shifts that can last multiple days. "We have firefighters who have been at the station for two and three days at a time and cannot get relief," said Houston Professional Firefighters Association President Marty Lancton.  

VIDEO: An Oakland fire crew was delayed on making an emergency medical call July 4th evening when an unruly mob near Lake Merritt blocked its path and climbed onto the engine. The incident was captured on a video released Sunday night on the Oakland Firefighters Facebook page. The video showed a crowd gathered around an Oakland fire truck at the intersection of Lakeshore and Brooklyn Avenues on the east side of Lake Merritt. The post said the crowd "was jumping, dancing and banging on the fire engine." Oakland Fire spokesman Michael Hunt said that engine was one of two assigned "roving patrols" stationed near the lake to respond to an expected barrage of calls on July 4. Hunt said the crew shown in the video had been called at 11:31 p.m. Saturday to a medical call near the lake.  

Four Beech Grove firefighters are recovering after a drunk driver drove a car into the fire engine and then hit the officers. Five firefighters were responding to a trash fire Saturday night in the 5900 block of East Troy Avenue near North 25th Avenue just after 10 p.m. As the firefighters were deploying the hose line, a car crashed into the fire engine and hit a light pole and four of the firefighters. Beech Grove Mayor Dennis Buckley said two of the firefighters were thrown between 10-15 feet away from the fire engine. All four firefighters were transported to IU Health Methodist Hospital and were released with minor injuries. Buckley said IMPD has arrested the driver for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.  

After consistently moving toward flattening the curve, positive cases of COVID-19 have been climbing in the last two weeks across several states. Florida had the most dramatic increase of cases, jumping from 3,235 daily new cases per 100,000 people on June 22 to 9,019 daily new cases June 27, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. During a live-streamed press conference in Pensacola on Sunday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that part of the reason for the rising case number was an increase in testing. "We've done more testing than we ever have by far," he said Sunday. "When you do that, you are going to find more cases because the detected cases are just a small fraction of the total amount of infections." DeSantis said that in March the state had seven testing sites, which were targeted for older and more vulnerable populations. Now, there are more than 40, he said.  

VIDEO: The fire believed to have been sparked by illegal fireworks that severely damaged a South Buffalo house Friday offered a pair of grim reminders. One was of the danger of fireworks. The other was of a tragedy that still resonates within the Buffalo Fire Department. "This fire was eerily similar to a fire that took the life of one of our firefighters, Michael Seguin, some 23 years ago," Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said. Seguin, 30, had been a firefighter for four years in 1997 when he and firefighter Harold Emerson, both of Engine 33, carried a hose to the attic of a Kehr Street house shortly before 11 p.m. Superheated gases had accumulated there and were ignited when the fumes were exposed to fresh air in a deadly phenomenon called flashover. Emerson was seriously injured. Firefighters tried to revive Seguin at the scene, but he was pronounced dead at Erie County Medical Center. The cause was smoke inhalation.