Two men were injured, one critically, in a fire at an abandoned home on Chicago's South Side early Monday morning, police and fire officials said. The fire broke out about 2:35 a.m. in the 4700-block of South Princeton Avenue in the city's Fuller Park neighborhood, Chicago police said. The two men, ages 45 and 68, were taken to University of Chicago Medical Center in fair and critical condition, according to CPD. Both were suffering from smoke inhalation and one was also burned, Chicago fire officials said. The 45-year-old man was more seriously hurt. When firefighters arrived at the one-and-a-half story building, the flames were intense, but the fire was put out just before 4 a.m. The cause of the fire was not immediately available.  

A dedicated 10-year-old Girl Scout named Bristol, from Mazon, has once again warmed the hearts of local first responders by donating over 22,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Bristol, accompanied by her troop from Grundy County, has made it a yearly tradition to give back to the community's heroes, including police officers, firefighters, deputies, and emergency personnel. Bristol's mother, Marie Sjostrom, shared the inspiring news in a recent TikTok video, where she expressed her daughter's commitment to serving hometown heroes. "Bristol hand delivers every donated box of Girl Scout cookies she receives each year," Sjostrom explained. "She doesn't keep a single box for herself. Instead, she expands her reach beyond Illinois, even venturing to Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee to honor more heroes."  

Repairs on Interstate 95 are expected to take "months" after an elevated section collapsed in Philadelphia on Sunday morning when a tanker truck carrying flammable cargo caught fire beneath the overpass, officials said. "With regards to the complete rebuild of I-95 roadway, we expect it to take some number of months," Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told a press conference on Sunday evening, adding that he plans to issue a disaster declaration to "expedite this process" and "immediately draw down federal funds." Shapiro said he had spoken directly to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg who assured him there would be "absolutely no delay" in getting federal funds to safely and swiftly rebuild the "critical roadway."  

When Greg Rhinehart, a 37-year-old firefighter/paramedic at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, woke up at 5:30 the morning of Jan. 7, he found he couldn't speak. Not a word. Rhinehart, who was sleeping on base because he was on duty, was the victim of a stroke. But even as a paramedic, he said it took a while to put together the symptoms he was experiencing. "It was terrifying," Rhinehart said. "I had some numbness and tingling in my arm earlier, but that went away. I thought that was weird. I got a headache, but I get migraines, so I took Tylenol and laid back down to rest a bit and let them work. A half hour later, I woke up unable to speak." Rhinehart wrote a note, saying he could not speak and that he needed to go to the hospital. "I went and found another paramedic, and gave him the note," he said.  

VIDEO: A new 20-minute video has been released by the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board involving the 2018 Husky refinery explosion and fire in Superior. The goal of the board is to "drive chemical safety change through independent investigations to protect people and the environment." The 2018 incident injured 36 workers, caused roughly $550 million in damage to the facility and released 39,000 pounds of flammable hydrocarbon vapor into the air. The incident happened during a partial refinery shutdown for scheduled maintenance. The federal investigation found multiple factors contributed to the incident, including outdated steel, a faulty valve and inadequate employee training. A chunk of flying steel punctured a nearby asphalt tank sending thousands of barrels of the flammable material into the refinery, which later caught on fire.  

As the 2023 hurricane season officially begins, state legislatures have so far kept pace with related legislative activity of prior years. Disaster resilience bills enacted so far reflect a range of topics both similar to and divergent from 2021-22 trends. These results, and the methodology behind them, can be found in a December report on the 2022 legislative session from Columbia Climate School's National Center for Disaster Preparedness. At the time of this sampling (late April), 13 states — Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, South Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, West Virginia, and Virginia — had all adjourned their regular sessions for the year. Other states are also adjourning in rapid fire at this time of year, with at least an additional 11 states having adjourned since April.