A Chicago firefighter was injured while battling a two-alarm blaze Saturday in McKinley Park on the South Side. The fire was reported shortly after midnight on the second floor of a vacant two-story commercial building in the 3700 block of South Ashland Avenue, according to Chicago Fire Department Cmdr. Frank Velez. Crews arrived to find heavy fire on the second floor and some roofing fell on one of the responding firefighters, Velez said. He was removed from under the rubble and taken to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. The fire was put out about 2 a.m., Velez said. No one was inside at the time and no other injuries were reported. The cause remains under investigation.  

When the Niles Fire Department responded to a recent 911 call for service from a local nursing home, the first responders arriving at the scene were prohibited from entering the building until they had their temperatures taken. "They were right there at the door, ready to take our temperatures to make sure we were fever-free," Niles Fire Chief Marty Feld said. "With concerns about COVID-19, they have to take special precautions at these facilities, because much of their clientele is already compromised and they need to be proactive." While many area residents are heeding Gov. J.B. Pritzker's stay-at-home order, and limiting outside activities to walks and visits to the grocery store, local firefighters and other first responders don't have the same options.  

Springfield Firefighters are reaching out to local restaurants to help them out during this pandemic. Firefighters usually put in $15 to $20 of their own money to pay for food. Crews usually cook in the stations. But in this these hard times they want to support their local businesses. They are asking restaurants in Springfield with delivery or curbside pickup to put together a $10 per meal menu for firefighters to order from. You can go to the Springfield Fire Local 37 Facebook page to comment if you're restaurant is open.  

The Jacksonville Fire Department emergency medical services crew will be adding additional precautions when responding to medical calls as concerns rise over the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. While paramedics normally wear gloves during a response, they will be adding masks and protective gowns that cover their clothes. "The changes we are making have been put in place as an added protection to the citizens of Jacksonville along with the added protection it affords our responders," Chief Doug Sills said. The additional precautions are intended to control the possibility of spreading the virus and protecting firefighters, he said.  

The Quincy Fire Department announced Friday that starting at 7:30 p.m. each night a member of the department will read a bedtime story for children in the community. The story will be broadcast via Facebook Live on the department's Facebook page. Each night a different firefighter will read a story that is picked by the staff at the Quincy Public Library. Fire Chief Joe Henning was set to read "Waiting Is Not Easy!" by Mo Willems Friday. The Fire Department said it hopes that the stories will give children something to look forward to in challenging days.  

When Hayward Fire Chief Garrett Contreras saw that San Jose had to quarantine many of its firefighters after they were exposed to coronavirus, he thought it could happen to his city, too. "We started to get concerned about taking care of our people," he said. "Once I realized that there was a lack of testing for sick people in general, I realized there was a broader problem." In response, Contreras has rallied community members and a private company to make sure Hayward is keeping track of its coronavirus outbreak. KQED has learned the city will open a testing facility tomorrow geared towards first responders and health-care workers. They will also test members of the public who are symptomatic. "Suppression through isolation after testing, or SIT, as we call it, is an approach that has proven to be most effective in countries on the leading edge of this pandemic," Contreras said.  

Three Springfield Township firefighters are in quarantine after they learned through social media they had been exposed to a presumptive coronavirus patient. Chief Barry Cousino told The Blade neither the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department nor St. Luke's Hospital informed his department of the potential exposure. The three firefighters transported Mark Wagoner, Sr., to the hospital last week. State and local leaders said Friday afternoon that Mr. Wagoner was the state's first victim of coronavirus. Mr. Wagoner died Wednesday from what family said then was a presumptive coronavirus case, meaning a test processed by a state or local laboratory came back positive but the case had not yet been confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control. Chief Cousino said his wife saw the news coverage on Facebook on Thursday evening, after which he called the health department himself. "I shared my displeasure with them," Chief Cousino said.  

The unions representing cops, firefighters and EMS officers are urging Mayor Bill de Blasio to make them a higher priority for access to coronavirus testing given their front-line duties interacting with the public amid the pandemic. Ninety-eight NYPD officers and other employees and 17 Fire Department/Emergency Medical Service personnel have tested positive for COVID-19. The leaders of the unions endorsed a letter sent to City Hall sent by Rep. Max Rose (D-Staten Island-Brooklyn) about the need to expand testing first responders. The letter was co-signed by James LeMonda, president of the United Firefighters Officers Association, Gerard Fitzgerald, head of the United Firefighters Association, Paul DiGiacomo of the Detectives Endowment Association, Louis Turco of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, Edward Mullins of the Sergeants Benevolent Association and Vincent Variale of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Services Officers Union.  

North Branford Fire Chief William Seward was alarmed when he got the news: his department, which runs the town's ambulance service, would only receive one box of 35 respirators from the strategic national stockpile. What's more, all of those masks — which Seward picked up today in Essex — are expired. "It's beyond belief," Seward said. Although the town currently has enough supplies on hand, Seward worries about what will happen if COVID-19 cases spike a few weeks down the road, he said. North Branford is not alone. Two East Haven firefighters and their families were quarantined for two weeks Friday after the pair of first responders assisted a 79-year-old man who became the town's first confirmed case of COVID-19, the town said in a statement.