A Chicago firefighter was injured in an extra-alarm fire that damaged three buildings Monday in Little Village on the Southwest Side. The blaze broke out about 2:16 a.m. at a two-flat residential building in the 2500 block of South Albany Avenue, according to Chicago police and fire officials. It spread to two adjacent buildings. The two-alarm fire was put out shortly before 3:30 a.m., fire officials said. One firefighter was hit in the shoulder by part of a chimney and taken to a hospital in good condition with a minor injury, authorities said. Ten residents were displaced as a result of the fire and the state human services department was called to assist them with housing, according to police and fire officials. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.  

There's a new service that helps first responders treat Chicago residents during the COVID-19 outbreak. "Smart911" lets people provide critical medical information in case they need to call 911. Residents can create a free Safety Profile that is automatically displayed when they call for help. Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications are urging Chicago residents to sign up for the secure service. Approximately 75% of 911 calls are made using cell phones that lack detailed location information, city officials said. By signing up for Smart911, residents, especially vulnerable populations, can include any information they might want 911 and first responders to have in the event of an emergency, including critical health information and preexisting medical conditions to ensure that first responders can deploy appropriate resources.  

A Hoffman Estates firefighter suffered a nonlife-threatening injury battling a late-night fire Saturday that gutted a residential garage. No residents were injured in the fire, the cause of which remains under investigation, fire officials said. The initial loss estimate to the structure and its contents is $60,000. Firefighters called to the scene in the 700 block of Olive Street shortly before 10 p.m. arrived to find the detached two-car garage fully in flames. There was no one in the garage and everyone who lived at the home was accounted for, officials said. The garage was a total loss, and there was minor damage to a neighbor's home and garage siding.  

"Abre la puerta!" said Josefina Olivo, seeing her family line the sidewalk in front of her house on West 58th Street. Open the door. "No abre la puerta," her son gently cautioned. Don't open the door. It was March 20, Olivo's 95th birthday. Five years ago her big family — she has five children, 19 grandchildren, 29 great-grandchildren — threw a big party for her at a fancy restaurant, with purple balloons, her favorite color. Now in the time of coronavirus, the woman referred to as "our matriarch" by her family stood in a purple dress — one granddaughter calls her "Lil Petunia" — and was serenaded with music and signs. She waved. Life has a habit of plucking away our joys even in the best of times. It was hard enough for Olivo, then in her late 80s, to stop making 20 lamb cakes every Easter — a tradition she borrowed from a Polish friend in the West Loop bindery where they worked.  

Just after 11 p.m. Saturday, Rockford Fire responded to call for a residential structure fire in the 3300 block of Balsam Lane. Upon arrival at the scene, a single family residence had heavy smoke and flakes showing from the back side of the home. Fire crews performed an interior fire attack and they were able to get the fire under control in approximately 15 minutes. There were no firefighter or civilian injuries but two adults and two children were displaced due to the damage of the residence. The damage is estimated at $45,000. The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

The Rowlett Fire Department has a long history of providing innovative solutions to complex issues. Continuing that legacy of care and commitment to our community, the Rowlett Fire Department has implemented a TeleMedic program in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. TeleMedic embraces current technology and allows the online one-on-one video assessment of non-critical patients to reduce the risk of provider- or patient-borne exposure to contagions. Accessed via FaceTime for Apple users or Google Duo for Android users, the Rowlett Fire Department staffs the program around the clock, seven days a week with a firefighter/paramedic. The program targets the approximately 80 percent of patients who contract COVID-19 and experience only mild symptoms of the illness.  

At exactly 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday evening, thousands of New Yorkers in quarantine stood on their porches and near their windows to applaud first responders and health care workers on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak. This powerful act of solidarity, which lasted several minutes, came about after a call on social media to #clapbecausewecare. "That gave me chills!" Chris Henken, who recorded video of the applause, tweeted. Accounting for nearly a quarter of the nation's COVID-19 cases, New York City is battling to keep its hospitals from being overwhelmed. Health care workers are already facing overcrowded emergency rooms, and a nurse recently died from coronavirus after working nonstop for weeks at a hospital The virus is also taking a toll on the New York City Police Department. More than 500 NYPD personnel have come down with COVID-19, including 442 officers, and two employees have died.  

The Laurel County Fire Department has launched a new phone app this week that includes two sections pertaining to COVID-19. "To our knowledge it's one of the first ones in the area," said Laurel County Fire Chief Terry Wattenbarger. "We're the first emergency service to actually have a mobile app like that." Wattenbarger said the fire department's main focus with the app is public information. The Laurel County Fire Department will be able to send the public push notifications through the app, informing them of accidents, fires, and other emergencies happening within the Laurel County Fire Department's service area. "We can't push every callout that we get, but we do work a major part of the interstate," explained Wattenbarger.  

Chief Diana Matty has heard the cries of doctors across the country: They need ventilators. As Palm Beach County braces for a potential spike in coronavirus cases, the West Palm Beach fire chief has coordinated efforts with the county's 10 other fire departments to let hospitals know they are poised to loan ventilators, should the need arise. Together, the departments have about 70 ventilators available to loan to hospitals to help treat patients with the respiratory virus, said Matty, who also serves as president of Palm Beach County Fire Chiefs Association. "It's a stopgap measure in a time of crisis," she said. The ventilators are simple versions of high-tech machines at hospitals, "a rotary phone in a world of iPhones," she said.  

A program conducting home visits with vulnerable patients after they have been checked out of the hospital is doing its best to go online, both for the sake of the paramedics and patients. Racine's Mobile Integrated Health program went into a trial phase in the fall of 2018 and was fully implemented in 2019. Paramedics with the Racine Fire Department underwent training on how to carry out home visits to patients who had recently been discharged from the hospital. The goal of the program is to ensure the patients are following their discharge instructions, taking their medications and watching for any red flags of circumstances that could risk that person needing to return to the hospital. Brian Wolf, the Fire Department's division chief of professional standards and head of the MIH program, said that because of the COVID-19 outbreak, most of the those check-ins and other services to help with recovery are now being done over the phone, sometimes with video chat or online.