A Chicago firefighter was injured battling a fire Saturday in Edgewater on the North Side. The still-and-box alarm fire was reported at a home in the 5600 block of North Winthrop Avenue, according to the Chicago Fire Department. It was put out by 3:23 a.m. A neighbor, Daniella Mack, noticed the flames from her window, called 911 and tried to evacuate people from the building, but no one was home. "So I came down and started yelling, 'fire.' I attempted to get to the building to knock on the door, but the flames were high, so then I started waking up the people next door to get them out," Mack said. One firefighter was taken to a hospital in good condition with a "minor injury," fire officials said. No other injuries were reported.  

A woman was pronounced dead after a house fire in Austin early Monday morning, police said The woman, 34, was identified by family as Stephanie Haynes. According to Haynes' sister, Lesley, the 34-year-old was 5 months pregnant. Haynes' body was found inside the a home in the 5000-block of West Gladys shortly before 3 a.m., police said in a statement. She was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police. Lesley Haynes went to the home early Monday morning and said she had been worried about her sister for a long time. Haynes had three children who are in Seattle living with relatives who have custody, her sister said. Police believe Haynes was dead before the fire.  

Fire crews returned to a Milan business multiple times Sunday to extinguish hot spots after a large fire there Saturday night. Jeff Klossing, first captain of Blackhawk Fire Protection District, said Milan volunteer firefighters headed home at 1:45 p.m. Sunday, after about 15 hours working the scene at 630 and 636 W. 10th Ave., Milan. Moore Monument and Granite adjoins Wilbert Burial Vaults at that shared business building. "Most of my crews have been here since 6 p.m." Saturday, Klossing said. The building's insulation was causing hot spots to re-emerge, he said. The Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating and there was no preliminary cause as of Sunday. Blackhawk was joined by fire crews from Coal Valley, Sherrard, Reynolds, Andalusia, Rock Island and Coyne Center. The Village of Milan issued a boil order late Saturday for all residents, businesses and restaurants north of 11th Avenue, including all of downtown Milan, which remains in effect.  

Saturday's mid-morning structure fire in the 800 block of Phelps Lane prompted the Troy Township Fire District to summon firefighters from Minooka, Channahon and Plainfield to help extinguish the blaze. Two families escaped safely. The initial house fire was reported at 10:08 a.m. According to Troy Fire Lt. Dan Rozak, the victims reported that a car was on fire inside their garage. There were giant flames and smoke billowing into the sky as Troy fire trucks rolled up to Phelps Lane, which is behind the Troy Hofer Elementary School property. "Everyone got out safe," Rozak told Joliet Patch's editor. "We upgraded the fire very fast to a box alarm. There was a heavy fire that got out of the garage and into the attic. We had to go defensive, unfortunately."  

The specialty pale ale, "Jump In The Fire," is back, for a limited time at WAKE Brewing in Rock Island. One dollar from every pint sold will go to the Rock Island Fire Department's fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). For around a decade, the department has donated to the association, with all their raised money going back to local children and families for summer camps, research and medications. Muscular Dystrophy is a genetic condition that causes gradual weakening of the muscles. It generally starts to take hold with kids, and gets worse over time. Typically, the firefighters and paramedics spend three to four days outside of grocery stores, and on street corners, for their 'Fill The Boot' campaigns. And in the past few years, they've also held a golf outing. Last year, the Rock Island department raised $25,000 for the MDA - the most they'd ever received.  

VIDEO: The Alameda County Fire Department was battling a warehouse fire overnight Monday in San Leandro. By 1:25 a.m., about 50 firefighters were on the scene to fight the large blaze at a Georgia Pacific packaging plant on Alvarado Street. When KRON4 arrived on scene, crews were putting out hot spots and it was finally put out around 5 a.m. Georgia Pacific's corporate team says the fire happened in an outdoor storage area where its finished goods were held. "We appreciate the rapid response by the Alameda County Fire Department and other first responders to address the fire at our box plant in San Leandro," the corporate statement said. "The fire is now out. Thankfully there were no injuries. The facility expects to start back up this morning as scheduled."  

Sixty-two firefighters died in 2019 from injuries sustained while on duty, 22 less than the 2018 total of 84 firefighters, according to a new report from the U.S. Fire Administration. The 2019 total includes 10 firefighters who died under circumstances that were part of inclusion criteria changes resulting from the Hometown Heroes Survivors Benefit Act. When not including these fatalities for the purposes of a trend analysis, there were 52 non-Hometown Hero firefighter fatalities in 2019, for the lowest annual total since the USFA began this study. Firefighter fatalities included 25 career firefighters, 34 volunteer firefighters, and three part-time or full-time members of wildland or wildland contract fire agencies. The gender of the firefighters who died while on duty in 2019 consisted of one female and 61 males. There were no multiple firefighter fatality incidents in 2019; therefore, the 62 deaths in 2019 resulted from a total of 62 fatal incidents.  

Bob Perkins of the Winthrop Fire Department says his wife grows nervous when he and his firefighter sons Connor, 22, and Cody, 19, get called to fires or other emergencies. "By now, she's sorta used to it, but she still gets pretty nervous sometimes," he said, "and she ends up listening to the pager." The Perkins family is one of four with members of two generations serving on the department. They make up about one-third of the department's 33 staff members, which helps the department with crucial volunteer numbers, according to Fire Chief Dan Brooks. "It's a never-ending shell game to get people to join, and keep their interest," Brooks said. "There's always somebody coming on and somebody leaving. We do better than most." The department's four families with multiple generations serving Winthrop: Roger Audette and son, Alex, 18; Mark Arsenault and son, Tyler, 28; Bob Perkins and his two sons; and Billy Cummins and son, Nathan Cummins, 21, and stepson, Andrew Bellegarde, 35.  

In an unprecedented weekend of COVID-19 infections, nearly all of the US is seeing cases rise as the national total teeters near 10 million. There were 105,927 new coronavirus cases reported on Sunday, marking the 5th day in a row that cases topped 100,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. With 42 states reporting at least 10% more new COVID-19 cases this past week, according to JHU, an emergency physician at Brown University warns that the United States is "heading into the very worst of this pandemic." "We're about to see all of these little epidemics across the country, crossed and mixed, and it's going to be an awful lot like pouring gasoline on a fire," Dr. Megan Ranney told CNN's Fredricka Whitfield Sunday. Cases are currently raging at levels not seen at any other time in the pandemic. Sunday's unprecedented number followed the other top four highest new coronavirus case days, with the record that was set on Saturday with 128,412.  

Did you know that for over a century the fire trucks in Opelousas had names? That used to be a custom in this town as well as many other towns and cities across the U.S. Let's talk about that. Several days ago I received a message from Debbie Harmon Payne asking if I would know who the Opelousas fire truck "Sid" was named for. It seems John Saucier had contacted her with this question. I was able to let them know that particular truck for named for Sidney Brown, who had been the Fire Chief in Opelousas during the 1930s. Toward the end of that decade, the Sid Brown family relocated to Jeanerette and eventually to Baton Rouge. When the truck was named for Chief Brown in 1957, he was deceased, and his wife came to Opelousas from Baton Rouge for the ceremony. Reviewing this information made me think about other fire trucks in Opelousas that were named for local folks. It seems that custom was started in our town just after the Hope, Hook and Ladder Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 was created during the 1870s.