After nearly three decades with the Peoria Fire Department, Chief Jim Bachman will be retiring. The news was confirmed by Assistant Fire Chief Shawn Sollberger and Peoria Firefighters Local 50 Union President Ryan Brady Wednesday morning. Bachman began his career with the Peoria Fire Department in May 1994. He was named chief in May 2021 after previous Chief Tony Ardis retired after 27 years with the department. A graduate of Northern Illinois University, he also holds an Associate Degree in Fire Science from John Wood Community College, according to the city website. Bachman's last day will be March 18.  

A Champaign firefighter was taken to a local hospital with injuries sustained in a house fire Wednesday afternoon in west Champaign in which the occupant's dog died. A neighbor summoned firefighters to the single-story bungalow in the 300 block of Flora Drive, between University and Springfield avenues, at 2:24 p.m. Heavy smoke was pouring from the house. Fire department spokesman Randy Smith said while working on the blaze, one of the firefighter's breathing masks became dislodged from his face and he breathed in the smoke-filled air but was able to get out of the house. Fire and EMS crews immediately began providing care, and he was taken to a local hospital, where he is in intensive care in severe but stable condition. His name was not released.  

Rural communities in Illinois can apply for a new grant opportunity to support their fire and emergency medical services (EMS). The funding, created through U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's (D-IL) Supporting and Improving Rural EMS Needs (SIREN) Act, supports EMS agencies in training and recruiting staff, conducting certification courses, and purchasing equipment—for everything from naloxone and personal protective equipment (PPE), to power stretchers or new ambulances. Rural fire and EMS agencies in Illinois interested in applying for grant funding through Durbin's SIREN Act can apply here until February 14, 2022. Durbin's bipartisan SIREN Act was signed into law in 2018 as part of the Farm Bill and this is the third year of annual funding for the grant program.  

Authorities have released the cause of a January 2021 suburban fire that left a mother and her four young girls dead. The Daily Herald reports two improperly altered electrical cords connected to a space heater on the second floor of the duplex building sparked the blaze in the 700 block of West Oakton Street. According to Des Plaines fire officials, a cord from a space heater was connected to a heavy-duty extension cord plugged into a wall outlet. It is unknown who spliced the cables, investigators added. Citahaly Zamiodo, 25, and her four daughters Renata Espinosa, 6, Genesis Espinosa, 5, Allison Espinosa, 3, and 1-year-old Grace Espinosa were all killed in the Wednesday, Jan. 27 fire.  

VIDEO: A fire broke out at a car dealership and auto body shop in Lake Villa Wednesday morning. Firefighters battled extreme cold to put out the blaze at Mr. J's Motors. They even brought in a tanker truck to get enough water. No one was inside at the time. Fire investigators are working to determine what started the fire.  

A garbage truck burst into flames in a neighborhood in Fresno on Wednesday afternoon – and the fireball was caught on camera. The Fresno Fire Department says the truck caught on fire in the area of Willow and Perrin avenues. A video shows intense flames and heavy black smoke billowing from the front of the truck. Officials say the garbage truck had been picking up trash in the neighborhood when a mechanical issue caused it to catch fire. The driver was able to get out of the truck without being injured and started working on trying to put the flames out. After being unable to extinguish the fire, the driver backed a safe distance away from the truck and waited for crews to arrive. A nearby car was damaged in the fire but firefighters were able to contain the flames before they could spread to any of the surrounding homes.  

VIDEO: When people call for an ambulance in Sackets Harbor, New York — and the crew shows up at their door — almost everyone has the same reaction. "A lot of people just come up and ask you, 'Wait, how old are you?'" Cooper Antonson said. "'You're the EMT?!'" Grayden Brunet said of how people have reacted. "We just explain to them — we are the ambulance," Niklas Brazie said. These baby-faced first responders took over the town's Emergency Medical Services not long after COVID-19 hit, when all the older EMS volunteers either couldn't — or wouldn't — do the job anymore. That exodus is part of a national trend. In rural America, 35% of ambulance services are all-volunteer. And 69% of those departments say they're struggling to find help.  

With a family of five dead in an unsolved house fire, night-vision images of the masked suspects haunted the metro for months — until Google led police to the accused killers. At age 16, Kevin Bui and Gavin Seymour — along with another teen charged as a juvenile — were arrested on counts of first-degree murder and more in the August 2020 killings in Green Valley Ranch. It took months before a break in the case, with the community fearful it was a targeted hate crime against the Senegalese immigrants who lost their lives. But newly released arrest documents show how police connected the teens to the crime scene through their Google searches, placed them at the fire through their Snapchat location data and read their messages to learn the arson was a case of misdirected revenge in a drug trafficking scheme.  

First responders face many risks, but for firefighters especially there is real concern about the risk of cancer. "Firefighters are at an increased risk for some types of cancer. Since 2015, over 70 percent of line of duty deaths has been because of cancer," said Natasha Schaefer Solle, Ph.D., who is the Co-Deputy Director for the Firefighter Cancer Initiative with the University of Miami's Sylvester Cancer Center. On Wednesday, Dr. Schaefer Solle and her team were at Hialeah's Fire Station 1 to screen firefighters there for cancer. "We've actually had a clinic for the last two years, and because of the feedback of firefighters of bringing the services to them, because of their work schedule, we really took it to heart, and now we are at the stations with them," said Dr. Schaefer Solle.  

To recruit new officers and firefighters and keep current employees local, one metro city is offering a new incentive. The City of South Fulton unveiled a program for housing allowance up to $450 a month toward rent or mortgage payments. The pilot program, which is open to 25 people, will run from Feb. 1 until Sept. 30, but applications are due Friday. The incentive is part of the city's efforts to encourage more public safety workers to live in South Fulton communities. The city says about 27% of workers currently live in South Fulton. About 58% say they are interested in relocating to the city. "Competition for experienced and skilled public safety employees has ramped up in the last year or two," City Manager Tammi Saddler Jones said. "This program allows us to employ the best in the field who will become even more qualified to serve our city because they live here."