Crews battled a massive blaze at a commercial building on the city's far Southeast Side Wednesday night. The Chicago Fire Department responded to the extra-alarm fire near 119th Street and Avenue O in the Hegewisch neighborhood about 8:40 p.m. Flames and smoke could be seen from several blocks away as firefighters doused the fire with water in an attempt to bring it under control. The building was in an industrial area, and its roof appeared to be completely gone. The blaze was extinguished several hours before, officials said early Thursday. But it appeared to rekindle about 6:45 a.m., as more smoke could be seen coming from the demolished building. A hazmat team was called in to monitor some propane containers on the scene. The warehouse belongs to Era Valdivia Contractors, the Chicago Tribune reported. The business specializes in construction work. Fire officials said early Thursday there were no injuries related to the blaze. The fire's cause is still unknown.  

A woman is in critical condition after she was rescued from a burning building in Englewood. Firefighters responded to the apartment fire at 524 W. 72nd St. just before 1 a.m. Wednesday. A 32-year-old woman was pulled from the burning building. The 32-year-old woman is now in critical condition. Responders started performing CPR on her on the sidewalk before she was taken to a local hospital. The fire displaced three adults and two children. No other injuries were reported. A neighbor living on the first floor of the building called 911 when the fire started. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time.  

Firefighters battled a three-alarm fire on the 10th floor of a high-rise in Chicago's Loop for several hours Thursday morning. The fire started about 4:05 a.m. on the 10th floor of a building in the first block of South Wabash Avenue, according to preliminary information from Chicago police. No injuries or displacements have been reported so far, police said. Chicago fire officials did not immediately return a request for details but tweeted that the blaze was a three-alarm fire that was struck out shortly before 6 a.m. A fire previously broke out at the same building in April 2018.  

A South Peoria fire station shuttered by budgetary cuts will reopen, but at the expense of another station that serves the Uplands, the Moss Avenue area and Bradley University. Peoria Fire Department Chief Tony Ardis told the City Council on Tuesday the increased response times created by the Oct. 1 closure of Station 4 on SW Jefferson Street were not acceptable. "We knew it wasn't going to be a great situation, but that was higher than we anticipated," said Ardis. "So we sat down with the command staff to try to solve this problem as best we could with the resources we have." Ardis said their best plan was to reintroduce Engine 4 at Station 4, paired with the transfer of Truck 4 from Station 8 on Hurlburt Street. The reintroduction would be offset by decommissioning Engine 2 that would result in the closure of Station 8.  

Police and firefighter/paramedics from Bensenville responded about 4:43 p.m. Wednesday, November 11, 2020 to a report of an industrial fire in a commercial building fire 1241 North Ellis Street. Firefighters on arrival reported they were leading out with a hose line for a working fire. The fire was knocked by about 5:17 p.m. One person was transported with Advanced Life Support at about 5:18 p.m. A search was underway for a possible second victim, and a second injured person was transported at 5:25 p.m. Initially the number of people injured was unknown. A MABAS Division 12 EMS Box Alarm was activated at 5:29 p.m. Firefighter/paramedics and/or command officers from Addison, Elk Grove Village, Forest Park, and Schiller Park responded mutual aid.  

An apartment building in Chicago's Auburn Gresham neighborhood caught fire Tuesday night for the second time in less than two weeks. The building is located on South Hermitage Avenue, and the fire started about 11 p.m. Those who live there said there was a fire on Halloween and again overnight. This time, a man went through the building to wake his neighbors up. "Somebody told us to get out the building; he woke everybody up," one resident said. Another man answered "that was me!" Neighbors believe the fires are being started by people who are staying in the building but not paying rent. Now some are afraid to return to their homes.  

VIDEO: The wife of a South Florida firefighter died after a fire broke out in their Homestead home Tuesday afternoon, fire officials confirmed Wednesday morning. A GoFundMe created for the firefighter identifies him as Corey Logan. It states Logan has been with Miami-Dade Fire Rescue for over 20 years. On the day of the fatal fire, the organizer of the fundraiser says he and Logan were working an overtime shift when Logan received a Ring notification. The surveillance video showed a neighbor frantically banging on his door. Both men were on the way to Logan's house when reports of a house fire at Logan's address came over the dispatch radio. The body of the firefighter's wife was found by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue crews after extinguishing the flames which ravaged their home, located in the 1200 block of Northwest 18th Street.  

The FDNY will be ditching its disposable protective coronavirus masks for reusable ones, officials said Tuesday. New elastomeric respirator masks will be distributed to Emergency Medical Service members and firefighters in the weeks to come, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. "This is a substantial piece of equipment, but it will take us out of the supply chain for N95 masks that the whole world uses," Nigro told the Daily News. "The N95 mask is a key piece of protection against the coronavirus, but these masks offer the same protection and there is a great benefit of it being reusable since we will be using them on every call." Emergency medical technicians and paramedics could be sporting the new masks — which look like something a member of a Hazmat team or an industrial painter wound wear — by the end of the week, officials said. FDNY members will still have a supply of N95 masks available to them as a backup.  

VIDEO: Crews responded to what they described as a stubborn fire at an abandoned building in New Haven. Officials said the fire broke out Thursday morning on the 200 block of Winthrop Avenue. The call originally came in around 3 a.m. as a brush fire. First responders arrived and found flames in one of the buildings. The fire was brought under control. One of the challenges that was presented to crews Thursday morning was water. They had to run about 700 feet of hose to get to it. The weather also caused an issue, because the fire chief said the smoke wasn't lifting, which made it dangerous for firefighters. The building was boarded up, which made ventilation a problem. Fire crews used some new technology that helped them in the fight. They had computers at their on-site command station that were hooked up to cameras down at the scene so they can see everything that happened.  

Three first responders were hit while responding to a crash in Frederick County that left a motorcyclist with life-threatening injuries, the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services said Tuesday. First responders were called to the scene of a crash involving a motorcycle in the 12900 block of Stottlemyer Road near Wolfsville just after 4:30 p.m. As they were treating the victim, a second motorcyclist hit a fire engine, ejecting the rider, 19-year-old Wyatt Walker Lewis of Smithsburg. The motorcycle then slid into three first responders and two other bystanders helping at the scene. One of the first responders was flown to Shock Trauma in stable condition, while a second was taken to Meritus Medical Center with minor injuries and later released. The third refused medical treatment.  

As hospitals in the state reach capacity and face dire staff shortages, North Dakota will now allow healthcare workers who have tested positive for COVID-19 to continue working in coronavirus units, officials announced this week. Hospital administrators have asked for the extraordinary action to be taken, Governor Doug Burgum said at a Monday press conference, and interim State Health Officer Dirk Wilke amended an order to allow the new measure to take effect. Now, North Dakota healthcare workers are permitted to continue treating COVID-19 patients, even if they've tested positive for the virus themselves. "This applies only to COVID-positive healthcare workers who do not have symptoms and they are allowed only to work COVID units around patients who already have the virus," Burgum said.