Sandwiches purchased at Bradley's Firehouse Subs, owned by Johnny and Kim Jones of Manteno, are doing more than just filling stomachs. The purchase of sandwiches and the change donated by many customers from each purchase also goes toward requested equipment for area fire and police departments. The Bradley store, located at 1609 Illinois Route 50 in the frontage property of the shopping center, which houses Target, just donated more than $85,000 to four area fire departments for sought-after equipment. The business recently donated funds to the Bradley, Bourbonnais, Manteno and Peotone departments through its Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation. The four area departments receiving money are the first in this area to have their requests OK'd by the Firehouse foundation.  

Two days after multiple houses caught fire on Joliet's Hickory Street, the city's fire chief tells Joliet Patch that the second structure will need to be demolished. Both of the houses in the 400 block of Hickory Street were heavily damaged by Saturday's blaze. One house was burned to the ground. The second structure is still standing. On Monday morning, fire chief Greg Blaskey said that the cause of the fire remains under investigation. Firefighters learned that one of the houses had been undergoing a remodeling project, the chief indicated. As a result, fire investigators will need to conduct additional interviews to determine whether the remodeling work factored into the origin of the fire. Joliet fire engines responded to the fires around 12:15 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, and firefighters remained on the scene extinguishing the blaze for five hours. The fire-damaged houses are right next door to the St. John's school building. The flames, however, did not spread to the school.  

An ostrich that escaped from a southwestern Illinois farm was rescued after the 300-pound (136-kilogram) bird fell into a ravine and was injured, fire officials said. A veterinarian tranquilized the ostrich before four members of a fire rescue crew entered the ravine near O'Fallon and strapped the bird to a board before it was hauled from the ravine Monday evening using a pulley system. O'Fallon Fire Chief Brad White said the ostrich had fallen about 15 feet (4.6 meters) into the ravine and suffered a long neck laceration that caused it to lose 'œa good amount' of blood. After its rescue, the ostrich was treated by the veterinarian and returned to its owners at a nearby farm, White told the Belleville News-Democrat. The bird's owners have about a dozen ostriches that they raise as meat for people who have Lyme disease and cannot consume red meat, he said.  

PHOTOS: A massive fire burned in downtown St. Paul early Tuesday morning, apparently destroying a hotel under construction across from the Xcel Energy Center. The flames were more than 40 feet high at one point and visible on freeway traffic cameras nearby. Fire officials said shortly after 5 a.m. that a substantial part of the blaze had been knocked down. No injuries have been reported. Firefighters were climbing onto the roofs of nearby buildings, including the Catholic Charities homeless shelter across the street, to look for embers that may pose a fire threat nearby. Radio traffic among firefighters indicated at least part of the under-construction project had collapsed. Public works crews were also trying to boost water pressure to the area to aid firefighters.  

According to the UC Davis Fire Department, nearly 25% of its firefighters are wearing gear that doesn't fit them. UC Davis Fire Chief Nathan Trauernicht told FOX40 Monday that he is calling on uniform manufacturers to do better. "They need to have maximum range of motion, and at critical times, they have to be able to make critical movements, and if that doesn't happen, it puts all of us in danger," Trauernicht explained. Some firefighters told FOX40 that their safety is at risk because their gear simply doesn't fit right. "The inseam I would say is usually the biggest issue, especially if you're going to be getting low, like dropping to the ground or something, because it doesn't allow you to have that flexibility or dexterity," UC Davis fire engineer Corrie Beall explained. Officials said ill-fitting gear makes even simple tasks difficult.  

The bad news: COVID-19 appears to be filling hospitals throughout the South and the Southwest with patients with a deadly, highly contagious disease. The good news: The federal government is now publishing a COVID-19 hospital bed occupancy map that looks terrible. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been trying to track COVID-19 with a weekly collection of maps, tables and charts based largely on the data sources and methods used to track influenza. The idea has been that, in many ways, early and mild cases of COVID-19 are similar to cases of the flu, and that the CDC could use its flu tracking system to monitor the new pandemic. But, for whatever reason, the CDC's flu-based tracking system shows appears to show that the United States has defeated COVID-19.  

City Council has tabled a proposal to hire, for the first time, part-time firefighters to beef up the Fire Department staff, instead opting to seek a tax increase that would pay for additional full-time firefighters. The Strongsville Fire Fighters Association, the union representing firefighters here, opposed hiring the part-timers, saying it would undermine the professionalism of their department. The union supports the tax increase -- which residents will vote on Nov. 3 -- and expanding the full-time staff. Matt Kasza, firefighters union president, said in a June 25 email to council that the city administration failed to thoroughly explore the implications of hiring part-time firefighters. "The Fire Chief (Jack Draves) did not form a committee, no studies have been done and there is no cost-benefit analysis," Kasza said in the email. "There is also no plan on how part-timers would be implemented into fire department operations.  

Firefighters with the Orlando Fire Department who have recovered from COVID-19 are donating plasma. The Orlando Fire Department and OneBlood have teamed up for a plasma drive where firefighters and their family members who've recovered from COVID-19 can donate plasma. "As the cases surge throughout our service area, the need for convalescent plasma has reached new heights," said Susan Forbes, with OneBlood. OneBlood says it has seen a 500 percent increase in hospital orders for plasma. "We encourage people to follow in their footsteps. As they recover, to donate their convalescent plasma," Forbes said. "These donors really hold the potential key in helping many of these other patients still fighting the virus to recover."