Family, colleagues and friends are remembering Chicago Fire Department paramedic Robert Truevillian, who succumbed to COVID-19 earlier in December. Family, friends and hundreds of first responders gathered outside the funeral home to mourn the death of one of their own. Uniformed firefighters served as pallbearers. Truevillian recently marked his 20th anniversary with the Chicago Fire Department. "This is a loss to our family, this is a loss to his family," said Chicago Fire Commissioner Richard Ford. Truevillian was sick for several weeks before his death at the age of 55. Friends remembered him as a devoted husband and father to his four children. His family is devastated by the loss. COVID restrictions limited the number of people inside to attend the funeral service, so it was streamed online for everyone to watch. Outside the funeral home, Truevillian's ambulance, No. 71, was parked with purple bunting. After the funeral, a long line of police cars with flashing blue lights led the procession to the cemetery.  

In the days leading up to the fire that displaced dozens of residents from a Palos Hills apartment building that had been converted into the condos on Christmas Day, residents noticed what smelled like burning plastic as they entered the building. "The smell got thicker, but we didn't think too much about it," said Jessica Mendoza, one of 56 residents forced to flee the Green Tree Condominiums. After dropping off her fiancé's children early Christmas morning, the power went out in their section of the Green Tree Condos, 9954 84th Terrace. Mendoza and her fiancé, Jason Rodriguez, noticed that other sections of their 40-unit building still had power. "We went to bed," Mendoza said. "Then the emergency lights kicked on in the hallway and started beeping. I just remember the sound from previous jobs." There was a commotion in the hallway. Neighbors were talking louder than usual.  

VIDEO: Champaign remembers 55-year-old Dominic Smith after he passed away in a deadly car crash. Smith was a Champaign firefighter. Smith and his wife were involved in a deadly car crash early Saturday morning where both were ejected from the vehicle. Now, the community is remembering Smith for the husband, father and firefighter he was. Jason Rector, a coworker and lieutenant at the Champaign Fire Department, said he admired Smith's compassion as a firefighter. "We had a medical call with an elderly lady and he held her hand for 15 minutes and just talked her through what she was going through and it was very inspiring for me to watch the love he was displaying and the care for this patient," Rector told WAND News.  

A third person has been charged in connection to the fatal shooting of a retired Chicago firefighter during an attempted carjacking. Police charged 20-year-old Devin Barron of Lynwood, Illinois with first degree murder in the death of Dwain Williams. Williams, 65, was fatally shot during an attempted carjacking on Dec. 3 in Morgan Park. Police said Williams was in the 2400 block of West 118th Street around 2 p.m. and was leaving a popcorn store when he was approached by four people. One of the people had a gun and fired shots, striking Williams in the abdomen. Williams was taken to Advocate Christ, where he was pronounced dead. Williams was a highly decorated 65-year-old fire lieutenant who retired just two years ago. Barron was arrested on Saturday in Lansing. Dwain Johnson, 18, of Gary, Indiana and a 15-year-old boy have also been charged in connection with Williams's death.  

VIDEO: Kansas City firefighters battled a multi-alarm apartment fire Monday night near 80th Terrace and Troost Avenue. Fire crews were called to the Waldo Heights apartments just after 8 p.m. and found a working fire when they arrived. Authorities said three people were rescued from the 36-unit building. One person was rescued by ladder. Two people jumped to safety. The injuries were described as minor. As firefighters continued to search the building to make sure everyone got out, the roof started to collapse. Crews were pulled out of the building and the fire department battled the fire for several hours from a defensive position. The Red Cross was at the scene helping residents displaced by the fire. They said Tuesday morning that 30 families were displaced by the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.  

The vulnerability of the telecommunications system in Nashville and beyond became clear Christmas Day when AT&T's central office in downtown became the site of a bombing. Mayor John Cooper called the blast on Second Avenue an attack on infrastructure. The effects of that attack are sure to ripple through the region for weeks, as the telecom giant scrambles to restore services while also maintaining the integrity of an active investigation site teeming with federal agents. State and local officials and experts say the fact that a multi-state region could be brought to its knees by a single bombing is a "wake-up call," exposing vulnerabilities many didn't know existed and predicting the it would lead to intense conversations about the future. The bombing and the damage to the AT&T office was a "single-point of failure," said Douglas Schmidt, the Cornelius Vanderbilt professor of computer science at Vanderbilt University.  

More than two dozen hospital intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency rooms were full on Monday, according to the Georgia Coordinating Center (GCC). The online database shows bed capacity at medical facilities across the state and allows users to find the closest hospital to them with the most resources. The public can find real-time information on crowding at hospitals and see whether a facility is even accepting patients by ambulance. The website uses phrases like "severe" and "normal" to show the level of crowding, as well as "diversion" and "saturation" to designate levels of intake. The GCC also provides medical providers with information for patient transfers. Public health expert and microbiologist Amber Schmidtke said the online system is critical in getting patients adequate care during bed shortages.  

In a typical school year, students often look forward to visits from their local fire departments — or perhaps they're lucky to visit a nearby station in-person. But this year, those visits and field trips have been put on hold due to the pandemic. So the Overland Park Fire Department is hoping to bring that experience to you and your student. "We thought, 'What captivates kids more than the fire trucks?' And, 'nothing' is the answer," OPFD media manager Jason Rhodes said. "So, we started with Engine 41, that's kind of the basic fire apparatus. "I put a video together of one of our firefighters, Patrick Nelson, taking us on a tour with Fire Engine 41 to show us what a fire truck is, what its main tasks are, what it's equipped with, etc.," he said. "And throughout that video we weave in safety messages."  

The innovative new station of Rescue Company 2 in Brooklyn is a welcome upgrade from their former station house, which was built in 1893 when the FDNY still used horses. Designed through a partnership with the New York City Department of Design and Construction and the illustrious architecture firm Studio Gang, the multifaceted new building serves as a training space where the specially-trained unit can practice responding to fires, building collapses, water rescues, and other dangerous scenarios. A panel of urban experts chose the red-accented building as a nominee for the Best New Public Building of 2020 in Untapped New York's Best of New York Awards! This stalwart station house is located at 1815 Sterling Place in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The architects took inspiration from elements of Rescue Company 2's hazardous rescue situations and translated them into practical and aesthetic parts of the building's design.