More than 10 fire departments responded Monday morning to a fire that burned a gas station to the ground in Illinois. The fire started just before 11 a.m. at the Crown Food Mart and gas station at 1441 Kingshighway in Washington Park. Washington Park firefighters arrived to find flames through the roof. They made entry but were pushed out by the "condition and severity" of the fire and had to switch to an exterior attack, according to Assistant Fire Chief Ronnie Harris. Black smoke could be seen rising high from the structure as it was fully engulfed in flames. The blaze reached three alarms before firefighters had brought it down to a smolder. The gas station was operating at the time but was evacuated without any injuries. Harris said it is the largest commercial fire that the department has dealt with since a fire that destroyed a city municipal building in October, causing damage to their own fire department.  

Multiple departments were called to battle a house fire Tuesday morning in Green Valley. Just down the road from the Pekin Municipal Airport on Townline Road, Assistant Fire Chief for the Green Valley Fire Department, Steve Baker said they were called to a home around 3:00 a.m. Baker said one person was able to escape the single-family home. WMBD's reporter saw heavy fire and smoke coming from the home when they arrived. At this time, the cause of the fire is still being investigated. Officials have deemed the home a total loss.  

Springfield city aldermen are giving high praise to the fire department amid budget discussions. It was a record setting year for the Springfield Fire Department. "We surpassed 21,000 runs this year- that's our highest volume ever," Chief Brandon Blough told the council Monday night. Firefighters responded to more calls than ever before in 2021. The increase was mostly to a rise in hazmat responses, false alarms and EMS calls. Firefighters are now being asked to fill the gap while there has been a shortage of paramedics. "This is something that's out of our control. These are privatized companies and we can do our best to work with them," Blough explained.  

No injuries were reported in an Alton house fire Monday morning. Alton firefighters responded to the 2700 block of Viewland Street in Alton where a resident reported fire and smoke in the attic of the wood-framed house. Firefighters quickly extinguished a small fire in the attic; salvage tarps were brought into the home to protect it as much as possible during the overhaul of the attic to make sure all of the fire was out. A female resident escaped the house with her dog. Firefighters also removed a guinea pig in a glass tank from the house; the pet was unharmed. Electrical service to the house was disconnected. The cause of the fire was under investigation Monday morning.  

PHOTOS: On Jan. 28 2016, firefighters from Carbondale Fire Department trained for ice water rescues. The department practices by setting up a mock emergency situation, where members of the department rotate in and out of the icy waters to play the victim. This allows the other firefighters to suit up and come out to the rescue.  

The city of Winston-Salem is working to evacuate 6,500 people as fears grow a smoldering fertilizer plant might explode near thousands of homes. Fire trucks patrolled the mandatory evacuation area throughout early Feb. 1, blowing their horns and blasting a warning for people to evacuate as quickly as possible. The mass exodus is due to a potentially explosive fire at the Weaver Fertilizer Company in north Winston-Salem. Just under 2,500 homes are within a mile of the plant, which stores tons of explosive materials as part of its products, the city said in a tweet. Residents are told to plan on being out of their homes for at least 48 hours and roadblocks have been established around the area. A "reverse 911 call" went out at 6 a.m. Tuesday, to reach those who hadn't yet left their homes.  

A reward initially offered by federal authorities seeking a "person of interest" in its investigation of a vacant rowhome fire in Baltimore that left three firefighters dead has soared to $100,000 with additional pledges. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced on Friday a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the identification of someone captured on surveillance cameras last Sunday evening around the scene on Monday's fire. ATF has been investigating the fire's cause and origin. Since the announcement, pledges from the state of Maryland, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski and two firefighter unions grew the reward tenfold. Scott said he matched the original "so that we can bring justice to the families of the fearless men and women ... we lost this week," The Baltimore Sun reported.  

VIDEO: Another fire station has been hit by thieves. First in Oso and now in Acme. In both cases the thieves stole the exact same fire equipment. Whatcom County District 16's Chief is warning other fire houses Monday night. "This is the people's stuff and they took our stuff and it's like when someone comes into your house unwelcomed, you feel violated," said Hank Maleng, Fire Chief for Whatcom County Fire District 16. That violation hit deep early Saturday night when volunteer fire crews responding to an emergency call discovered their fire station broken into, every fire truck ransacked and life saving equipment gone. "They had everything open, every door on every piece of apparatus open," Maleng said. "This is where chain saws used to sit."  

VIDEO: In the 2600 block of Avery in Midtown, a two-story building has risen as the Memphis Fire Department took the wraps off of its new $7 million headquarters. After five years in the making, Fire Chief Gina Sweat along with Mayor Jim Strickland and other top brass cut the ribbon on the new headquarters featuring a bell tower, arched doorways and art. "To have a space like this to better serve not just the citizens of Memphis, but better serve the members of our department is pretty overwhelming," Chief Sweat said. Even more important, the state-of-the-art building is created to make the department even more efficient to fight fires. "It's only fitting that we have a top-of-the-line headquarters for the best fire department in the country," Mayor Strickland said.  

VIDEO: They called it "the umbrella of death." Between December 1951 and February 1952, three planes crashed in Elizabeth a few weeks apart, killing a total of 119 people. The family of one of the victims is giving back to first responders to commemorate the 70th anniversary of those crashes. "It took the top of the third floor and landed on our house," said Augustine Caruso. Caruso stood on the same spot where 70 years ago, as a 13-year-old boy, he returned from an errand at the bakery to find an American Airlines plane had crashed into his family's home. Caruso's other Rosa was pulled from the burning rubble and died 12 days later. "It makes my stomach turn," he says. The Jan. 22 crash was the second of three separate crashes in Elizabeth over nine weeks – events that impacted hundreds of families.