Michael Davenport, who has served as chief of the South Beloit Fire Department for the last three years, has announced he will retire at the end of August. Davenport, who has been with the South Beloit Fire Department for 33 years, announced his plans for retirement during Monday's South Beloit City Council meeting. Davenport first joined the South Beloit Fire Department in 1987 as a volunteer firefighter at the age of 18. Two years later, he became a full-time firefighter with the department. He served as assistant fire chief for the South Beloit department for 18 years. He became interim fire chief in June of 2017 when Fire Chief Ken Morse retired after 44 years with the department. Morse now serves on the city council. Davenport was sworn in as the new chief of the South Beloit Fire Department on Aug. 21, 2017.  

The Rockford Fire Department wad dispatched to 1540 N. Mulford Road in Rockford for a residential structure fire. Department personnel arrived within six minutes to find heavy smoke and fire from the roof of a ranch style home. Crews brought the fire under control in approximately an hour. There were no injuries to the residents of the home or Rockford Fire personnel. The home suffers from an estimated loss of $200,000. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined.  

An electrical fire that started in the attached garage of a home in Oakwood Hills displaced a family early Sunday morning, fire officials said. The Cary Fire Protection District responded around 2:32 a.m. Sunday to the 200 block of Oak Park Drive in Oakwood Hills for a report of a structure fire. Firefighters arrived in five minutes and found an outside exterior garage wall on fire where the house's smart electric meter was located. Cary Fire Protection Lt. Michael Douglass said that the attached single car garage door was open which allowed firefighters to see fire at the inside electrical panel, which was on the same wall as the smart meter. The homeowner, his wife and their teenage daughter were home at the time of the fire. They were initially alerted when smoke began entering an open upstairs bedroom window.  

A man was pulled from the water Monday evening from a beach in Evanston. The Evanston Fire Department said the Clark Street Beach near the Northwestern University campus was closed, and lifeguards were trying to get people out of the water with the help of police, when they noticed somebody was not swimming properly around 8:30 p.m. "I saw some shorts under the water, I reported in, and I pulled him out for the EMS to work on him," said witness Josh Martin. The lifeguard and fire department got him out. The fire department said its first responders started CPR and took the man to local hospital. The man's condition and further details were not immediately available.  

VIDEO: Twenty-six years ago, 14 firefighters were killed on Storm King Mountain, near Glenwood Springs. To honor the memory of those heroes, about a dozen members of the Craig hotshots crew hiked up the Storm King Memorial Trail on Monday. The Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center shared photos of the hotshots at the memorial. A smoke jumper J-55 aircraft also performed a flyby of Storm King Mountain to pay tribute to the fallen firefighters. On July 6, 1994, the lightning-caused South Canyon Fire raced up a steep hillside. Twelve firefighters were trapped on a fire line. Two others were found dead on top of a ridge. Nine of the dead were members of the Prineville Hotshots firefighting team from Oregon. The South Canyon Fire was the deadliest wildfire in Colorado's recorded history.  

PHOTOS: Extreme midday heat made work very difficult for Indianapolis firefighters as they battled a house fire on the city's southeast side. One firefighter was seriously injured. According to Indianapolis Fire Department Public Information Officer Rita Reith, thick black smoke from the fire at the house on Timberfield Lane could be seen one mile away. The location is off Shelbyville Road near Stop 11 Road. 20-units from Indianapolis, Beech Grove and Greenwood responded to the fire, which took more than 30-minutes to bring under control. One firefighter was seriously injured with heat stroke, three others suffered heat exhaustion. Three of the four went to IU Methodist Hospital, while one was treated at the scene. According to Reith, a family of six lived at the house. A mother and son were home when the fire broke out.  

VIDEO: Fire crews responded to an intense vehicle fire located in a building in Tappahannock. At 6:38 p.m., the Tappahannock-Essex Volunteer Fire Department responded to the report of a vehicle fire inside the old Tappahannock Ford building located on Church Lane near Hoskins Creek. During the attack, crews say several large explosions occurred, sending debris hundreds of feet away and was heard over five miles away. According to Chief Paul Richardson, nearly 100,000 gallons of water were used to extinguish the fire. Over 30 firefighters were on the scene. No injuries were reported.  

Each year, NFPA collects data on all the firefighter fatalities in the US that resulted from injuries or illnesses that occurred while the victims were on-duty. The term on duty refers to: Being at the scene of an alarm, whether it is a fire or non-fire incident (including EMS calls). Responding to or returning from an alarm. Participating in other fire department duties, such as training, maintenance, public education, inspection, investigation, court testimony, or fundraising. Being on call or standby for assignment at a location other than at the firefighter's home or place of business. On-duty fatalities include any injury sustained in the line of duty that proves fatal, any illness that was incurred as a result of actions while on duty that proves fatal, and fatal mishaps involving nonemergency occupational hazards that occur while on duty.