VIDEO/PHOTOS: A massive fire in Pawnee took out a whole building. Three businesses were on fire. Firefighters on the scene told NewsChannel 20 and FOX Illinois that the fire started around 12:30-1 p.m. Tuesday They were able to put it out around 7 p.m. It's not just another building to Pawnee residents, it was a part of their community. "It's sad, it's heartbreaking," Pawnee resident Cathy Moore said. It was a centuries-old building, built around the 1880s and 1890s, that went up in flames. "It's just there's a lot of different stores that have been in here over the years and it's sad to see it go," Pawnee resident Colleen Scott said. Dozens of people from the community gathered in the town's square, watching their history burn down. Natives of Pawnee had some of their most memorable moments in there. "We had our wedding reception right there at the KC Hall," Pawnee resident Tom Scott said. Several nearby fire districts all came out to try and salvage it.  

Peoria City taxpayers are not in favor of increased property taxes to fund police and fire pensions, according to Tuesday night's election turnout. In regard to increasing police pension, 79.3% of voters said no. In regard to fire pension, 74% of voters said no. Both measures failed. Back in December, Peoria City Council voted 7-4 to officially ask the public if the City of Peoria should increase its existing fire pension tax levy on an annual basis to fully fund fire and police pensions. Denise Moore said in a December council meeting that if the public voted no, then the city can move on and look at other avenues.  

A home in East St. Louis was on fire Wednesday at about 4:00 a.m. The owner of the home in the 800 block of North 36th Street was not home at the time. One of the homes next door also caught on fire. One adult and three children were in that home at the time of the fire. They all made it out safely. The fire is under investigation. Our Nissan Rogue Runner reporter Jason Maxwell was at the scene.  

The majority of voters in the Jacksonville area are not in favor of forming a rural fire protection district. During the consolidated election on Tuesday, April 6, residents voted against a tax extension proposal. If passed, the proposal would have created a new fire protection district in rural areas surrounding Jacksonville. Officials say this would help protect these rural areas. However, area fire departments that are against the proposal said it would change the boundary lines of their response areas, and it would hurt them financially because the new district would overlap with theirs, forcing budgets to get cut.  

VIDEO: An eight-alarm fire tore through an apartment building in Queens Tuesday afternoon, leaving 21 injured, including 16 firefighters, and displacing more than 200 residents. The fire broke out as four-alarm blaze on the top floor of the six-story building on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights around 1 p.m. and quickly spread into the cockloft. Approximately 400 FDNY members responded and continue to fight the ferocious fire. Officials say the FDNY will be at the scene through the night and the next few days. "When the units arrived, the door of apartment was open, there was an advanced fire," FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said. "The first units in were trying to make their advance, three of the members were burned. Thankfully the burns were not serious, although they have been taken to the hospital."  

Six firefighters lost their lives responding to a fire in a century-old, abandoned warehouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, in December 1999. Worried that civilians were trapped inside, rescue teams initiated a rapid intervention; but, unfamiliar with the layout of the building, the smoke-filled warehouse became a labyrinth for those that entered. Unfortunately, the brave individuals that answered this call were unable to locate any exits before they ran out of air. We still remember them more than two decades later, and this incident—along with hundreds in the years since—served as the catalyst for groundbreaking new Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) tracking and location technology. Precision Outdoor and Indoor Navigation and Tracking for Emergency Responders (POINTER) will soon allow agencies to pinpoint their firefighters to within centimeters, helping to navigate them quickly and safely out of potentially disorienting emergency scenarios.  

VIDEO: There are big changes coming to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, which include recruiting more women and minorities at Pittsburgh Westinghouse High School. When Mark Black puts on firefighting gear and trains to one day become a firefighter after completing the Career and Technical Education program at Pittsburgh Westinghouse High School, he hopes more female firefighters will be by his side. Black said, "I feel great about them recruiting more women." The city of Pittsburgh is reaching out to high school students, as part of a plan to bring more minorities and women into the Pittsburgh bureau of fire. Matthew Patrick teaches the class to help train future firefighters. He said there will be a female focus firefighting youth camp and young girls make up almost half of his class. Patrick said, "It just excites me beyond belief, seeing them have this opportunity now. I wish I had it when I was in high school."  

North Carolina firefighters remain cautiously optimistic as two Senate Republicans introduced bill to provide financial assistance for cancer treatment. For the past several years, firefighters across the state have been fighting to get presumptive cancer coverage expanded for themselves and their colleagues. While other states in the U.S. have some sort of cancer coverage, North Carolina does not. In fact, it is the only state in the country to not have some sort of presumptive cancer coverage for these first responders. "First in flight, last in helping firefighters," is how Greensboro Firefighters Union President Dave Coker describes the fight. Senate Bill 472 was introduced on April 1, by Senator Todd Johnson and Senate Majority Whip Jim Perry. The bill, as written, would see that a trust worth $25,000 would be set aside for North Carolina firefighters.  

Just five states have accounted for about 43% of new coronavirus cases over the last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey had for more than 196,400 of the country's 453,360 cases reported in the last week, according to data available Wednesday morning. Those states are home to just 22% of the US population, according to estimates from the US Census Bureau. Case rates have risen especially in Michigan lately, averaging more than 6,600 cases a day over a week now against 1,350 daily cases five weeks ago. And elected officials and health experts have said highly contagious variants such as B.1.1.7 have helped spur increases there and in other parts of the country. Though vaccination rates have increased nationally, not enough people have been inoculated to outpace the spread. And with more-transmissible variants spreading, surges like Michigan's may soon be seen more widely, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm said.