PHOTO: A vacant apartment building in Aurora was destroyed Tuesday in a blaze so intense that firefighters retreated several times from the raging flames inside. "It was a pretty labor-intensive fire," Aurora Fire Department Battalion Chief Jim Rhodes said, adding that firefighters were forced to exit the home a couple times when the fire became too dangerous. "We were ultimately able to get back in there and put out the fire," he said. Although initial reports indicated a person was trapped inside, the building was actually empty and no one was injured, Rhodes said. The fire spread quickly through the three-and-a-half story wooden frame apartment building in the 200 block of West Downer Place, Rhodes said. Neighbors called 911 about 7 a.m. after noticing the fire, he said. Firefighters saw smoke billowing from the home soon after they left the station and found flames shooting from the side of the home when they arrived.  

A fire that killed a mother and her young daughter on Sunday has been ruled an arson, and the deaths have been ruled homicides, officials said on Tuesday. Ieashia Ford, 34, and her daughter Porche Stinson were among six people pulled from a burning home in the 8600 block of South Hermitage Avenue early Sunday morning. Family said Porche was 10, but the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said she was 15. They were taken to Little Company of Mary Medical Center in extremely critical condition, and were later pronounced dead. Four other adult relatives, two men and two women, were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn and are expected to recover, according to the Fire Department. Tuesday afternoon, the Cook County Medical Examiner's office said an autopsy determined Ieashia and Porche died from "inhalation injuries due to inhalation of products of combustion due to house fire due to arson." Both deaths were ruled homicides.  

After the Springfield City Council voted to cut the fire department's budget by $1.4 million, Ward 7 Alderman Joe McMenamin said it's too early to tell where cuts within the department will happen. We aired a story this week about Springfield Fire Chief Brandon Blough telling his staff that there could be layoffs because of the cut. McMenamin said fire leadership needs to be careful with the language they use on this topic. When the cut was first passed during the city's FY2022 budget hearing, it did not specify where the cuts would be made within the fire department. Blough said after doing the math, it's going to be tough do to without layoffs. "You're not the policy-making body and I think it's unfair, inappropriate to scare our firefighters that way," McMenamin said "In my opinion, it jeopardizes your position as fire chief." Blough said he's going to look at the numbers again and look for a different solution.  

Fire destroyed a single-family home Tuesday afternoon on the south side of Tolono. Just after 3 p.m., a neighbor reported smoke and flames at a home in the 1200 block of Meadow Lane, just west of U.S. 45 and north of County Road 600 N. "The back side of the house was heavily involved in flames," Tolono Assistant Fire Chief Chris Humer said of what firefighters saw when they pulled up to the ranch home. The occupants were not home, he said. Three dogs perished. Firefighters started their attack on the inside of the house but had to get out and fight the fire defensively, from both the ground and air. Four hours later, they were still dousing hot spots and wrapping up operations. Humer said his department called on investigators from the Mutual Aid Alarm Box System to determine both the cause and the origin, neither of which were immediately obvious.  

The Lockport Township Fire Protection District put out a fire at a house in the 2200 block of Manico Drive in Crest Hill late Tuesday night. Fire department officials say the cause of the blaze appears to be accidental. Shortly before 11:30 p.m., the Lockport Township Fire Protection District engines and trucks arrived at the house fire on Manico Drive. The house where the fire happened is in the neighborhood between Gaylord and Plainfield Roads. "Fire companies arrived to find heavy smoke and fire conditions coming from the garage of a split level home," fire officials announced in Wednesday's news release. The fire started in the garage and it took firefighters about 15 minutes to get the fire under control. The residents of the house were displaced because of the fire and smoke damage and the utilities had to be disconnected.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: A Jellico, Tennessee motel was destroyed after a large fire early Wednesday morning. Fire crews were called to Parkway Inn just after 10 p.m. last night. Officials said the motel had been closed for remodeling and had just reopened a few days ago. A handful of people were staying there but everyone was able to get out before firefighters arrived. No injuries have been reported. "We got called out on this to assist Jellico and when we got here there was probably two rooms engulfed," Jellico Fire & Rescue's Mitchell Long said, "And it just contained inside and there's not a whole you can do with it." "It stayed in the attic and it just basically just destroyed the whole building from one end to the other," Mitchell said. Firefighters worked into the early morning hours to keep the fire from spreading to nearby homes. The cause of the fire is under investigation.  

VIDEO: Being a firefighter means running into the burning building when everyone else is running out. It's dangerous and requires courage, but for the brave men and women who train for it, it's just another day on the job. But even that can change quickly. By all accounts, January 30, 2014, started as a typical day. "Everything about that day, everything that lead up to that day, was normal," said Sterling Sudderth, a battalion chief with the Greensboro Fire Department. "I had no idea that it was a life-changer." The initial call came in just after lunch as a car fire at 811 S. Elm St. on the outskirts of downtown Greensboro. Responding units quickly learned that the car on fire was actually inside of an auto repair business. "As soon as we got off the truck, I saw the fire — heavy fire — coming out of the auto repair shop," said Sudderth, who was a captain at the time. "At that point, between the amount of fire and the amount of smoke, I think everybody knew that this had gotten beyond that single car fire."  

In just over a week, two incidents of drunken driving while on duty have occurred within the Detroit Fire Department, causing city leaders to reflect on the department's policies and resources for firefighters amid higher levels of pressure and stress caused by the pandemic. Mayor Mike Duggan announced a partnership with national firefighter leaders to help guide Detroit in finding a solution, including launching an independent environmental audit and a review of the department's policies and employee assistance program. "The men and women of the Detroit Fire Department are heroes. We depend on them every day to save our lives, and they've done a terrific job, but the people of the city of Detroit are entitled to know that the men and women they are counting on to come save them are free of the influence of alcohol or any other restricted substances," Duggan said during a news conference Tuesday.  

Under the fluorescent lights of a vacant Sears department store near the state Capitol, officers from across the east Twin Cities metro area have been preparing for six weeks for potentially dangerous situations that could occur at a mass demonstration. St. Paul police Cmdr. Tim Flynn has led 550 St. Paul officers and 250 others from agencies in Dakota, Washington and Ramsey counties through the training. "When the civil unrest was happening, we needed people from all those counties and agencies within those counties to come help us with what was going on in the city," Flynn said. The St. Paul Police Department added the training to deal with a specific problem encountered last year. Firefighters had trouble responding to buildings on fire because of the volatile situation around them. During the exercises, members of law enforcement, carrying wooden batons, practice moving back crowds, getting to injured or dangerous people within the crowd, and creating a small perimeter within which fire crews can safely work.  

Health officials are urging Americans to not let their guards down against COVID-19 as researchers discover new variants that may already be more transmissible and could also be somewhat resistant to the vaccine. "At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing Monday. "These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress." While experts have been following variants first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa, they're also seeing red flags in other variants discovered closer to home in Brazil, New York and California. In Monday's briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci said a recent study found some COVID-19 treatments may not be as effective against the new variant discovered in New York.