The Chicago Fire Department is swapping out coloring books for virtual reality headsets as its preferred educational tool to instill fire safety basics in the minds of elementary and middle schoolers. Fire Commissioner Richard Ford unveiled the technology Tuesday during a demonstration at St. Sabina Academy with a group of 5th and 6th graders who strapped on the headsets to find themselves getting out of bed to the sound of a beeping smoke detector. Students, faced with several options to escape, used a handheld device pick what to do next. "It feels real," said 11-year-old Daila Wardell. "I ran downstairs," she said, safely avoiding a kitchen that was ablaze. "It gives you the experience of knowing how to get out of a fire but in a way that doesn't traumatize the kids," said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford, whose voice narrates the options in the virtual setting.  

Assisted living facilities could soon pay $400 or more if they call Peoria firefighters to help pick up a patient who has fallen. The Peoria City Council took a first listen to a proposed ordinance that would charge such facilities for every call. The idea, Fire Chief Tony Ardis told the council, was deterrence. "These facilities have medical staff on site who can handle these type of situations We are spread very thin and have changed other areas in attempt to keep our machines available for emergency incidents," the chief said. Those calls are fairly commonly heard on the fire radio frequencies by those who listen to a scanner. Ardis said the idea isn't to make money off the facilities — the fee, as it stands now, will not cover the cost of sending a truck and its crew to a scene.  

Decatur firefighters have a new fire station with two more to come. It's part of a multi-year plan to renovate and replace the city's seven active fire stations. Four have been renovated. Station 5 was dedicated Tuesday. Two others will be built. The next station slated for construction will replace Station 3, which opened in the 1920's and sits near the entrance of Fairview Park. The new Station 3 will be constructed in the parking lot of Fairview Plaza. Station 5 had a price tag of $2.6 million. The previous Station 5 at Bretwood Village will be put up for sale.  

Authorities battled a heavy house fire early Tuesday morning in Harristown. Firefighters with the Harristown Fire Protection District responded at 5:57 a.m. to the fire, located in a rural Harristown area (address unknown at this time), and found heavy flames in an attached covered carport. The fire had extended into the attic space. Crews contained the fire to the carport, kitchen and living room. Other areas of the home had smoke damage. Crews used a tender shuttle operation to battle the fire, as the area did not have hydrants. All residents had left the structure. One person went by personal vehicle to a hospital for smoke inhalation treatment and was later released.  

An electrical panel caused the basement of a Machesney Park home on Mildred Road to fill with smoke early Wednesday morning. A man was able to escape with the help of neighbors from the basement before fire crews arrived at 4:24 a.m. The electrical panel was "actively shorting" as firefighters entered the basement, but the fire was contained to the panel. The damage has caused the house to lose power, and the man will have to relocate. No foul play is expected. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.  

PHOTOS:Four Arkansas firefighters were hospitalized after an accident on Interstate 55 near Marion on Monday. The Marion Fire Department was clearing the scene of an unrelated accident at the 24-mile marker of Interstate 55 when the department was "involved in an accident with a semi truck." According to a Facebook post, four fire department personnel were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. As of 3 a.m. on Tuesday, three of the individuals had been released from the hospital and one remained for further testing.  

The Chicago Fire Department is swapping out coloring books for virtual reality headsets as its preferred educational tool to instill fire safety basics in the minds of elementary and middle schoolers. Fire Commissioner Richard Ford unveiled the technology Tuesday during a demonstration at St. Sabina Academy with a group of 5th and 6th graders who strapped on the headsets to find themselves getting out of bed to the sound of a beeping smoke detector. Students, faced with several options to escape, used a handheld device pick what to do next. "It feels real," said 11-year-old Daila Wardell. "I ran downstairs," she said, safely avoiding a kitchen that was ablaze. "It gives you the experience of knowing how to get out of a fire but in a way that doesn't traumatize the kids," said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford, whose voice narrates the options in the virtual setting. "It is the first of its kind," Ford said proudly during a news conference at the Auburn Gresham neighborhood school.  

PHOTOS: San Bernardino County Fire Department search teams staged a daring and complex rescue of a man trapped in a remote mine over the weekend, authorities say. Early Sunday morning, County Fire officials received a call from an unidentified explorer in a rural, unincorporated area of Twentynine Palms who had recently left a mine and reported that a partner was still inside and unable to get out. According to a statement form the San Bernardino County Fire Department, multiple Urban Search and Rescue teams were deployed to handle the operation. Rescuers had to drive off-road for 45 minutes to reach the mine and begin the operation. Three heavy rescue vehicles, three engines and a total of 35 staff were deployed to the scene near Gold Crown Road. To reach the trapped man, rescuers braved significant hazards within the mine, including unsafe terrain, and high temperatures and humidity, officials said in the statement that described the 15-hour effort.  

A bill is being discussed in a Kansas Senate committee Tuesday that would give fire investigators law enforcement powers in the state. This means, if an investigator encounters a crime in progress, they would have the legal right to pull-over, detain, and even arrest someone. The Kansas Fire Marshal, Doug Jorgensen, made clear during his testimony in favor of the bill that investigators would not be conducting traffic stops. Jorgensen referenced an incident where a drunk driver was driving on the wrong side of the road, a fire investigator pulled the driver over and detained them until police arrived. "Prosecutors in the state were a little leery of bringing cases forward in court because it wasn't really clear what our law enforcement powers were," said Jorgensen.  

A few Upstate ambulances are now carrying a cooler that can save lives. The No. 1 cause of preventable deaths that ambulances deal with is loss of blood, said Aaron Dix, Prisma Health's executive director of emergency medical services. If someone has a severe gunshot wound or hemorrhaging or has been in a severe accident, they could lose blood faster than an ambulance can get them to a hospital, Dix said. "The only way to keep you alive until the trauma surgeons get to you is to give you blood," he said. There will be some patients who are too far gone for any transfusion to save them but for about 200 people a year in the Upstate, the ability to do mobile blood transfusions could be the difference between life and death, he said. It has not been possible, until now, for ambulances in the state to carry something that keeps the blood at the right temperature, and warms it up fast enough to help. Ambulances are packed already, there's no room for even a small fridge.