The Granville-Hennepin Fire Protection District announced the sudden death of a local fire engineer. According to the fire department, Granville Fire Engineer Arthur Ramey died while touring the Wisconsin countryside on his motorcycle on June 9. Ramey was a 36-year member of the fire district and contributed countless hours to training and emergency calls, as well as performing maintenance on equipment. He was a U.S. Army veteran, a retired police officer and recently retired from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Services for Ramey will be Saturday, June 22 at the Helmer-Shields Funeral Home 410 E Hopkins Ave., Granville Illinois. Visitation starts at 9 a.m. until the time of services at 1 p.m. Any fire department, emergency medical, and law enforcement personnel wishing to participate in the walk-through should arrive at the funeral home no later than 12:45 p.m.  

VIDEO: Working outdoors during a heat wave is difficult for anyone, but firefighters face additional challenges. They carry heavy gear, wear extra layers of clothing and deal with flames and smoke. Recently, Chicago firefighters have been put to test with major fires breaking out during the record setting heat. The Chicago Fire Department was called to two extra alarm fires on the city's West Side this week. Because gear can weigh between 70 and 100 pounds, fatigue can set in much sooner than in moderate conditions. In hot weather firefighters face specific risks including: heat cramps — causing involuntary muscle contractions; heat exhaustion — leading to weakness, fatigue, and nausea; heat stroke — elevating body temperatures to dangerous levels.  

An industrial fire southwest of Mansfield near Lillian sent balls of fire and plumes of smoke into the air Thursday. The fire was reported after noon along the 12500 block of Farm-to-Market Road 917, about 2.5 miles west of Business U.S. Highway 287. Several large balls of fire were seen bursting through the roof of the building in the industrial park. It's unclear what started the fire or what materials were in the building. No injuries have been reported.  

VIDEO: When Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department Chief Theresa Kinstle joined her first fire station at 27 years old, she was the only woman on the fire truck; she never thought she would end up as a chief down the road. "I didn't originally think that I wanted to be a firefighter until I started EMT school," Kinstle told First Coast News. "And I had another instructor that said, 'Hey, what about fire school?' Once you came in, it was a big family. And the guys treated me just like anybody else." Kinstle's 20-plus year career in firefighting has led her to now become the division chief of training, thus making her the highest ranked woman with JFRD. "With fire rescue, everything's different," Kinstle mentioned. "Every call you go on is different. You have to use your mind, you have to figure out what's going on with the patient and how you can help them, and that sparked an interest for me. And I've loved it ever since."  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Longtime firefighter Dan Steffensen picks up the brightly colored orange book, holds it in his hands, flips through the pages and lands on a spot to read aloud. "I had to remind him that he was strong," Steffensen said. Those were words said to him at a critical time in his recovery in the summer of 2021 when he was badly burned while fighting the Harris Hill fire north of Joliet. That day, the winds changed, and he was met with a wall of fire. He was rushed to Salt Lake City to recover from his extensive burns, learning to eat and walk again, healing mentally as well as physically. Fast forward three years later, and his story now lives in the pages of a book titled "Burned Over! The Survival of Montana Firefighter Dan Steffensen". It took 21 months for Steffensen and Montana author A.J. Otjen to tell it.  

VIDEO: The destruction from a massive train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, spread far beyond the initial wreckage site, spewing "hazardous" pollution across 16 states, according to a newly released study. On Feb. 3, 2023, a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine -- a village on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania -- sending toxic chemicals into the air, soil, creeks and lakes in the region, according to the study published in Environmental Research Letters on Wednesday. In total, the pollution from the wreckage and subsequent controlled burn of several of the train's cars spread over 16 states in the Midwest, Northeast and Southern U.S., reaching 540,000 square miles or 14% of the U.S. land area, according to the study.