Since the spring of 2021, interim chiefs have led the Elmhurst Fire Department most of the time. Later this month, the City Council is set to vote on interim Chief Richard "Dick" Dufort as the chief. In April, Dufort became interim chief when Chief Bill Anaszewicz suddenly retired after six months at the helm. According to a city news release Thursday, City Manager Jim Grabowski plans to recommend the council approve Dufort as the new chief. Since 1993, Dufort has been an Elmhurst firefighter. He is a resident and graduate of York High School. He has an associate's degree in fire science from the College of DuPage and is continuing his education in the fire science management program at Southern Illinois University. In 2017, Dufort was promoted to battalion chief.  

A home is uninhabitable following a blaze in McHenry Wednesday night, authorities said. The McHenry Township Fire Protection District was called to the blaze in the 5800 block of Fox Lake Road in unincorporated McHenry County at about 8:30 p.m., according to a news release from the fire protection district. Everyone inside the home was able to safely get out, and no one was injured in the blaze, according to a news release from the fire protection district. The fire was contained to the attic but smoke and water damage made the house uninhabitable. The cause of the fire is being investigated by the fire protection district.  

An arson investigation is underway after a raging inferno tore through a mechanic shop in Miami on Friday morning. At 5:20 a.m., the City of Miami Department of Fire-Rescue responded to reports of a fire at the scene. Firefighters arrived to find a vehicle fire raging on the exterior of the mechanic shop located near the intersection of Northwest Seventh Avenue and 79th Street. Video footage from the scene captured the flames shooting out from multiple vehicles parked within the premises. Their fire attack, which included extending hand lines, quickly brought the situation under control. Within minutes, the inferno was contained, and the fire was prevented from spreading to the interior of the structure. The business was closed at the time of the incident.  

VIDEO: As another anniversary of 9/11 sits on the horizon, officials at Seneca East Local Schools are paying tribute. "As I'm taking my last breaths of life, I realized that my life was over and I did something I hadn't done in a long time, I closed my eyes and said a prayer," Joe Torrillo, a retired lieutenant with the New York City Fire Department said. Those prayers were answered. Torrillo, along with four other firefighters, were rescued from the rubble of the south tower collapse. "About 25 minutes later they found a void and they found four of us. They pulled us out and they put me on a stretcher, and they ran, they put me on the deck of a boat on the Hudson River," Torrillo said. Torrillo, near death, thought he was safe, and then the north tower collapsed.  

VIDEO: Ten firefighters from Belgium are spending the week with the Fresno Fire Department. "We have a small organization in Belgium that tries to bring firefighters to the U.S. to visit the fire department and to do some hands-on training, to do ride along to see how the job is done over here and to make a comparison on how we do it," said Marc Opstal who is a Battalion Chief in Belgium. This is the fourth visit for firefighters from Belgium. The first group visited in 1999. Both Belgium and Fresno firefighters are learning from each other and exchanging ideas every day. They discuss what they have in common and what makes things a little different back at home. "One of the biggest differences is the way the fire stations are spread out throughout the city. We have less fire stations, longer response times, and we also don't use fire engines as first responders," said Chief Opstal.  

Whelen Engineering, a global leader in the emergency warning industry for more than 70 years, Richard Childress Racing (RCR), and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) have teamed up to honor fallen fire heroes at the NASCAR Xfinity Series race on September 9, 2023, at Kansas Speedway. RCR's No. 2 Whelen Chevrolet will debut a special paint scheme in honor of the 144 firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2022, and in previous years. "We're proud to support NFFF and help honor those who've lost their lives in the line of duty," said RCR's No. 2 driver, Sheldon Creed. All 144 names are memorialized on the deck lid of the car. These names were added to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in May of this year.  

Fond du Lac County is making use of new, clever technology to get first responders to the right location. The technology, called "what3words," converts numeric GPS coordinates into words. The words are then decoded by first responders using the what3words app in the field. Fond du Lac County Communications Director Amy Haase says this eliminates the risk of typing in a wrong number for GPS coordinates in degrees, minutes and seconds or decimal degrees. When a person calls 911, their GPS location is automatically received. But instead of numbers, dispatchers and first responders with what3words can share a location as "crown.friend.super," for example. The what3words app acts as a compass or sends the coordinates to a navigation app like Google Maps, Waze, or Bing Maps.