Two Chicago firefighters were rescued after being lured into a home and attacked by a man armed with a knife Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said. Chicago police said the incident occurred in the 7700-block of South Marshfield Avenue at about 12:18 p.m. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said firefighters were called to a garage fire. After it was put out, a resident approached a battalion chief and said he wanted the department to check out a smell of gas inside of his home. The chief asked a lieutenant to accompany him along with the resident, Langford said. The resident asked the chief to go first and the chief refused, telling the resident to go first and the firefighters would follow. The resident used a power screw driver to remove a barricade to allow the chief and the lieutenant into the basement, Langford said.  

The Peoria Fire Department was recently selected for Vision 20/20's onsite community risk reduction project. They were the only department selected out of over 100 applicants. The department will receive training and technical assistance to develop a risk assessment and reduction plan for the community they serve. Nate Rice, Division Chief of Fire Prevention, explained how the project will help the department. "They'll do a very thorough analysis of our data, and different statistics about our fire department in incidents that we have, and then they'll look and try and interpret that data and give us some ideas of things that we can do to minimize the risks that we have," Rice said. Rice also said the department is honored to be selected for this project. He said the program was intrigued by the city of Peoria and the general community.  

Two Chicago firefighters were rescued after being lured into a home and attacked by a man armed with a knife Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said. Chicago police said the incident occurred in the 7700-block of South Marshfield Avenue at about 12:18 p.m. Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said firefighters were called to a garage fire. After it was put out, a resident approached a battalion chief and said he wanted the department to check out a smell of gas inside of his home. The chief asked a lieutenant to accompany him along with the resident, Langford said. The resident asked the chief to go first and the chief refused, telling the resident to go first and the firefighters would follow. The resident used a power screw driver to remove a barricade to allow the chief and the lieutenant into the basement, Langford said.  

VIDEO/PHOTOS: Idalia isn't finished with the Southeastern coastal states yet. Idalia made landfall Wednesday morning as a powerful Category 3 hurricane over Keaton Beach, located along Florida's Gulf Coast near Tallahassee. After rapidly intensifying on its path through the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and briefly registering as a Category 4 storm, the hurricane hit Florida's Big Bend area with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour. Idalia declined in strength as it moved across northern Florida into Georgia and was downgraded to a tropical storm late Wednesday afternoon. It moved into South Carolina Wednesday night, then continued on to North Carolina on a path forecasters said would keep it off North Carolina Thursday before it heads out to sea.  

VIDEO: Some University of Maryland students were in the spotlight Wednesday after winning more than $150,000 in a national drone competition. What the team from the university's Autonomous Micro Air Vehicle Team has achieved is especially important to first responders, who turned out in big numbers Wednesday to take a look at the specialized drone students at the University's Clark School of Engineering created. The drone is designed to fly indoors and see through darkness, smoke and unbreathable air to search for victims and assess conditions. Former student Qingwen Wei, of Towson, Maryland, said the students have targeted a highly specialized market. "I don't think there are a lot of companies that are going directly for first responders and what they want," Wei said.  

VIDEO: From the first bucket brigades of New Amsterdam in the 1620s to state-of-the-art firefighting now, the Fire Museum of New York City tells the story of fire protection, fire prevention, and firefighting in New York, over the years. The telling of a vital chapter of that story just got more in-depth with the museum's acquisition of new materials related to 9/11. Jennifer Brown, the executive director of the Fire Museum, explained how the newly acquired items enhance the museum's narrative of the terrorist attacks. "It really shows what the incredible response was," Brown said in an interview, "and also, of course, the loss of life." The Fire Museum acquired photographs, displays, a comprehensive list of victims of the World Trade Center attacks in both 2001 and 1993, and other items that are now on display.