Illinois House members gave bipartisan support Wednesday to consolidating downstate police and fire pension systems, a top priority of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. The House voted 96-14 to approve the consolidation that is touted as a way to improve investment returns of the systems and ease pressure on local property taxes. The bill must still be approved in the Senate by Thursday, the last scheduled day of this year's veto session. The bill won overwhelming support in the House after negotiators agreed to remove a last-minute addition that threatened to derail the proposal on Tuesday. The addition cause the Illinois Municipal League — which has pressed for the consolidation for years — to suddenly drop its support. After the compromise was reached, the IML said it again supported the idea.  

A house fire in Decatur injured a firefighter and claimed the lives of two pets, responders said. A Wednesday night press release said crews came to 1625 W. Garfield Ave. at 5:10 p.m., when they found a 1 1/2 story wood-frame residence fully involved. They said heavy fire could be seen blowing out of openings on all sides of the structure. Firefighters said the fire under control in about 40 minutes, but extensive overhaul operations were conducted because the house was "completely full of various items". They remained on the scene for over three hours. A firefighter fell through a hole in the floor and suffered an ankle injury. He was released after treatment at HSHS St. Mary's Hospital. A cat and dog died in the fire.  

Authorities suspect a basement heater may have caused a fire early Thursday that damaged a small church in Washington Park on the South Side. Firefighters responded to a blaze about 3:35 a.m. at Cedar Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 5847 S. State St., Chicago fire officials said. The fire was put out at 4:15 a.m., but crews stayed for hours later to extinguish hotspots, fire officials said. The roof of the church caved in, and there was extensive damage to the building, according to fire department spokesman Larry Merritt. No one was inside the church at the time and no one was injured. The roof of the church caved in, and there was extensive damage to the building, according to fire department spokesman Larry Merritt. No one was inside the church at the time and no one was injured. The fire may have been caused by a heater in the church's basement, a Chicago police spokesperson said.  

Volunteer fire departments across the Stateline face unique challenges and top on the list is response time. 23 News I-Team takes a look at how volunteer fire departments handle the rush to rescue. "We are running so many runs now that volunteers just can't complete that task, "said Loves Park Fire Chief Jerry Wiltfang. "If we have two or three calls in a row you know, who's going to go on the second and third calls those are our big concerns," said Cherry Valley Fire Chief Joe Corl. "Getting that first unit especially on a fire or especially on a cardiac arrest to the scene is a very critical thing," said North Park Fire Chief Joel Hallstrom. Community fire departments across the country are experiencing a shortage of volunteers. "Being a volunteer firefighter or a paid-on-call firefighter, it's a big commitment.  

VIDEO: Maintenance workers were rescued by a Chicago Fire Department tower ladder in the West Loop on Wednesday. They were stuck on a scaffold about eight stories above street level, and firefighters were able to reach the workers and move them to safety. Maintenance workers were rescued by a Chicago Fire Department tower ladder in the West Loop on Wednesday. They were stuck on a scaffold about eight stories above street level, and firefighters were able to reach the workers and move them to safety.  

Jeffery and Daynese Stowe of Roxborough will be the first African-American father and daughter to actively serve as firefighters at the same time in the history of the Philadelphia Fire Department. Daynese was scheduled to graduate from the Philadelphia Fire Academy on Wednesday. The same day, Jeffery, who is the Deputy Chief Aide for the Philadelphia Fire Department, will celebrate his 30th anniversary of being a firefighter. He plans on spending his day watching his daughter be inducted into the Philadelphia Fire Academy. This year's class will be the academy's biggest with 121 students. "I'm so ecstatic," said Daynese's mother, LeAnne Hall-Stowe. "Daynese was in Class 192 three years ago and two weeks ago before graduation she was told she had to take the EMS test and she failed her first time. She didn't give up. I'm over joyed for her. God has a plan and what's for you is for you."  

Watertown officials say it's the end to the long drawn out battle between the city and its fire union over minimum staffing. City Manager Rick Finn says the rule that forced the fire department to sometimes work with fewer than 15 firefighters was rescinded last week. Watertown has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in an unsuccessful attempt to get rid of a minimum staffing agreement between the city and its firefighters union. That agreement requires 15 firefighters to be on duty at all times. "I felt it was a waste. We could have taken that time and money and spent that repairing the relationship with the fire department and getting back to the table, negotiating a contract that's fair for both sides and we didn't do that," said City Council Member Cody Horbacz. "In retrospect, it is a lot of money but our aim was to save taxpayers money," said Mayor Joe Butler Jr.  

City Council is giving Winchester's Human Resources Department an extra month to address concerns raised by career firefighters and paramedics over proposed changes to the city's vacation and sick leave policies. "This is one of those issues ... that could be a game changer for us," Winchester Fire and Rescue Chief William Garrett told council at its meeting Tuesday night. Winchester Human Resources Director Paula Nofsinger has proposed the following modifications to the current Comprehensive Employee Management System, which was implemented in 1979: Rebrand the city's vacation and sick leave programs as paid time off (PTO). Convert the city's sick leave bank, which gives employees the option of setting aside a certain number of vacation or sick days per year in case of a serious medical condition, to medical leave.  

Tears welled in the eyes of Worcester Fire Chief Michael Lavoie Tuesday as he spoke about the approaching 20th anniversary of the blaze that claimed the lives of six firefighters. "It's still agonizing. It's still emotional. We have to be here. We can't forget," Lavoie said. "We have to have these ceremonies. Every single one of these deaths take a little piece out of us. It just brings us back here. We can never forget." Behind Lavoie, a pair of red baseball jerseys that say Worcester across the front hung on the Engine 12 fire truck inside the Franklin Street Fire Station. No player for the organization will ever wear No. 6 as the team announced the number would be retired to honor those firefighters who died 20 years ago in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. fire, the Worcester Red Sox announced Tuesday afternoon.  

"I said, ‘I'm not going to die today.' I said, ‘Today is not my day,'" a young girl tells the camera just a few minutes into the Netflix documentary "Fire in Paradise." She can't be over 10 years old, yet the way she articulates her experience escaping a raging wildfire makes her seem older. What she says is raw and heartbreaking, and the grit she shows continues for the rest of the documentary's approximately 40–minute run. "Fire in Paradise" is a short documentary that tells the story of one fateful day in Paradise, California. On Nov. 8, 2018, a devastating wildfire named "Camp Fire" almost completely destroyed the Northern California town of Paradise. The documentary takes viewers through the events of the day in chronological order, mostly focusing on the harrowing ordeal of evacuation. Evacuation was not an option in Paradise, California, resulting in gridlock traffic while the fire raged on both sides of the residents' escape route.