Fire departments in central Illinois have created contingency plans in case firefighters are infected with coronavirus. This week twelve Springfield firefighters contracted COVID-19, including Chief Allen Reyne. The outbreak within the department caused a total of 37 firefighters to isolate or quarantine. The outbreak was traced back to a house party. Reyne said, "Once you get two or three positives, now you have to look back through contact tracing, who worked with who, what calls they ran together. We've done that over the last few days. At one point, we were at 48. Pretty quickly, we got that number down to 37." Despite the big setback the department is still running on a full staff. But with fewer firefighters available, they are racking up the overtime. The Illinois Office of the State Fire Marshal shares daily stats on how COVID-19 has affected departments in Illinois.  

There are currently 37 Springfield firefighters quarantined due to COVID-19 exposure, and 12 firefighters have tested positive. Among those who tested positive is Springfield Fire Chief Allen Reyne. The majority of firefighters came in to contact with an individual who was asymptomatic at an outside gathering, not on work time, SFD said. The individual was not a Springfield firefighter. Since receiving test results, any employee who was in direct contact with patient zero or any firefighter who has tested positive, have been sent to have a COVID-19 test and asked to follow the guidance provided by the testing facility including quarantining.  

After nearly a quarter century of stability atop the West Suburban Fire Department, a changing of the guard, but not a change in the family leading the way. West Suburban Fire Chief Keith Mesch has announced his retirement after serving the stateline for 24 years, but Mesch said he knows the department has found a capable replacement. That's because the new chief will be Mesch's nephew, Christopher Gober. "It's a great feeling. It's one of the best feelings I've ever had," said Mesch. "Other than having my grandkids here, and my wife, it's the greatest feeling." Family ties for the department actually aren't unusual, as 13 of the 22 firefighters are related within West Suburban Fire.  

Chicago police believe someone intentionally started a fire Tuesday at an auto shop in the East Side neighborhood. Someone used "an incendiary device" to damage six-to-eight vehicles about 3:05 a.m. in the parking lot of a shop in the 9900-block of South Avenue L, according to Chicago police. No one was injured and no one is in custody, police said. Arson detectives are investigating the incident.  

A member of the Easton Township Fire Department was killed in a crash Sunday night while he was on his way to a fire, according to an official with the Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office. Johnny Ivison Jr., 23, rural Leavenworth County, was pronounced dead at the scene. The crash was reported at 10:07 p.m. Sunday south of Easton on 231st Street, according to Leavenworth County Undersheriff Jim Sherley Ivison apparently had been on his way to a structure fire in Easton at the time of the crash. "While on scene of the fire Easton (Township) was notified that tragically one of our members was killed in the line of duty in a traffic accident while responding to the fire," the Easton Township Fire Department stated in a message posted on Facebook. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the firefighter and to the other members of the department as we are one family." The Easton Township Fire Department is an all-volunteer department, according to its Facebook page.  

Alameda Fire Department's (AFD) Seagrave Model 760 pumper is approaching an important milestone. Dec. 20 marks the 100th anniversary of AFD placing the apparatus in service as Engine No. 2. Seagrave's creation was one of a pair of triple-combination pumpers that the department purchased in the wake of the Jan. 7, 1920, fire that devastated Park Street in the neighborhood of Webb and Lincoln avenues. The fire came within a whisker of burning Fire Station No. 1 that stood on Webb at that time. Some seven weeks after the blaze, on March 19, 1920, AFD purchased the pumpers. Each boasted a three-fold system that consisted of a water tank, a pump to deliver the water and hoses to disperse the water onto a fire. Seagrave built the pumpers at its Columbus, Ohio plant. The city paid the then-39-year-old company $23,750 for the apparatuses, some $312,000 in today's money. On Dec. 20, 1920, Seagrave delivered both pumpers to the city.  

Fighting fires comes with many risks. But new research shows there's a new one to consider: increased exposure to fires appears to raise the likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation, or AFib, an irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clots, stroke, heart failure and other problems. Researchers found the more fires a firefighter fought, the higher the likelihood he or she would report having been diagnosed with AFib. The work will be presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions, which begins Friday and is being held virtually. The research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Lead researcher Dr. Catherine Vanchiere, an internal medicine resident at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, said she wasn't surprised to find a link because there was so much anecdotal evidence of "otherwise young, healthy patients who were firefighters coming in to see cardiologists."  

VIDEO: No injuries were reported Monday after fire destroyed the Rainbow Motel in the town of Pamelia. Volunteers from several fire departments were called to the motel on Route 12 at around 1 p.m. The black cloud could be seen a mile away. The heat was so strong, it could be felt across the street, hundreds of feet away. It took more than an hour to bring the blaze under control. "We're trying to get accountability for all of the people that were staying here. There's 28 rooms here and there was 13 rooms that were occupied so we're trying to get everything confirmed at this point," said Director of Fire and Emergency Management Joe Plummer. Fire officials later said everyone renting a room was accounted for. Officials said some firefighters were treated on the scene for "heat issues." Firefighters were also faced with the added challenge of bringing their own water to the scene.  

Throughout the U.S., hospitals and health care workers are tracking the skyrocketing number of new coronavirus cases in their communities and bracing for a flood of patients to come in the wake of those infections. Already, seriously ill COVID-19 patients are starting to fill up hospital beds at unsustainable rates. U.S. hospitalizations overall have nearly doubled since late September. As of Monday more than 56,000 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized around the country, approaching the highs of the midsummer and spring surges. "We have legitimate reason to be very, very concerned about our health system at a national level," says Lauren Sauer, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins University who studies hospital surge capacity. The spring and summer waves of COVID-19 hospitalizations were concentrated largely in a handful of cities in the Northeast and parts of the South.