Hoopeston News

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Lisa Bonnett asked the Illinois attorney general's office on Wednesday to seek an immediate court order halting operations at J&R Used Tire Service, 103 E. Maple St., Hoopeston, following the large fire that started there Wednesday morning.

Firefighters were called to the fire at J&R Used Tire Service Inc. at 103 Maple St. in Hoopeston at 5:20 a.m. When they arrived, the south end of the 400,000-square-foot brick facility was engulfed in flames.

Scores of firefighters from Vermilion and Iroquois counties continue to battle a blaze which broke out in a large tire recycling facility early Wednesday morning.

Multiple fire departments are on the scene of a massive fire at a tire recycling facility on Hoopeston's southeast side, with thick black smoke enveloping this city in northeast Vermilion County.

Ruth V. Hickman, 92, of Hoopeston, Ill., died Sunday, June 2, 2013, at Heritage Health Rehabilitation and Senior Living in Hoopeston.

Battery Manford C. White, 44, of Kankakee, was arrested by Kankakee police at 12:50 p.m. Monday for domestic battery.

A Rossville-area woman was airlifted to a burn center in Chicago on Tuesday morning after a semitrailer crashed into the tractor she was driving on Illinois 1, causing both to catch fire, according to Illinois State Police and local fire department officials.

Burglary A refrigerator, microwave and music mixer were reported stolen to Kankakee police from a residence in the 1200 block of East Oak Street at 9:30 a.m. Monday.

A Vermilion County resident will be cleaning up after a house and nearby buildings he owns were damaged in a brief tornado touchdown about 2 miles southeast of Westville over the weekend.

The family of a 30-year-old Hoopeston man who died inside the Ford County Jail last year is suing the Ford County Sheriff's department for allegedly putting the man in solitary confinement and denying him medical care.

The father of a 30-year-old Hoopeston man who was found dead in his cell at the Ford County Jail last May has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the county, its sheriff and two jail employees.