In brief: Building collapse kills 2 firefighters

Chicago – As fires go, the one that broke out Wednesday in a small vacant building on the city’s South Side was likely to be pretty routine for the Chicago Fire Department.

Instead, it caused the deaths of two firefighters, trapped under debris with two others when a wall and roof collapsed and injured 17.

In an eerie coincidence, it happened on the 100th anniversary of the Union Stock Yards fire, which killed 21 Chicago firefighters when a wall collapsed and stood as one of the nation’s worst tragedies for firefighter deaths until 9/11.

The call about the trapped firefighters interrupted a memorial service Wednesday honoring the Stock Yards fire victims.

Most of the firemen broke down in tears when they found out about the collapse, said retired fireman Bill Cosgrove.

Man recorded with suitcase with body

New York – Police searched Wednesday for a man recorded in a surveillance video on a dark New York City street wheeling a suitcase that later was found stuffed with a strangled woman’s body.

The video shows the man rolling the luggage in East Harlem late Tuesday before pausing outside a building. The man looks around and then walks out of the camera’s view, taking the suitcase with him.

A passer-by found the suitcase and the body soon after outside a nearby building about a block from Rao’s, a well-regarded Italian restaurant founded in 1896.