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Leave fireworks to professionals Local fire departments urge safety By ANDREA AZZO aazzo@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Local fire departments say the best way to celebrate Independence Day this year is to leave the fireworks up to the professionals. Both DeKalb and Sycamore fire departments urge residents to watch public firework shows put on by trained professionals
this year rather than light up themselves. It is illegal to use fireworks in Illinois, but things such as party poppers, sparklers and smoke devices are allowed. “If you can light it, it’s illegal,” said Eric Hicks, DeKalb fire chief. “That’s our rule of thumb.” Even legal sparklers cause a threat because they burn at 1,800 degrees, which is hotter than the temperature needed to melt steel, according to a Sycamore Fire Department news release. There were an estimated 1,100 emergency department treated injuries associated
burns caused by fireworks about two or three times a year, said Jim Ward, Sycamore fire Do you plan to use legal fireworks prevention coordinator. this Fourth of July? Vote online at “The safest thing to do is Daily-Chronicle.com. don’t do fireworks at home,” Ward said. “Leave the fireworks to the professionals so with sparklers in 2011, accord- nothing bad happens.” It is also illegal to use any ing to the Consumer Products type of firework – whether leSafety Commission. An average of 200 people go gal or not – on city property to the emergency room every like the sidewalk and streets day with fireworks-related or parks. Instead, residents injuries around the Fourth of are reminded to use their own July holiday, according to a driveways. Anyone who violates the DeKalb Fire Department news fireworks ordinances are subrelease. The Sycamore Fire Depart- ject to fines. In DeKalb, the minment responds to calls about imum fine is $50. In Sycamore,
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it’s $100. Residents also need to be mindful of other hazards on the Fourth of July holiday such as the warm weather. The National Weather Service forecasts a high temperature of 73 degrees on Thursday with mostly sunny skies. Hicks said residents should watch their alcohol consumption, make sure they are using safe grilling practices and stay hydrated. Perhaps most importantly, residents should also remember to have fun. “Enjoy the Fourth of July,” Ward said. “Be safe, and be happy.”
Preventing accidents
List of local fireworks shows DeKalb Fourth of July Fireworks: 8:30 to 10 p.m. Friday at Hopkins Park, 1403 Sycamore Road, DeKalb Shabbona Fireworks: dusk (around 9:15 p.m.) Friday at Shabbona Lake State Park, 4201 Shabbona Grove Road, Shabbona Kirkland Fourth of July Celebration: 9:30 p.m. Saturday at Third Street in Kirkland Sandwich Fourth of July Festivities: 6 to 10 p.m. Sunday at the fairgrounds, Suydam Road, Sandwich
Al-Qaida group creates new Islamic caliphate By RYAN LUCAS The Associated Press
wig. A friend lost an arm. “You don’t realize how fast something can happen,” Sanderson said. “There’s zero time to react to danger.” Sanderson was one of the volunteers at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau’s Farm Safety Camp on Friday at Jonamac Orchard, 19412 Shabbona Road. The Farm Bureau has held the camp every other year for 20 years, and Sanderson first attended as a child. Now, he uses his experiences to show children farms can be fun but dangerous. Many camp volunteers are part of the Farm Bureau or have family affiliated with the organization.
BAGHDAD – The al-Qaida breakaway group that has seized much of northeastern Syria and huge tracts of neighboring Iraq formally declared the establishment of a new Islamic state Sunday and demanded allegiance from Muslims worldwide. With brutal efficiency, the Sunni extremist group has carved out a large chunk of territory that has effectively erased the border between Iraq and Syria and laid the foundations of its proto-state. But the declaration, made on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, could trigger a wave of infighting among the Sunni militant factions that formed a loose alliance in the blitz across Iraq and impact the broader international jihadist movement, especially the future of a-Qaida. The spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant declared the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as the leader of the new caliphate, or Islamic state, and called on Muslims everywhere, not just those in areas under the organization’s control, to swear loyalty to al-Baghdadi and support him. “The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas,” said the spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, in an audio statement posted online. “Listen to your caliph and obey him. Support your state, which grows every day.” Al-Adnani loosely defined the Islamic state’s territory as running from northern Syria to the Iraqi province of Diyala – a vast stretch of land straddling the border that is already largely under the Islamic State’s control. He also said that with the establishment of the caliphate, the group was changing its name to just the Islamic State, dropping the mention of Iraq and the Levant. Muslim extremists have long dreamed of recreating the Islamic state, or caliphate, that ruled over the Middle East,
See FARM SAFETY, page A10
See IRAQ, page A10
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Farm Safety Camp instructor Trent Sanderson (right) of Sanderson Farms asks Lucas Carrier, 9, of Sycamore whether he could see the person standing right in front of the tractor while he’s sitting in the cab Friday at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau’s Farm Safety Camp at Jonamac Orchard in Malta.
Volunteers stress farm safety at day camp By JESSI HAISH jhaish@shawmedia.com
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Watching a dummy being twisted up in a power take-off shaft, Jake Thompson (front left), 10, Jess Thompson (center), 7, and Macy Mershon (right), 11, react to the machinery safety demonstration.
MALTA – Trent Sanderson hopes the image of a fake body being spun and trapped in the power take-off (PTO) shaft of a tractor stays in the minds of farm kids for a long time. Sanderson of Clare has anecdotes of friends and family members who were affected by farm accidents, specifically PTO entanglement, in which clothing, hair or body parts are ensnared in the spinning, exposed shaft, which pushes energy from the tractor to any attached pieces of equipment. Sanderson’s aunt had hair ripped from her head after being near farm equipment, and today she wears a