Chicago Fire

— Maicon Santos scored on a header off a corner kick in the 76th minute to give Chivas USA a 1-1 tie with the Chicago Fire on Saturday night. Chicago (2-2-2) opened the scoring in the 53rd minute. Patrick Nyarko crossed it into the middle, and Baggio Husidic beat goalkeeper Zach Thornton. Chivas USA (2-3-1) almost tied it in the 68th minute when Sacha Kljestan sent a perfect free kick toward goal, but goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra made the save. Nyarko made a run in injury time only to be ruled offside.

NBC evidently believes laughter is the best medicine: The struggling network will have a strong dose of comedy on four nights in its fall lineup plus the Season 3 return of"The Voice. " Keeping its Thursday sitcom block essentially intact with existing series, NBC will push the low-rated comedies"Community"and"Whitney"to Fridays and open up Tuesdays and Wednesdays for new sitcoms such as "Go On," "Animal Practice" and "Guys With Kids. " Nearly one-quarter of NBC's fall prime-time schedule will consist of sitcoms; last fall, the figure was just 14%. Also on the schedule: the Monday one-hour series "Revolution," the new sci-fi drama from producer J.J. Abrams, and, for Wednesday, "Chicago Fire," from "Law & Order" mastermind Dick Wolf.

Fire swept through an apartment building early Thursday, killing three people and injuring nine, authorities said. The blaze on the city's North Side burned for nearly two hours before it was brought under control, a Fire Department spokesman said.

Was the Great Chicago Fire on the night of Oct. 8, 1871, really caused by one of Kate O'Leary's cows knocking over a lantern? One hundred and 40 years later, that question remains the topic of sometimes-heated debate, at least in Illinois. Three hundred Chicagoans died in the conflagration, and an additional 90,000 were left homeless, putting the Windy City tragedy in record books as one of the nation's worst disasters. In an eerie quirk of fate, an inferno of even greater proportions was visited upon a village 250 miles to the north that same evening.

Peter Nowak scored twice as the Chicago Fire beat the San Jose Clash, 5-2, Thursday night in front of 7,598 at Chicago, extending the Major League Soccer expansion team's winning streak to six games. Nowak, the team's leading scorer with six goals and seven assists, scored in the 33rd and 49th minutes. Ante Razov, Rich Kotschau and Josh Wolff also scored for the Fire (8-5).

According to one of the enduring legends of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the mayor learned that the flames were closing in on the city jail and ordered the inmates freed to save their lives. Now, a great-great-granddaughter of the mayor has donated a slip of paper to the Chicago Historical Society that shows the legend is true. On the faded piece of police stationery, Mayor Roswell B. Mason's scribble reads: "Release all prisoners from jail at once, keeping them in custody if possible."

Without electricity since May, the impoverished immigrant family living on the third floor of a brown brick apartment building was using candles for light. About 12:20 a.m. Sunday, a candle started one of the city's deadliest and most heartbreaking fires in years. The blaze on Chicago's North Side moved fast through the three-bedroom apartment, killing six children ages 3 to 14, some of whom screamed "We're burning" as neighbors watched helplessly. "What do you say?"

Anne White and Steve Denton led the Los Angeles Strings to a 26-22 victory over the Chicago Fire Tuesday night in TeamTennis action at the Forum. In women's doubles, White and Pam Teeguarden defeated Chicago's Rosie Casals and Terry Holladay, 6-5.

Graveyards have long figured prominently in Chicago lore, so many of their occupants having managed to make it to the polls come election time. But the latest graveyard story to be unearthed here may be hard to top. A few months ago, workers on the northwest side were excavating land for a new private housing development when they uncovered some bones--old human bones. That, in itself, is not so unusual. Contractors in these parts occasionally stumble over Indian graves or unmarked family plots from the 19th Century.

Nearly a month after his last start, Galaxy midfielder David Beckham made the most of his return from a back injury Saturday night. Beckham assisted on the Galaxy's first goal and scored the second in a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire at the Home Depot Center. Beckham sent in the game-winner off a corner kick in the 65th minute. Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson strayed too far upfield, following the initial trajectory of the kick. When Beckham's trademark spin brought the ball back toward the net, Johnson could not recover in time.

CHIVAS USA TONIGHT VS. SAN JOSE When: 7:30 PDT. Where: Home Depot Center, Carson. On the air: TV: FSWest; Radio: 690. Records: Chivas USA 4-7-6; San Jose Earthquakes 5-5-6. Record vs. San Jose: 1-0-0. Update: If Chivas USA can earn its first win in four matches, it would leap to sixth in the Western Conference. Currently, Chivas stands one bad week away from the cellar of the nine-team conference. With a tie against the Chicago Fire on Saturday, Chivas earned its first point in nearly a month, dating back to a June 4 victory.

Chivas USA ended its three-match losing streak Saturday night in soccer's favorite fashion: with a 1-1 tie. Meanwhile, the Chicago Fire (2-4-12) kept their streak rolling along, now at four draws in a row, as seven of the Fire's last eight matches have ended knotted up. Fire midfielder Dominic Oduro had four shots on goal in the first half at the Home Depot Center. All four came down to only him and Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy. Oduro's third time was the charm, and he handed the Fire a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute.

Perhaps the Galaxy thought Nery Castillo was on the field, but he wasn't. The Chicago Fire's newly signed Mexican international midfielder wasn't even in town. Perhaps the Galaxy thought Freddie Ljungberg was on the field, and, yes, he was. But the Fire's newly signed former Swedish international midfielder was on the bench for all but the last half-hour. So there was really no excuse other than sloppy, inexcusably poor defense that caused the Galaxy to fall two goals behind within the first five minutes at the Home Depot Center on Sunday afternoon.

John Thorrington and Cuauhtemoc Blanco scored as the Chicago Fire advanced to the Eastern Conference final, beating the New England Revolution, 2-0, on Saturday night to win the two-leg series, 3-2, on aggregate. Chicago entered the match trailing after a 2-1 loss at New England last weekend. Thorrington scored in the 35th minute of Game 2 with Marco Pappa and Brandon Prideaux getting assists. Blanco sealed the win with six minutes left in regulation. "I couldn't have scripted it any better," Thorrington said.

Brian McBride had warned the Chicago Fire the day before. The former U.S. national team standout could not have made it any more clear: Watch out for Landon Donovan. The Fire failed to do so Friday night, however, and the result was almost predictable. Donovan scored on a breakaway late in the first half and the Galaxy went on to defeat the Fire, 1-0, in a game pitting two of Major League Soccer's playoff-bound teams. "Landon's an exceptional player," McBride said Thursday.

Zach Thornton made seven saves for his seventh shutout of the season and Ante Razov scored the go-ahead goal Sunday night as the Chicago Fire beat the New England Revolution, 2-0, before 15,336 at Foxboro, Mass. Razov scored in the 32nd minute off a long pass from Hristo Stoitchkov. The Fire (10-9-4) got their second goal in the 85th minute when New England defender Leo Cullen knocked the ball into his own net trying to defend a 2-on-1 breakaway. New England is 7-14-1.

Hristo Stoitchkov and Ante Razov each scored two goals as the Chicago Fire defeated the New England Revolution, 6-0, before 5,972 on Friday night. The victory sent Chicago into the semifinals of the Major League Soccer playoffs, where it will face New York/New Jersey. Razov, who scored the game's first goal, had four assists. Zach Thornton shut out the Revolution on 10 shots. The MetroStars will travel to Soldier Field to play the Fire on Tuesday night.

After struggling recently to hold on to the ball in the latter stages of the game, Mexico Tigres UANL's Jesus Duenas made certain he would expose Chivas USA's one lingering weakness. Duenas controlled the ball after a deflected shot by Alan Pulido off Chivas USA's goalkeeper Zach Thornton, and the Tigres midfielder delivered a goal to hand Chivas USA a 2-1 loss in its opening game of the SuperLiga at the Home Depot Center on Saturday.