Images from Don Tessler of the new IHC 7400/Marion squad for MABAS Division 20 that will be housed at Bensenville Station 18
2014 IHC 7400/Marion TRT squad for MABAS Division 20. Don Tessler photo
Rear of the new Division 20 TRT squad. Don Tessler photo
2014 IHC 7400/Marion TRT squad for MABAS Division 20. Don Tessler photo
Apr 11
This from Josh Boyajian:
Here is a shot of Truck Co. 11 and Battalion 21. Thought id pass them along.Truck 11’s shop number is FD-E347Battalion 21’s new shop number is FD-B572
Chicago Truck 11. Josh Boyajian photo
2014 Ford Explorer for Battalion 21. Josh Boyajian photo
This from Tyler Tobolt:
Nunda – Rural FPD 3rd Alarm on box #5-1371 for a house fire with exposure to a garage and a 2nd house yesterday. they had tanker operations working also.Thanks Tyler Tobolt.
Tyler Tobolt photo
Tyler Tobolt photo
Tyler Tobolt photo
Tyler Tobolt photo
Tyler Tobolt photo
Tyler Tobolt photo
BND.com has an article about a bill introduced in the Illinois House that would alter the way a municipality can close a fire department.
A bill sponsored by Rep. Jay Hoffman that would make it harder for cities to close their fire departments won approval Tuesday in the Illinois House. The measure, approved by a vote of 93-20, would require cities and villages to hold a referendum if they want to close a fire department. The bill now goes to the Senate.
“If a fire district is going to be dissolved in a municipality or a village, the voters will have a say,” Hoffman told fellow legislators.
The bill was opposed by the Illinois Municipal League and some other city groups. They generally oppose bills that take city labor decisions out of the hands of city leaders.
Hoffman, D-Swansea, said the bill is an initiative of the Associate Fire Fighters of Illinois, a labor group for firefighters. “It simply says that if you want to dissolve a fire department, voters get to decide,” Hoffman said. “If you want to work together with another municipality, you can do that. You can do that by an intergovernmental agreement — it doesn’t say you can’t do that.”
Hoffman said fire districts, as opposed to municipal fire departments, already are required to hold a referendum in order to shut down.
Pat Devaney, president of the firefighter association, said Tuesday the legislation is not about making it harder to lay off firefighters, it’s about letting voters have a say in their emergency services. “We believe a decision with consequences that dire … should be put before the voters in a referendum,” Devaney said. He added that there should be nothing wrong with requiring elected city leaders to “simply go out and get affirmation” from voters before making such a decision.
The bill is HB4418.
Last week the House passed another bill that would impact local officials’ operation of fire departments. House Bill 5485 would make minimum staffing requirements for fire departments one of the factors that an arbitrator could decide during labor negotiations between firefighters unions and city leaders.
Here’s how metro-east House members voted on Hoffman’s bill:
* Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton: Yes
* Rep. John Cavaletto, R-Salem: Yes
* Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Smithton: Yes
* Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea: Yes
* Rep. Eddie Lee Jackson, D-East St. Louis: Yes
* Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Cabon: No
* Rep. Charlie Meier, R-Okawville: Yes
Karl Klotz and Tim Olk submitted some images of local units on display at the FDIC in Indianapolis
Chicago Ridge Ambulance 6502 in the Road Rescue booth. Karl Klotz photo
Chicago Ridge Ambulance 6502 in the Road Rescue booth. Karl Klotz photo
Westchester Rescue 25 in the E-ONE booth. Karl Klotz photo
Tim Olk photo
Tim Olk photo
Broadview Battalion 5. Tim Olk photo
The Chicago Tribune has an article about a new contract for Chicago firefighters:
The Chicago firefighters union leadership has reached a tentative agreement with City Hall on a new contract that will reportedly include an 11 percent raise over five years. Chicago Firefighters Union Local 2 President Thomas Ryan said the pact will not be officially voted on for several weeks until the two sides hammer out a few more details, “none of which I would call deal breakers.”
But Ald. Nick Sposato, 36th, a member of the firefighters union, said members will get raises totaling 11 percent. Part of the raises will be retroactive to July 2012, when the last contract lapsed.
The contract negotiations did not focus on the additional $600 million payment the city is currently required to make to shore up police and fire pensions, according to Ryan. Mayor Rahm Emanuel hopes to broker a deal that won’t hit the city so hard so soon, but Ryan said that situation will be discussed separately.
Emanuel spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton called the tentative contract a “responsible approach, ensuring our employees are compensated for the critical services they provide our residents and that taxpayers are protected with a fair wage proposal.”
Sposato said the fire contract also would convert 15 basic life support ambulances to advanced life support, a change the mayor supported. The advanced ambulances are staffed by paramedics and have better medication and life-saving equipment. The city will also hire 200 new paramedics to staff the new ambulances by September, Sposato said. “I think this is a good deal for Chicagoans,” he said of the new ambulances.
Ryan said the contract does not change the staffing level on each piece of fire equipment, an idea the mayor floated shortly after taking office that angered firefighters worried about layoffs.
thanks Dan
This from Sam Borica:
Here are some photos I took of the large brush fire today, (4/9/14) in Grayslake. Happened near Rt 60 & Behm Lane. Numerous acres involved, multiple departments were called to scene and for change of quarters. Took an hour and a half to completely extinguish the fire and clear the scene. I also have a picture of Mundelein Ambulance 431 at Grayslake’s Station #3 change of quarters across the street.Sam Borcia
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
Sam Borica photo
The Chicago Tribune has an article which follow a previous post concerning a decision to cancel the purchase of an ambulance that had been approved in Des Plaines.
Weeks after Des Plaines leaders nixed a previously approved ambulance purchase, three aldermen want the Illinois attorney general’s office or an outside legal firm to examine the validity of that move.
The three aldermen — Patricia Haugeberg, Dick Sayad and Jim Brookman — have asked to talk about the topic at the upcoming City Council meeting, city documents show.
A resolution approving the ambulance purchase passed in a 5-3 vote at the March 3 City Council meeting. A resolution rescinding that decision passed at the March 17 meeting, with Mayor Matt Bogusz breaking a 4-4 tie.
That initial approval came following intense debate over whether the exhaust pipe should be located underneath the ambulance chassis — called a horizontal exhaust system — or above the ambulance in a vertical exhaust system.
Citing the frequency with which ambulances idle on the scene of service calls, Brookman — a former Des Plaines firefighter — successfully lobbied his colleagues to reject the horizontal system that he said exposes firefighters and patients to potentially dangerous exhaust fumes. The city’s own fire chief, however, disagreed with the need for the vertical exhaust system.
“Right now, our practices don’t put people in the way of fumes,” Chief Alan Wax said at the time of the purchase approval.
In introducing the rescission resolution at the March 17 meeting, Bogusz said the council had found “a solution in search for a problem.”
He said selecting an ambulance with a vertical exhaust system was unnecessary and the move was beyond the scope of the council.
“It’s not a policy decision. It’s an operation decision,” Bogusz told aldermen, according to video of the March 17 meeting posted on the city’s website. “This body needs to work to stick a little closer to policy.”
thanks Dan
The Southtown Star has an article about discussions in Matteson that could result in layoffs for police offers and firefighters.
Matteson might be forced to lay off firefighters and police officers to address about a $9 million debt in the village’s main operating fund that has accumulated in recent years. Sales tax shortfalls continue to hit the village hard and have contributed to it running a budget deficit for several years, officials said Tuesday during a workshop session on the 2014-15 budget.
Trustees now have the task of slashing millions from the yearly operating budget, including possibly cutting 14 employees from the police and fire departments.
Matteson borrowed from other village funds to bolster its general fund for several years, which officials publicly acknowledged on Tuesday wasn’t the best accounting practice. The fund’s debt is expected to grow to more than $9 million by April 30, 2015, the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year.
For 2015, Matteson anticipates more than $17.2 million in revenue and a general fund that will run just shy of $16.4 million. However, officials believe that a balanced budget for next year won’t completely address paying back what’s owed to other funds.
The proposed budget is about $1.4 million less than the village’s current general fund budget, officials said. Most of the proposed reduction would come from cuts to emergency services personnel as well as the equivalent of 5.5 full-time and three part-time village employees.
Members of the village board’s finance committee on Tuesday examined overtime expenses in both fire and police departments, probing how payroll cuts could affect their services.
Matteson’s fire department is one short of a full staff, Fire Chief Edward Leeson said. Overtime expenses ran high this year due largely to having less than a full staff, he said, but the department expects to reduce overtime costs by 2015 from more than $300,000 to about $100,000.
The police department has 37 full-time officers, down from 41, Deputy Chief Michael Jones said.
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