Excerpts from foxillinois.com:

A new consultants report is asking the City of Springfield to consider replacing fire safety officers with civilian personnel in an effort to cut costs.

Instead of six fire department captains working in the fire safety division, some could be replaced with trained civilians, but not everyone is convinced this is the way to go.

“Even though we’re not putting out the fires, we’re preventing fires before they start,” said Division Chief Ed Canny, who oversees the Fire Safety Division for the Springfield fire Department.

Canny and his team plan fire protocols in new buildings, inspect Springfield structures, and investigate fires after they happen. They also create educational programs for schools, nursing homes, and more to prevent fires

The new fire consultants report is recommending some changes to the division’s staffing, saying “CPSM recommends that the SFD should evaluate the feasibility and give serious consideration to replacing uniformed personnel in the Fire Safety Division with certified civilian staff members.”

The report says the civilian jobs may be a good fit for retired firefighters, and Canny says that experience is key.

Local 37 Union president Vince Zummo agrees that experience matters here, but as for getting retired firefighters to fulfill the duties … “I find it very difficult to believe that you’re gonna find retired firefighters who, number one, would want to do it and number two, would have the educational requirements to do this,” Zummo said.

Zummo says the change wouldn’t come easily because of that, and because of the union contract. The parties cut a deal where the fire safety division gets to remains intact as long as the department maintains a residency requirement, meaning firefighters have to live in Springfield.

The mayor says he’s created a working group of city and fire professionals to go through the report and determine what changes the city can make from it.

The fire safety division investigated more than a hundred fires last year, identifying multiple serial arsonists in the process.