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Posts Tagged East Peoria Fire Department

East Peoria Fire Department news

Nov 18

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, Fire Service News | Comments off

Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:

A nationwide shortage of firefighters and EMTs has fire departments feeling the pinch to recruit more of each.

Fire Chief Bobby Zimmerman said East Peoria no longer requires firefighters to be EMT Basic licensed, for the first time in 20 years.

“We’re kind of following along with the other trades. Whether you’re a police officer, a mason, an electrician. We want to hire you and then we’ll pay and train you to serve our citizens,” said Chief Zimmerman.

Other fire departments have relaxed their requirements for applicants too, such as Bloomington and Normal.

Typically, the EMT Basic class takes six months to complete. Now, recruits will be sent to the academy in Peoria for a condensed, five-week class. They will get experience and a paycheck in the meantime.

Long-time firefighter and VP of Illinois Firefighters Association Kevin Schott told us the time commitment is higher and the job is more demanding for newer firefighters. “We have to look at making it more palatable for our younger generation who are much more busy than we were when I first started in the fire department – so we can entice them to continue helping us out,” said Schott.

Chief Zimmerman hopes this fulfills their goal of hiring 8 to 10 staff members within the next six months. The City of East Peoria currently has 48 paid staff across their three, soon-to-be four fire substations.

“It’s very difficult for them to get that certificate. This now will allow us to hire them without that certificate, and now come on board,” said Zimmerman.

thanks Rob

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Oct 2

Posted by Admin in Fire Department History | Comments off

Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:

Though their deaths were decades ago, the East Peoria Fire Department honored the memory of four who died in the line of duty, the most recent of which was in 1980.

The ringing of the bells sounded the end of duty for four East Peoria firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice. Every year the East Peoria community wraps their hands around the families of these four men.

Assistant Chief Marvin J. Stein, Captain Armando Ballerini, and firefighters George Cornwell Sr. and William Folmar.

All four men died while protecting their communities.

Now in its 37th year, the stories are their sacrifice are still living in the minds of their families.

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Aug 28

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:

The East Peoria Fire Department is offering a way to help in the fight against breast cancer by working to sell T-shirts donned with pink ribbons, and a pink logo. They’re doing this ahead of October, which is recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Memorial.

The shirts also honor a survivor in the community, by incorporating their initials. The survivor wishes to remain anonymous, but is someone who is known to, or has impacted those at the fire department.

Firefighter paramedic Tyler Young says having the shirts pay respect to a survivor this year was a new idea compared to years past. They hope to continue honoring those who have overcome breast cancer. “We figured what better year to start it than this year? And hopefully going forward in the future we would like to see other shirts be in honor to somebody else that may be known to the City of East Peoria residents.”

The deadline to order a shirt is midnight September 4th. If you’re interested in supporting the cause, a link to the shirts can be found on The East Peoria Fire Department’s Facebook page.

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Jul 5

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:

East Peoria Fire and EMS crews have a new new skid unit that will help people having medical emergencies at big events get to the hospital faster. It connects to the city’s Utility Task Vehicle (UTV) and can hold a cot. The cot it carries will transfer directly to the ambulance.

The skid unit will also be available in county-wide calls for assistance. It will cover a wide variety of terrain and hard-to-reach places.

A Country Financial donation covered 70% of the cost of the $6,500 unit.

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East Peoria Fire Department news

May 10

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:

Veronica Marmitt has been with the East Peoria Fire Department 18-years and rose to the rank of lieutenant in 2015. Her recent promotion to assistant fire chief comes just a couple of months after the Peoria Fire Department elevated a woman, Lore Baxter, to the role of Division Chief of Operations.

Two other East Peoria firefighters were promoted on Monday. Brad Reinhart and Sam Sauder were sworn in as lieutenants. Reinhart has been with the department for 11 years and Sauder is a 15-year member of the department.

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Oct 10

Posted by Admin in Fire Department History, Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from 25newsnow.com:

Though their deaths were decades ago, the East Peoria Fire Department honored the memory of four who died in the line of duty, the most recent of which was in 1980. 

Honored were Assistant Chief Marvin J. Stein, Firefighter George Cornwell Sr., Captain Armando Ballerini, and Firefighter William A. Folmar. Stein and Cornwell died while responding to a fire in an apartment above the Green Gables Tavern in 1959.  They were caught in an explosion and died.

Ballerini was responding to a house fire when he collapsed from a heart attack in 1972. In 1980, Folmar was off-duty when he came across a car accident on the Murray Baker Bridge before anyone else had arrived,. He left his car to provide aid and was struck and killed.

The families of the four were presented with plaques commemorating their service. They used to hang on a wall in the central station and have since been replaced with updated plaques describing their final act of service.

The fire department also honored Firefighter/Paramedic Hassan Drissi who was named their employee of the year.  

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Oct 4

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from the Peoria-Journa star.com:

The East Peoria City Council on Tuesday narrowly approved a 5-year firefighter contract by a 3-2 vote. The deciding vote was cast by Commissioner Dan Decker, who is also an Assistant Fire Chief of the East Peoria Fire Department.

Decker said he believed he was legally able to vote on the contract and did so to preclude the potential cost of arbitration. “It would have been much easier to abstain,” Decker said after the vote. “But if there had been a deadlock (vote) it would have gone to arbitration and that would have been extremely costly to the city. (Besides) nothing in the contract affects me.”

Commissioner Mike Sutherland, who voted against the contract, challenged Decker’s vote. “I have a problem with a fireman (voting on the contract),” Sutherland said after the vote. “I don’t know if I can, but I’m going to legally challenge the vote and take it as far as I can go. I don’t know (if Decker’s vote) was morally correct or legally correct.”

State law exempts firefighters from laws banning most public employees from holding public office.

The contract provides salary increases of 1.5 percent the first year; 1.75 percent in years two and three; 2 percent in the fourth year; and, 2.25 percent in the final year in 2024. It is retroactive to May 1, 2019, the date the previous contract expired. That makes the average annual salary increase over the course of the contract 1.85 percent, or slightly higher than the 1.75 percent increase given to other public employees in the city.

Commissioner Seth Mingus, who oversees the fire department operation and negotiated the contract for the city, defended Decker’s vote. “Commissioner Decker was acting in the best interest of the city, and citizens should be appreciative of that,” Mingus said.

Now in his fourth term, Decker has in years past frequently abstained from voting on firefighter issues, particularly contract deals. Until this year, Decker had been a member of the firefighter’s union, but left when he was promoted to management as an assistant chief.

Sutherland said he opposed the contract because it did not include a residency requirement for firefighters. The mayor opposed it because of a sick time buy-back program that he believed could end up costing the city money.

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Sep 10

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from the pjstar.com:

East Peoria Fire Chief John Knapp expertly pitched the need for a new fire truck at this week’s city council meeting. What he got in return was not the familiar response the fire department is more accustomed to. The council said no.

The council voted 3-2 to deny the request to spend $340,000 for a new demo fire truck, rather than pay upward of $200,000 to repair two old ones. Commissioners Mark Hill and Mike Sutherland voted against the purchase. Commissioner Seth Mingus, who’s role on the council is to oversee the operations of the fire department, and Dan Decker who is both a commissioner and an assistant chief on the East Peoria Fire Department, supported the purchase of the fire truck. The mayor expressed his doubts before casting the deciding vote.

A budgeted and approved plan to repair the prematurely rusted frames of two front line trucks changed recently when a new option to buy a discounted fire truck was offered by Pierce Manufacturing. Instead of repairing two old trucks — a 2000 and a 1996 —to be used as necessary back-ups, Pierce offered a 2019 demo at a cost of $380,000, paid over two years. Fire trucks typically cost around $550,000. And while the new truck would solve the problem of repairing the old ones at a cost of around $200,000 and fill all front-line and back-up slots in the department’s fleet with reliable vehicles, it would cost the city more than the old solution.

The ensuing debate was illuminating. Simplified, the disagreement narrowed to a fight between between the fiscally responsible and the staunch advocates for public safety. It went south from there. One commissioner tied his potential support of the demo fire truck to the result of on-going contract negotiations with the city’s firefighter union. Linking the contract to the purchase of a fire truck rankled another.

 

 

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East Peoria Fire Department news

Jun 8

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

Excerpts from pjstar.com:

The East Peoria public safety communications and dispatch center dispatched its final call on May 20. Since then, all 911 calls that originate in East Peoria have been handled by the dispatch center in Morton. The switch-over was the culmination of a 2015 state mandate that all Illinois counties with a population of less than 250,000 that have a single Emergency Telephone System Board and more than two dispatch centers to reduce that number by half. Tazewell County met all the criteria and that meant that four county dispatch centers would be reduced to two. East Peoria and Washington would close and move all dispatch operations for those two cities, and every smaller law enforcement department and fire protection department and district in the jurisdiction to the beefed-up center in Morton.

The space in the front of East Peoria’s Public Safety building that was occupied 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year by the 12-person, three-shift staff of dispatchers, is now home to two records clerks who work regular business hours only on weekdays. They can answer walk-up questions if they are around, but it’s not their job to be the public’s link to law enforcement.

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New ambulance in East Peoria

Jan 15

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, New Delivery | Comments off

Excerpts from Mortontimesnews.com:

The East Peoria Fire Department purchased a refurbished ambulance. The vehicle was purchased from Arrow Ambulance, a company in Rock Rapids, Iowa, that specializes in refurbishing used ambulances.

“They strip it down to the walls, and rebuild it piece by piece,” Fire Chief Al Servis said recently. “You can’t even see the difference from a new ambulance.”

“The chassis is new, but the box on back is completely refurbished that looks like it is brand new, never used before,” Assistant Chief Richard Ward said Wednesday. “It’s a great way to save some money.”

The ambulance was delivered earlier this month, inspected by the state and pressed into service at the department’s Central House on West Washington Street.

Assistant Chief Ryan Beck picked out a box last year and Arrow has been working to refurbish and attach it to the new chassis. The total cost of the ambulance, to be paid off over two years, was $214,323, a price that includes $10,000 in radios that would have been paid whether the city bought a new or refurbished ambulance. The approximate savings was $40,000. The city budgeted $230,000 for a new ambulance.

The purchase of the used ambulance could be a precedent.

“It was a very wise decision that enabled us to not only benefit from a cost savings on this particular one but lays the groundwork to do the same over the next several in future years to come,” Commissioner John Kahl said. “The finished product is impressive and you would believe it to be brand new.”

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