Posts Tagged Kankakee Fire Department

Fight continues for Kankakee firefighter with Lou Gehrig’s disease

Jan 15

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | 2 Comments

Excerpts from a followup article by MyFoxChicago.com about Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg

A Kankakee firefighter with a fatal disease is getting new help in his battle against City Hall.

Derek Hogg, a firefighter diagnosed with ALS–Lou Gehrig’s disease, is about to be dumped from his job, just months short of qualifying for his pension.

Hogg said he and his wife holly have been swamped with letters, calls and emails after FOX 32 first reported last week on his fight to get his pension. “We had thousands of people respond, and come and say how can we help? We support you and we have your back,” said Hogg’s wife Holly.

Two years ago, the 31-year-old firefighter was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal illness. As Hogg’s condition worsened, he had to give up firefighting and was put on desk duty.

On February 19th, Hogg’s job and his FMLA will expire, just months short of his June 1st anniversary date. That’s the date Hogg would qualify for a disability pension of $3200 a month. It is money that would continue to be paid to his wife and two young children after he dies.

Hogg’s fellow firefighters volunteered to come to his rescue and work his shifts until June 1, but Kankakee mayor Nina Epstein shot that plan down saying it’s not allowed by pension law.

For 35 years, Wendy Abrams has run the Les Turner ALS Foundation in Chicago, which has raised tens of millions of dollars for research and helping patients with ALS.

After seeing FOX 32’s story, Abrams wrote a letter to the Kankakee mayor, asking her to reconsider her decision. “I figured she was the one who made the decision, so I should just tell her how I felt,” said Abrams.

“In my heart I know that you personally would like to help this family, but we need you now to step up, be creative and make it happen,” the letter read.

“Most employers want to help. They really don’t want to deny the people that have worked for them so long to make them comfortable in their time of need,” Abrams said.

The Les Turner ALS Foundation is planning a social media campaign to put heat on the mayor, and is also supplying the Hogg’s with a lawyer to explore whether Kankakee has followed the law.

On Wednesday, Mayor Epstein told FOX 32 News by phone that she’s received many “hateful responses” to her decision, but cannot change her mind. “I understand the emotion, but I do not understand how people are asking me to forget the legal basis for this decision…We have done everything possible to accommodate this man, short of granting him his pension,” she said.

Tags: firefighters not allowed to work for ailing brother, Kankakee Fire Department, Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg, Les Turner ALS Foundation in Chicago, Wendy Abrams

Kankakee firefighters help one of their own

Jan 8

Posted by Admin in Fire Service News | 5 Comments

The following is from an article at myFoxChicago.com:

They put their lives on the line to save ours. However, one Kankakee firefighter battling a deadly disease said in his time of need, he’s getting no help at all from City Hall.

“Watching the parades when I was two or three, seeing the fire trucks go by, I’m like ‘I want to do that,'” said Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg … 31 [who] achieved that boyhood dream becoming a firefighter in 2008. But a couple years ago, his body began sending signals that something was wrong.

“May of 2012 I started getting muscle twitches. Didn’t think anything of it,” Hogg said. When it got worse, he saw a doctor and got a shocking diagnosis — ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease — a muscle wasting condition for which there is no cure. Doctors told him he had only three to five years to live, but Hogg chose to go back to work.

“I loved being a fireman, loved it. And so I went back to work after I got my diagnosis,” Hogg said.

And he needed the money for his growing family. Hogg and his wife holly have two very young sons.

In 2013, the disease had progressed to the point he could no longer be a firefighter, and Hogg was put on desk duty. But that disability duty has a time limit that will soon expire, which means Hogg would be out of a job. That’s when his fellow firefighters came to the rescue.

His colleagues volunteered to work Hogg’s shifts at the firehouse and donate their vacation time and sick days, so that he could stay on the payroll until June 1, which is a critical date. That marks Hogg’s seventh full year on the job and allows him to qualify for a disability pension of $3200 a month. It is money that would continue to go to his family after he dies.

“Thought it was a very simple idea. The city wouldn’t lose a dime,” Hogg said. “Just a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, because with a young family at home I didn’t know what I was going to do,” said Hogg.

Hogg said after the firefighters union okayed the plan, he met with Kankakee mayor Nina Epstein, who told him she was fine with it as long as the lawyers signed off. A month later, Epstein left a voice message saying the city would not allow other firefighters to work on his behalf.

Epstein told FOX 32: “Sadly I cannot accommodate his request… This is a horrible situation, but I can’t look at things that way. I have to look out for the taxpayers… I have to follow the law.”

On Monday, Hogg, his family and a group of supporters went to the Kankakee City Council meeting to address the mayor directly.

“I ask that you not look at this decision as a politician but a human being. One with morals and compassion,” Hogg said. “I ask you mayor, will you let my brothers and sisters on the fire department help me?”

The mayor responded, “I will not continue to discuss it in a public forum… Nothing I can do to reverse that decision.”

This means Hogg will soon lose his job and any chance at the pension that would have helped his family.

“It’s a bad situation, and I feel like they have the opportunity to make it better for us. And they’re choosing not to help us. And I feel like our fate rests in the mayor’s hands,” Hogg’s wife Holly said. “And I don’t feel like she’s doing enough to help us.”

There is precedent — in Pittsburgh recently, firefighters worked the shift of a colleague also suffering from ALS. But the Kankakee mayor said she can’t bend the rules, telling FOX 32 ‘I have 300 employees. Do you think this will be the last horrible situation?'”

thanks Dan

Tags: firefighters not allowed to work for ailing brother, Kankakee Fire Department, Kankakee firefighter Derek Hogg

Kankakee FD is losing four positions

May 17

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News | Comments off

The Daily Journal has an article about personnel cuts coming to Kankakee.

Nearly a dozen Kankakee city jobs will be cut or not filled this year after the city proposed deep cuts to its budget. The $22.5 million spending plan — more than $550,000 less than last year’s — was unanimously passed by the Kankakee City Council’s budget committee on Monday and would push the fire department to its lowest manpower level in 10 years. Four spots there will go unfilled as will at least one in the police department.

With the loss of $2.4 million in sales tax sharing agreements, the new budget would also cut four non-officer positions in the Kankakee Police Department, two code enforcement officers and the elimination of the personnel department.

The city’s budget also includes new taxes and fees, including a $10-per-month public safety fee and a $40 vehicle sticker tax. Those are projected to bring in more than $1.2 million per year.

The fire department will be a 49-member force and the police department will be down to 69 officers. In addition to personnel cuts, the fire department cut an additional $76,000 from its budget while the police department trimmed another $60,000 in other expenses, according to city comptroller Elizabeth Kubal. The personnel cuts in the fire department totaled $260,000 and the police employee cuts equaled $242,000.

With the $2.4-million reduction as the target, the city projects the cuts will reach $2,398,869.

thanks Dan

Tags: Kankakee City Council, Kankakee cuts fire department positions, Kankakee Fire Department

Kankakee Fire Department gets ISO Class 2

May 30

Posted by Admin in Fire Department News, Fire Service News | 3 Comments

The Daily Journal has an article about the Kankakee Fire Department achieving an ISO Class 2 rating.

The department now is in the top 2 percent of all departments across the country based on its just-received rating classification from the national Insurance Service Office organization.

The 52-member department received an 80.76-point ISO rating in its Public Protection Classification, placing it in Class 2. Of the 2,408 Illinois fire departments, Kankakee is one of 63 with a Class 2 or Class 1 rating. Nationally, of the 47,242 rated departments, there only are 653 with such a high performance review.

Departments receive classifications from the top mark of Class 1 to the lowest mark of Class 10. Since at least 1985, the city had been rated Class 4.

The ratings are based on a score that not only looks at the fire department, its personnel, its equipment and its training, but also the department’s water provider, in this case Aqua Illinois, and its dispatching system, KANCOM.

In its previous two ISO ratings, the department scored 62.2 percent in 1982 and 67.1 percent in 2000. Since those rating, Young noted the countywide KANCOM dispatching system was implemented and the millions of dollars of updates have been made by Aqua.

Bradley is the only other municipal fire department in Kankakee County. Bradley’s department has a Class 4 ISO rating.

Mayor Nina Epstein said property insurance costs are such a large expense for business and industry that having a better ISO rating can mean lower insurance costs. That factor, in turn, she said, could help the city in not only retention of existing businesses, but recruitment of new companies.

“This rating is huge for industry. Companies are always looking for ways to control costs and this helps them do that,” the mayor said. “This only helps make our community more attractive. I like to say its another tool in our toolbox for bringing business here.”

The rating does not impact homeowners, Fire Chief Ron Young said.

“We felt confident we would get up to a Class 3, but we felt Class 2 was possible,” he said. “It’s very rare a department jumps two classes. We were ecstatic to get to a two.”

thanks Chris

Tags: ISO Class 2 rating, Kankakee achieves ISO Class 2, Kankakee Fire Department

The color of fire trucks (part 9) Division 7

Jun 19

Posted by bgshap in Fire Service News, Historic fire apparatus | Comments off

This next installment (our 9th) in our series highlighting The Color of Fire Trucks, comes again from Bill Friedrich and looks at MABAS Division 7. This MABAS division covers Kankakee County and part of Iroquois County.

Essex ran Squad 1974, a 1974 Dodge Power wagon that was modified by the department. Bill Friedrich archives

This was the only white vehicle in the Essex FD fleet.

Kankakee Fire Department Mack CF Pirsch ladder

The City of Kankakee had two units on CF Mack chassis that were white over lime-green. One was this 1983 Mack CF600 with a 100′ Pirsch aerial ladder, a 1,250-GPM pump and 200 gallons of water. This was Ladder 6. Bill Friedrich archives

In Kankakee, this was one of two lime-green Macks in the fleet, both of which had white roofs. The other was a Mack-CF engine. Both are now gone from the roster.

The Kankakee Township FPD had this 1975 IHC Cargostar 1910 with an Alexis body, 1,000-GPM pump and 500 gallons of water. It ran as Engine 84. Bill Friedrich archives

The Kankakee Township FD was all lime-green at one time. All subsequent vehicles are painted red.

Pembroke FPD Engine 139 was a 1972 IHC Loadstar 1800 built by Central with a 500-GPM pump and 500 gallons of water. Bill Friedrich archives

The Pembroke FPD had a few lime green rigs. Now they are all red.

Otto Township Engine 38 was this 1986 IHC S1900/Luverne with a 750-GPM pump and 500 gallons of water. Bill Friedrich archives

The Otto Township FPD had lime green at one point. Now they too area all red.

This X-Glenside FPD engine is now running as Engine 1533 for the Papineau FPD. It is a 1981 Pierce Arrow with 750 gallons of water and a 1,250-GPM pump. Bill Friedrich photo

This is the only yellow rig in the Papineau FPD fleet. It was purchased last year from the Glenside FPD in MABAS Division 12.

Bourbonnais Engine 63 was a 1976 was built by Howe on a Hendrickson 1871 with 800 gallons of water and a 1,000-GPM pump. Bill Friedrich archives

The Bourbonnais FPD had a few yellow rigs. All the others were red.

Engine 112 for the Grant park FPD was this 1963 IHC/Central with 1,000 gallons of water and a 1,000-GPM pump. Bill Friedrich archives

This was the only lime-green rig in the Grant Park Fire District fleet. Everything else has always been red.

Chebanse Township Fire Protection District tanker

Chebanse Township FPD Tanker 2871 was a 1994/2001 Peterbilt 379 built by Midstate Tank. It carried 3,000 gallons of water with no pump. Bill Friedrich photo

The Chebanse Township FPD, in Clifton, had two white rigs, all the rest are red.

Salina Township Fire Protection District

Salina Township FPD ran Tanker 164 which was built on a 1985 GMC F-7000 chassis by Midstate Tank. There was no pump alongside the 2,000-gallon tank. Bill Friedrich archives

Salina Township still has this white rig. At one point they had a white brush truck. Everything else is red.