Posts Tagged Romeoville Fire Academy

Romeoville Fire Academy news

Feb 14

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The Romeoville Fire Academy has received $100,000 from Endeavor Health, which it will use to provide tuition assistance to students from underserved communities.

The money is part of Endeavor’s Community Investment Fund and was awarded to support workforce development aimed at recruiting, training, and launching firefighter and Emergency Medical Technician careers with a focus on young adults from diverse communities.

Romeoville’s Fire Academy is one of the largest training programs in the state and was one of 43 organizations chosen throughout northern Illinois by Endeavor to receive funds to support programs for behavior health, violence prevention, housing and food insecurity, and access to care, and workforce development.

They sought the funding because the academy had begun seeing a trend where students of different ethnic groups wanted to join up but would become defeated when they heard the cost during recruiting sessions. The issue is troubling since there is a nationwide shortage of firefighters and EMTs, including in Illinois.

This grant funding will allow for between 10 and 12 students from underserved communities to complete fire academy and EMT schooling and gain access to job placement. The academy has assembled a committee that is currently developing a program to allocate the grant funding to students.

Endeavor Health is Illinois’ third-largest health system, and third-largest medical group. It launched its Community Investment Fund in 2022 and has reportedly impacted more than 211,000 individuals with the services it has helped support and expand.

Tags: chicagoareafire.com, Endeavor Health, Endeavor’s Community Investment Fund, Romeoville Fire Academy, Romeoville Fire Academy will use grant to train new recruits

Of interest … the Romeoville Fire Academy

Jan 30

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From the HeraldNews.com:

Dean Bushala has been in television for 20 years and worked on shows “Ice Road Truckers” and “Deadliest Catch”. He has been making an independent documentary that will star the Romeoville Fire Academy.

“I’m trying to get a better understanding of how firefighters do what they do,” Bushala said. “I was here in Romeoville for a week to do some work with the recruits and do some rappelling on the training tower.”

Bushala previously worked with the Downers Grove Fire Academy years ago on a project with PBS and had stayed in touch with many of the members who are now instructors in Romeoville. They’ve kept in touch, so now for this project, it made sense to reconnect.

The project is aimed for a late summer release.

thanks Dan

Tags: Dean Bushala, Romeoville Fire Academy

FD to use closed prison for training

Oct 9

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Excerpts from MorrisHerald-news.com:

More than two years after Illinois shuttered the Dwight Correctional Center, the now vacant, former all-female prison is slated for new use. Dwight Fire Chief Paul Johnson said the local fire district has entered into a five-year intergovernmental agreement with the state to use portions of the closed facility to conduct hands-on firefighting training.

The prison will remain under control of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services, but Johnson said the district is partnering with the Romeoville Fire Academy to create a south campus in Livingston County. The Illinois Department of Corrections transferred control of the shuttered state prison to CMS – the state agency responsible for handling state property transactions – last year.

This being the first fire-and-rescue training facility for the area is huge, Johnson said, with firefighters from Dwight and other agencies in Grundy and Livingston counties otherwise having to travel to the academy in Romeoville or the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for hands-on training. Unlike other academies statewide, which offer weekday and morning classes, the majority of courses in Dwight will be tailored for volunteer firefighters’ schedules, and will be available during nights and weekends.

Under the agreement, which still is being finalized with the Romeoville Fire Academy, the plan involves using three inmate cottages, the infirmary building, and some of the adjacent land to the west. Firefighters would get hands-on training on fire suppression, hazardous materials response, and technical rescue operations. Johnson said the state is allowing the fire district to use sections of the facility for free. He said he thinks the local district may spend, at most, a couple thousand dollars each year to build the necessary props.

Tags: Dwight Correctional Center, Dwight Fire Chief Paul Johnson, Dwight Fire Department, Illinois Department of Central Management Services, old prison becomes new fire training site, Romeoville Fire Academy