Two men, one from Momence and another from Watseka, were recently added to the Kankakee Fire Department.

The pair of officers were hired March 23 and both have previous experience working with area fire departments.

The city hired Collyn Puddicombe, 29, of Momence, and Matthew Stichnoth, 26, of Watseka.

At the same time, however, Kankakee Fire Chief Bryan LaRoche, noted the department lost one of its captains as David Wiechen, a 22-year member of the department and a resident of Morris, recently resigned to take the deputy chief position with the Morris Fire Protection District.

Wiechen was promoted to a fire captain in 2023.

LaRoche said the vacant captain’s position would be filled in the coming weeks.

The city fire department – the largest fire department in Kankakee County – is budgeted for 51 members since June 2024.

In addition to his volunteer service with the Momence Township Fire Department, where he has served since 2013, Puddicombe has been a crane operator for Brown Strauss Steel in Peotone.

The 2015 graduate of Momence High School said this is a position he had been seeking.

“I’ve wanted to be here for a long time,” he said after being introduced to the Kankakee City Council.

Stichnoth, a 2018 graduate of Watseka High School, had been with the Watseka Fire Department for three years. Since 2021, he had been with Iroquois Paving Company in Watseka.

Stichnoth said after being introduced, that fire department work was not his initial thought following graduation. He said he began to warm to the idea a few years later after listening to friends who were serving within the Watseka department.