Ottawa Fire Chief Brian Bressner said he always had “an itch” to be a part of the fire service.

“When I was a kid (growing up in Grand Ridge) if the fire trucks went by my house I always wanted to see and explore what was going on,” he said. “Either my parents or grandparents would take me to watch.”

Bressner said in high school he didn’t understand the career path to get into the fire service and started exploring the electrical field. That is, until his best friend asked him to go to the Marseilles Ambulance service for a recruitment party to get youth involved in the emergency services.

“That night changed my life and career path and I have never looked back,” Bressner said. “This job brings a new challenge every day and it is exciting to know that you made a difference.”

Local fire departments are hoping to see more stories like Bressner’s to fruition. Several fire departments are feeling the pinch of staff shortages and less funding, causing stakeholders across Illinois to set up a task force to look for solutions.

Spring Valley Fire Chief Todd Bogatitus said joining the fire department is no longer a dream or a family legacy. Instead, it’s been added to the list of public service jobs people tend to avoid.

“Nobody wants to be a firefighter, nobody wants to be a paramedic, nobody wants to be a police officer,” Bogatitus said. “We’re in the public’s eye everybody’s got a cell phone.”

Hiring and retention

Bogatitus said three years ago the Spring Valley fire department hired three part-time firefighters. But, with one firefighter covering the day shift from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., the department remains short staffed.

In Illinois, 14.6% of departments are career based, while 65.2% are strictly volunteer, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Bogatitus said local fire departments are working to overcome a volunteer shortage at a time when the workload has increased and funding has decreased.

“COVID shut down some of the classes for individuals that wanted to get into the service,” Bogatitus said. “The other factor in this area is pay. We can’t compete with some of the bigger departments that can offer better benefits and pay.”

Certain fire departments, such as Ottawa, also include ambulance services and emergency medical qualifications.

Acknowledging the challenges, the test requirements have eased for firefighter positions in Ottawa.

At one time, applicants could only test if they were paramedics, then it was eased to EMT basic, which is a step below a paramedic. Now what’s required is to be 21 and have a high school diploma. The idea is the fire department will train prospects.

“So, I mean the problem is are we going to be proactive or reactive? We have to be proactive, we have to say, you know what let’s hire local kids that can get to the fire service, but we’ll have to train them up, which is going to cost $40,000 to $50,000 an individual,” Bressner said.

But, even if the department is able to get the new members fully trained, there is no guarantee they will stay with the department, Bressner said. The Ottawa Fire Department has lost several of those staff members to higher-paying jobs in the suburbs, the chief said.

Community impact

Ottawa Deputy Fire Chief Michael Mills said even when the department is able to hire people it doesn’t mean the station is functioning at full capacity. To be at full staff the department needs 27 firefighter medics, right now in Ottawa, it has 25.

“Depending on their level of certification, when they come in, it could take upwards of two years to have them count towards what we consider staffing,” he said. “Meaning they’re capable of running any kind of operation that we need them to run.”

AFFI President Chuck Sullivan said most local governments or unions have a minimum staffing requirement, ensuring response times are not affected.

“Those firefighters who have just worked 48 hours will have to stay to work overtime, there is always the same number of firefighters,” Sullivan said. “There are shortages on paper - but our response times have remained the same. You are going to burn out the firefighters who are working countless hours of overtime because there is no one else to do it.”

Rural communities have been able to work short-staffed without affecting response times or the lives of residents. The first responders, however, suffer the consequences. Working overtime puts them at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, cancer and sleep deprivation. That stress play a role in not only critical human errors but also a person’s physical and mental health.

A certain number of firefighters are required to fight a fire successfully and safely. For example, for a one-story residential fire, the recommendation is 15 firefighters on the scene, according to the Illinois Department of Labor.

The department recommends a two-in, two-out policy. So if two firefighters get trapped, the other two are available for rescue.

In December 2021, Lt. Garret Ramos became the first Sterling firefighter to die in the line of duty. A floor collapsed beneath him, prompting an unsuccessful rescue mission. Both Rock Falls and Sterling were fined for his death by OSHA, one of the reasons given for the citations was the department’s failure to follow the two-in, two-out policy.

As shortages become more prominent, homeowners also may face increased home insurance rates

All fire departments are given an Insurance Services Office or “fire score” based on the quality of the local fire department including staffing levels, training, proximity, available water supply and quality of an area’s emergency communications system. The score is one to 10, one being the highest.

Streator Fire Lt. Kurt Snow, the secretary and treasurer for the Associated Firefighters of Illinois, said the shortages have negative impacts on the firefighters.

“Sleep deprivation is a very real thing. I’ve taken a health and safety seminar – one of the things I’ve found was that sleep deprivation is one of the independent risk factors in the top killers of firefighters, including suicide, cardiovascular disease and motor vehicle accidents,” Snow said.

Snow said Streator has responded to 1,269 calls as of late May putting them on pace for 3,045 calls this year. That is more than eight calls a day or about one call every 2 hours and 30 minutes.

“When you talk about sleep when you have an average call and the tone and people going in and out of the building and things going on every two and half hours,” Snow said. “Doctors will tell you you need eight to nine hours of sleep, but because of our schedules we don’t get that.”

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, sleep deprivation can lead to physical and mental health problems, injuries, loss of productivity and an even greater likelihood of death. It is linked to many chronic health problems such as heart disease and high blood pressure, and has played a role in human mistakes linked to tragic accidents, such as nuclear reactor meltdowns.

Solutions

If we try to bring them in from the community and they train in this community, they will want to work in the community. That’s the kind of approach we are taking right now.

—  Ottawa Deputy Fire Chief Michael Mills

Fire chiefs, lawmakers and the Associated Firefighters of Illinois agree Illinois cannot wait on a solution.

Earlier this year, Sullivan said the union recognized a lack of recruits and applicants across the state and determined a Task Force made up of various stakeholders should be established through General Assembly action to provide oversight and accountability.

“It’s a nationwide problem for a lot of trade laborers,” Sullivan said. “We thought it would be beneficial to involve the General Assembly to have some accountability.”

The AFFI introduced the Senate Joint Resolution that creates a task force made up of multiple stakeholders to begin discussing ways to increase recruiting and retention for publicly employed firefighters and paramedics.

Snow said the goal of the task force is to have all of the stakeholders, which will include local governments, fire chiefs, labor and state departments come to an agreement on various topics ranging from minimum requirements, regional apprentice programs, state funding, training grants and other incentives that can then be drafted into bill form and passed through both chambers with relative ease and no opposition to the bills.

Mills said Ottawa has lowered its qualifications to high school diploma in an effort “to attract people who are invested in [the] community.”

“If we try to bring them in from the community and they train in this community, they will want to work in the community,” Mills said. “That’s the kind of approach we are taking right now.”

Bressner said, for his department, the solution must include retention because the department is “getting blown out of the water.”

“Retention for us is pay,” Bressner said. “You have got to increase the pay to be competitive ... It’s a constant rotation where we have kept three of our last 15 or 16 individuals we hired.”