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.  

Mike Crews, who served as the Taylorville fire chief and Christian County Emergency Management Agency director, is resigning to take a position in Hanover Township. Crews submitted his resignation to Mayor Bruce Barry on Monday. Crews was lauded for his role when an EF-3 tornado hit Taylorville on Dec. 1, damaging nearly 700 homes and businesses and injuring more than 20 people. Crews directed firefighters to activate the tornado sirens twice that afternoon, when the city had scheduled its annual Twilight Christmas Parade. Crews sent firefighters on equipment from the fire station to Lake Taylorville as a precautionary measure while he stayed behind at the station. "He was a rock star that day," Barry said of Crews. "He made the right decision at the right time. "If you're ever ready for a tornado, I guess we were."  

The Plainfield Fire Protection District recently honored two residents for their brave acts at an annual event. One of the residents was Scott Arya, a student at Plainfield North High School, who received the Youth Hero Award at the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association Fire Prevention Week Awards for his "act of bravery" this summer, according to a news release. Arya rescued three teen girls who were caught in a riptide in the Gulf of Mexico. He had just learned to use a jet ski when he noticed the girls were caught. He immediately rescued all three from the water. The other resident, Makenzie Vargo, a Plainfield South High School graduate, received the Adult Hero Award for her lifesaving action during the DARE pool party at the Plainfield Park District's Ottawa Street Pool. Vargo noticed a child in distress and immediately took action to help.  

October is Fire Prevention Month, and Springfield firefighters are kicking off their safety awareness by educating the public on smoke detectors. In 2017, the General Assembly passed a law requiring everyone living in Illinois to replace their old smoke detectors with the type that has a 10-year sealed battery. City Fire Marshall Ed Canny said Illinois-based First Alert made a donation of 100 of these smoke detectors to the Springfield Fire Department so they can help reduce the number of fire-related injuries in the community. "There's only so many dollars in the budget, and so every donation of smoke detectors really helps us provide for the community," Canny said. According to Canny, the number of fire-related deaths has historically gone down, but someone is more likely to die in a residential fire now than ever before.  

Albert Riippi remembers being a firefighter in DeKalb in 1949 before modern technology came into the picture and said that when a feather mattress was burning, he'd choke down smoke and crawl into the building without a mask. Riippi, who turns 93 on Halloween, had a long career with the DeKalb Fire Department. He was in from September 1949 to March 1952 when he left to pursue a dream with the National Football League. After injuries sidelined him, he returned to DeKalb in August 1959 and worked with the fire department until February 1986, retiring after seven years as fire chief. "In my time, you didn't have any [masks]," Riippi said while sitting at the kitchen table at Fire Station No. 1, on his third cup of coffee. "You got on your hands and knees and choked it down. We've made so much progress over the years, this modern technical science of chemistry and all that kind of stuff."  

Fire safety officials gathered in Springfield on Tuesday to warn against using smoke detectors with a removable battery. They also reminded Illinoisans about a law requiring newer detectors. Common advice is to change your smoke detector battery every year. But Margaret Vaughn of the Illinois Fire Safety Alliance is urging a new approach - replace the detector with one that has a built-in battery that lasts up to 10 years. She says the old ones can't be guaranteed to work if a fire breaks out. "Everyone thinks it's not gonna happen to them, everyone thinks we can change the alarms later, everyone thinks they can run from a fire, and unfortunately you don't have a chance," she told reporters. According to the Illinois Fire Marshal's office, more than 100 people died last year in structure fires.  

Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills on Tuesday that aim to improve the reporting and treatment of mental health for firefighters and peace officers. Citing the high-stress and traumatic nature of first responder jobs, Newsom said California needs to ensure they receive adequate care. The bills focus on improving resources and protections for firefighters who want to report mental health issues by creating a peer support program as well as including post-traumatic stress as an injury when dealing with workers' compensation. "They can experience high-stress situations and traumatic incidents that can push them to the limit both physically and mentally, and we need to recognize and take those challenges head on," Governor Newsom said. Assembly Bill 1116 establishes statewide standards for local and regional peer support and crisis referral programs for firefighters.  

VIDEO: Small fire departments across Maine are revamping propane protocols, following last month's deadly explosion in Farmington. Last month's deadly explosion in Farmington sent a shockwave through Maine's firefighting community. "Why there weren't more people hurt? It's a miracle, really," Livermore Fire Chief Donald Castonguay said. Firefighters say they never could have imagined a simple call for a propane leak could have ended like this. Livermore's fire chief says he believes his department, and many others across the state, have become complacent when it came to propane calls, but after what happened in Farmington, they now realize anything can happen. That why's Chief Donald Castonguay is re-writing that book. He's adding new protocols to keep his firefighters safe, and opening them up to new trainings.  

VIDEO: Multiple people have been injured in a vintage plane crash Wednesday morning at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut. State police said troopers and firefighters responded to the airport in Windsor Locks for the crash around 10 a.m. The Federal Aviation Administration said a vintage B-17 aircraft that is registered out of Massachusetts crashed at the end of Runway 6 while attempting to land. Officials tell us the plane slid off the runway during landing. The plane involved is a Collings Foundation World War II aircraft, according to the airport. It's unclear how many people were on board the plane. The plane is a civilian registered aircraft and is not flown by the military, the FAA added.  

One day in 2014, Dr. Jeffery Burgess was contacted by a Tucson firefighter about something that would set him on a research course for the next five years. The firefighter, John Gulotta, works for the Tucson Fire Department and he had a friend whom had been diagnosed with leukemia. Tom Quesnel was a fire investigator, one of the people who, after everyone else has packed up and left the scene, goes back in and tries to determine the exact cause and origin of the blaze. One of the dogs he trained for fire investigations was even sent to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings to assist in the investigation. Quesnel had been a fire investigator for 20 years, and had been exposed to a litany of dangerous chemicals known to be carcinogens. Gulotta sought Burgess's expert opinion on the matter because there was a bit of a snag: Quesnel's workers compensation claim to treat his cancer had been denied.  

City firefighters are above average when it comes to job satisfaction and below average for employee burnout, according to a report released by the department last week. City firefighters were one of a dozen departments across the U.S. to participate in the Fire Service Organizational Culture of Safety Report, or FOCUS, seminar in Chicago last month, according to a news release from fire Chief Daniel Speigel. The organization puts out a survey that, to date, more than 400 fire departments have used to obtain objective data to reduce injuries. "Because of this survey, its report and subsequent training, I believe it will enable our department to enhance its safety climate and safety behavior, making for a healthier, safer and more productive workforce," Speigel said.