Chicago taxpayers spent nearly $210 million on police and fire overtime last year — and another $33.7 million on lump-sum payments to departing employees, most of them police officers, records show. One retiring officer walked out the door with $276,053 for stockpiled compensatory time and another $9,236 for unused vacation days. Records released to the Chicago Sun-Times in response to a Freedom of Information Act request show scores of other six-figure checks and hundreds of payments that topped $20,000. In private industry, employees are routinely required to use comp time within a defined period of time. They are not allowed to accumulate a career's worth of comp time and cash it out when they leave.  

The office of the State Fire Marshal is accepting applications for its Small Equipment Grant Program. The $3.5 million program provides grants of up to $26,000 for the purchase of small firefighting and ambulance equipment for Illinois departments. This includes items such as self-contained breathing apparatuses, backboards and communication equipment. Applications are due by Feb. 29. The program is particularly helpful to smaller fire and ambulance agencies which are unable to generate revenue to update equipment. The program is open to most fire departments, fire protection districts, township fire departments and non-profit, stand alone ambulance services. To be eligible for funding, fire-protection agencies must have participated in the National Fire Incident Reporting System for a minimum of two years before applying.  

A Far South Side church and food pantry was destroyed Monday after the second floor of the Beacon Light Ministries in Roseland went up in flames. Chicago Fire said around noon a district commander noticed smoke coming from the building at 111th and South Michigan, which was soon engulfed in flames. "I know a lot of people that went there, you know, to get some help because they are low on food. It is a good place for the community. Very important [and] it's a big loss now," said Stephanie Johnson. Firefighters were quickly on scene but realized the building was shut tight. Luckily they heard from church officials that nobody was inside at the time. "With smoke like that...That's not good," Johnson said. "They are going to have to tear that down."  

A fire ripped through a home being rehabbed in north suburban Skokie Tuesday morning. The house fire occurred in the 5200-block of Fargo Avenue between Niles Center Road and the Edens Expressway. "I was hoping it would be just a small fire like part of the garage or something but man it's burned all the way through," said homeowner Jason Donajkowski. Donajkowski owns a small real estate business and owns the home. He says the four bedroom, three bathroom renovation project was just weeks away from completion. "It was the biggest project we had taken on you know," he said. "We're a small business. It's just really sets me back we were just really looking to get this thing on the market." Just before 6 a.m. a police officer noticed the fire and called it in. The flames spread quickly.  

VIDEO: Hundreds of firefighters battled a raging and fast-moving fire that spread through a row of town-homes on Staten Island on Monday. The fire was reported shortly after 3 p.m. on Rensselaer Avenue, and within 30 minutes, a fifth alarm had been sounded as the flames quickly spread. Officials say 18 firefighters and one civilian suffered injuries in the fire, but all the injuries were believed to be minor. Heavy smoke could be seen pouring from the row of connected homes with firefighters trying to contain the fire from the ground and the roof. The FDNY said wood construction in the attics allowed the fire to spread quickly through the roof. Reise Carjullo was in the shower when he first noticed the smoke. But then he remembered his brother was still upstairs and sound asleep.  

La Verne Fire Station No. 3 at 5100 Esperanza Drive, which serves neighborhoods in the area, will be closed for about six weeks until the city can hire more firefighters, Mayor Don Kendrick said Monday, Jan. 20. La Verne Firefighters' Association, Local 3624, posted information about the closure Friday on social media. The Facebook post, which received hundreds of comments and nearly 150 shares, did not mention that the station would reopen in a few weeks but suggested that it was permanently closed. That's because there is no guarantee the station will reopen, said Andy Glaze, the union's president and a captain at the La Verne Fire Department. Three new recruits are not going to fix the problem of sagging morale, lack of a safe work environment and a failure on the city's part to retain firefighters, he said Monday.  

VIDEO: It's a startling statistic - since 2015, more firefighters and police officers are dying by suicide than in the line of duty, according to a report. In January, nearly 1,000 Fort Worth firefighters will take a course to learn to spot the signs of someone at risk for suicide. According to a report published in 2017 by the Ruderman Family Foundation, almost 250 firefighters and police officers died by suicide in 2016 across the United States, as compared to just over 200 that died in the line of duty. Kristi Wiley is teaching Fort Worth Firefighters how to ask questions, and save lives, with QPR training. The acronym stands for "question, persuade, refer." "We need to ask the question, if we think someone is struggling, then we want to persuade them to stay alive," said Kristi Wiley, program director for the Jordan Elizabeth Harris Foundation.  

Two decades ago, a machine shed fire in rural Plymouth County might have taken one, maybe two, fire departments to put out the flames. But in 2019, it took five just to get enough manpower and water to put out the fire. No single department had enough available volunteers or resources. "The days where the butcher, the baker, and the horseshoe maker ran down the street when the fire whistle blew in town, that doesn't happen anymore," Le Mars Fire Chief David Schipper said. Instead, fire departments unable to fill part-time slots from within their own areas are partnering with neighboring communities. The approach, similar to that used in rural school districts, widens the pool of available volunteers who can respond to emergency calls. Indeed, consolidation may be the future of firefighting in Iowa. Many departments are sharing spaces, equipment and even fire chiefs. Some have simply combined departments as a whole.  

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. House that aims to help veteran firefighters. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and Congressman Don Bacon (R-Nebraska-02), a U.S. Air Force veteran, introduced the Michael Lecik Military Firefighters Protection Act on Thursday. It aims to provide veteran firefighters with the compensation, health care, and retirement benefits they earned with their military service. The bill is named for Michael Lecik, a Powhatan County resident who was deployed twice as a U.S. Air Force firefighter. According to a release, Lecik was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in Feb. 2019, but the Veterans Health Administration does not cover the treatment costs for such disease because the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs does not often recognize the service connection between firefighting and cancer as a "presumptive service-connected disability" more than a year after active duty. Lecik's service ended in 2008.