West central Illinois firefighters have been battling not only blazes but blistering heat waves throughout the summer.
Jacksonville Fire Chief Doug Sills spoke about how his crew has handled the overbearing temperatures.
“Basically we try to alleviate that throughout the day with making sure guys stay hydrated … rearranging our training hours. On an actual response, we’ll make sure we have one of the ambulance companies respond with us. Then when the guys come out of a structure or come off of an incident, we make sure they’re medically evaluated and have plenty of liquids on the scene,” says Sills
Sills talked about the various causes of fires and noted the sporadic nature of fire-related incidents.
“It possibly could be the heat and overload on a resident’s electrical system. We’ve had a couple that have been storm-related, with storm damage. But most of them have just been those weird incidents that you really can’t predict how many you’re going to have from one year to the next” Sills explained.
According to Sills, fire responses have been coming in at a higher rate this year, especially during the summer months. The fire chief also noted the department has been working to ensure additional man-power for the remainder of the season.