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Illinois Fire Department COVID-19 relief grant helps local fire departments

  • Chief Meteorologist

    Jacie Brianne is the evening meteorologist for News 3. She joined the WSIL Team in August of 2018.

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FireStuff

PINCKNEYVILLE (WSIL) -- The pandemic has been hard on Illinois's rural fire departments. Several of those departments will soon get some much needed financial help.

Eight southern Illinois fire departments are being recognized after facing trying times brought on by the pandemic. 

“We reviewed what was happening during the COVID pandemic and how these rural smaller departments were losing money because they couldn’t do their social events. The pancake breakfasts, the community dinners, those kind of things," says Matt Perez, State Fire Marshal of Illinois.

The Illinois Fire Department COVID-19 relief grant awarded more than $316,000 to a total of 36 departments across the state.  

“We know they operate on a tight budget to begin with, pre-COVID. With the restrictions that were created by the COVID pandemic, I wanted to make sure that there was some way we could help them, kind of make up some of those lost funds," adds Perez.

Eligible fire departments were able to receive up to $15,000 to help with ongoing costs. 

“We’ve done a fish fry, that’s been going on for, I don’t know how many years, probably 70-80 years. The annual Good Friday fish fry we weren’t able to have last year so we got the opportunity to apply for the grant," says Jim Gielow, Pinckneyville Fire Chief.

“It’s very hard for our rural area. The town we’re in, we have a population of 350 people not counting the rural area we support. There’s no funding. We’re very limited budget and tires aren’t cheap. New equipment isn’t cheap." explains Neil Giltner, Olmsted Fire Chief.

Fire officials say the money used for fuel, utilities and insurance is vital to keeping departments going.

�70 percent of the Illinois of the fire service is rural and volunteer. When I found out how hard they had it, how hard they worked and a lot of times they’re not even getting paid, my heart went out. I just wanted to do everything I could to help them, get them the resources they needed," says Perez.

The main goal of the Illinois Fire Prevention Fund is to help departments keep the lights on so they can keep people safe.