Central IL fire department expands hours, staff

WATSEKA, Ill. (WCIA) — Watseka’s part-time fire department has expanded their hours and will soon expand their staff. The department had previously been working on call.

Now, thanks to community support, they will be staffing part-time fire-EMS responders five days a week. This will help Watseka and surrounding areas by delivering service in a quicker and more effective way.

Starting last week, there are now part-time members in the firehouse, five days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The department stressed the need to help Iroquois County EMS services as they deal with staffing shortages.

“This hopefully provides a little bit of relief on that system itself,” said Watseka Fire Chief Ken Baier.

Relief that people in Iroquois County need and are now getting. As of February 1st, the department will have fire-EMS services operating out of the fire station five days a week, twelve hours a day.

“If we didn’t do something, well, we could have run into, there could have been a lack of service or a gap in service. And we have experienced that a little bit,” Baier said. “So, we want to help ensure that that does not take place anymore.”

Baier added that staffing shortages in medical services have created difficulties for responders everywhere, including his own department.

“Just the fact that we actually have now the ability to help take care of our own and help provide that backup and help ensure that there is EMS coverage within the area.,” Baier said. “And not only does it apply to the city of Watseka, but it does apply to the surrounding areas also. So, if there’s a time of need that they have or whatever, we have that ability to assist them also.”

Baier says statistical data shows the 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. time slot is the busiest, and that created a need for the department to hire ten new part-time employees. They now have 28.

“Unfortunately, that’s also been the hardest time for our paid on-call members to be available because they’re already at work elsewhere. So the call volume has increased tremendously around here, and we noticed that it was starting to become a strain amongst our own members themselves. So we needed to move that next direction. And that was also a push for us to do what we’re doing today,” says Baier.

The fire chief says more money in the city budget and the charge to patients for EMS services will pay for the new hires.

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