The Peoria Fire Department's Engine Company 2 will be pulled out of service once again, at least for a few days.
Peoria Fire Chief Jim Bachman said the engine, based at Station 8 on Hurlburt Street on the South Side, will be out of commission from Wednesday at least through Christmas.
That temporary suspension was attributed to "unexpected expenses." Bachman said ultimately, the fire department's biggest expense is personnel.
"We've had a flu bug or something going around other than COVID. We've had COVID. We've had members of our department that have come down with COVID. We've also had a few members that were exposed. And when our members are exposed, obviously, they have to quarantine for 14 days," said Bachman. "So that keeps them off work. And so we've kind of had a surge over the last several weeks."
Bachman said currently, four members of his department are off with COVID-19, and a further six people are quarantining. An additional four to six have been off work due to non-COVID sickness since Engine Company 2 was restored to service on Nov. 1, and line-of-duty injuries have also resulted in firefighters taking time off.
To keep an engine in service with fewer personnel, Bachman said the department can utilize overtime. The problem is, the fire department has already exceeded its overtime budget for the year.
Bachman said the fire department started out the year 12 firefighters short of a full complement. It takes 11 to staff an engine company for 24 hours a day. He said overtime was utilized to staff Engine 20 in North Peoria earlier this year, instead of hiring new firefighters when that engine was potentially on the chopping block, only to lay them off if the engine were cut at the end of March.
"So we kind of ran short on personnel and funded through overtime, which in the long run can be less expensive. It can wear on your staff and the morale, right? But it was less expensive," he said.
Engine 2 was originally taken out of service back in September 2020. It was restored to service on November 1 with money left in the 2021 operational budget.
Bachman said Engine 2's territory is the easiest to cover with other engines while still keeping up acceptable response times to calls. That's why it was chosen for a temporary halt in service.
Bachman said the firefighters who work Engine 2 will be temporarily reassigned elsewhere during the closure. He said it's possible it could go beyond Christmas Day, but said there's money to reopen the engine as of Jan. 1.
