The call load for firefighters has tripled and variety of their training and responsibilities has significantly expanded in the last few decades, while the personnel population at the Peoria Fire Department has remained relatively flat.
Those factors, combined with the continued dwindling of tax revenue flowing into city coffers, create a stark reality, according to the president of the local firefighters union, Ryan Brady. Standing before a throng of firefighters and their families Thursday outside Station 8 in South Peoria, he said lives will be at risk if budgets get balanced on the backs of his members.
“Fire doubles in size with every minute that goes by,” Brady said. “If you couple fire doubling in size with longer response times and less resources to respond, undoubtedly, you are putting citizens and firefighters at a greater risk and increasing property losses and injury.”