7-20-2024 5:01am

Harlem-Roscoe Fire will transition to full-time staff in August

Michael McGinnis Editor

Some of the staff of the Harlem-Roscoe Fire Protection District.

The Harlem-Roscoe Fire Department is transitioning to a 24/7 full-time staffed department effective August 1, 2024, supplemented with part time personnel.

Harlem-Roscoe Fire Chief John Bergeron says, "This transition marks a new era for Harlem-Roscoe Fire Department." Bergeron says residents will see "faster, more reliable service." The department's on premise shift schedule will increase to 12 paid staff per day, allowing for more continuous coverage.

Chief John Bergeron says, "We invite everyone to join us on July 22, 2024 at 5:30 PM for the swearing in of the full-time personnel. It will be held at Harlem-Roscoe Fire Department Station #3, located at 13974 Willowbrook Road, Roscoe, IL 61073. Refreshments will be served."

The transition will be attractive for career staff, says Bergeron, helping the department keep the personnel they trained, instead of having them take jobs with another fire department. Bergeron told us, "We have been working on this for close to a year." In April 2024, voters approved a small tax increase to fund pensions for the Harlem-Roscoe Fire Protection District. Full-time firefighters will also receive more rigorous ongoing training.

That doesn't mean the department no longer needs volunteers. The change will allow even more opportunities for public education, safety programs, and community involvement, even apart from firefighting, which admittedly is not for everyone. New volunteer firefighters must take least 100 hours of classes in basic fire and medical operations before they can go on a call. A volunteer firefighter must be at least 18 years old, a high school graduate, in good physical condition, and able to complete the department's Physical Agility Test.

Chief Bergeron says the change will not affect Stateline CERT, the Illinois Stateline Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), which Harlem-Roscoe manages. Part of a national program, CERT trains local volunteers to help with team organization, disaster medical operations, fire safety, and light search and rescue, freeing professionals for the more difficult jobs. For instance, in Nov. 2023 the CERT team provided coffee and water at the scene of an early morning house fire on Prairie Flower in Roscoe.

Before the Harlem-Roscoe Fire Protection District was formed in 1940, volunteers and neighbors had to put out fires. Today, 65% of U.S. firefighters are volunteers, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC). But across the country, volunteer numbers are decreasing even as 911 calls are increasing. Harlem-Roscoe Fire received 3,791 calls in 2023. In today's Harlem-Roscoe Fire Department, most firefighters are also paramedics or EMTs. In June 2024, 82% of calls were medical calls, not fires. Before the EMS system was created in 1974, residents of Roscoe might have to wait an hour for an ambulance to arrive from Beloit or Rockford.

In 1996, Oscar Presley, a barber for 35 years, became Harlem-Roscoe Fire Department's first full time paid fire chief. He also became the first certified paramedic among Winnebago County's volunteer fire departments, in 1979. Chief Bergeron was an early volunteer in the program, becoming an EMT in 1984 and a paramedic in 1988.