Kankakee Times

Kankakee Fire Department responded to 543 calls in 2017 - 8.6 percent less than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in Kankakee included 141 fires - 77 structure fires, 23 vehicle fires and 41 other fires. The fire department also responded to nine calls for ruptures, explosions or overheating.

In all, the department saw $852,195 in fire loss - or about $6,044 per fire.

The department also received 393 false calls, including 28 malicious calls and 365 other false calls.

The calls resulted in one civilian fire-related injury. Additionally, two fire service members were injured in fire-related incidents.

The Kankakee Firefighters' Pension Fund, which has 48 active employees and 87 retired or inactive employees, was $3,133,353 in debt as of April 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $21,171 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	75	77	2.7
Vehicle Fires	40	23	-42.5
Other fires	33	41	24.2
Total Fires	148	141	-4.7
Total Calls	594	543	-8.6