Ill. fire dept. receives two fire investigation training grants

By Tara Garcia Mathewson
Chicago Daily Herald

ELGIN, Ill. — The Elgin Fire Department received two separate grants this week for fire investigation training.

A $17,387 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will help send two firefighters to a state course for certification from a fire investigative school.

Total cost of the classes is $21,733; the remainder of the funding comes from the department's own budget.

Fire Chief John Fahy said the department received the same grant in 2006 to send two firefighters for the training, which helps them determine the cause of fires.

FM Global, one of the world's largest commercial insurance companies, awarded the department another $1,200 for its training efforts.

The money will help fund firefighters' attendance at a residential electrical class, broadening their skills in recognizing signs of electrical system failure in homes.

The class will detail how systems work and what they look like after electrical fires.

"The fire service has come a long way in tracing down the actual cause of the fire," Fahy said. "With equipment, materials and training, we've become a lot more sophisticated."

The FEMA and FM Global grants allow departments like Elgin's to keep up with training and maintain their expertise.

The Elgin Fire Department is the largest member in the northern region of the Kane County Fire Investigative Team Task Force area. Fahy said his team is called to help in local fires specifically because of their knowledge base.

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