Village of Savoy Fire Department | 106 Tomaras Av | Savoy | IL | 61874 | 217-359-5814 | http://www.savoyfd.com/home.htm |
The Village of Savoy Fire Department is a Call 3 fire deparment by ISO. The department is a paid on call fire department which provides firefighting, rescue and emergency medical services. These services are provided to all residents both within the village and areas surrounding that have chosen to utilize Savoy Fire Department's services on a contractual basis. The population served by the Fire Department is approximately 15,000. ALS ambulance services within the village are provided by Pro Ambulance Service of Champaign with a ambulance stationed in Savoy 24 hours per day.
The fire department operates utlizing 4 engines, a ladder tower, command vehicle and utliity pickup as well as operating the MABAS Division 28 Air Repleneshment Trailer. Staff includes a fire chief, assistant chief, captain, four lieutenants, and a staff of aproximately thirty engineers and firefighters. Savoy FD also participates in the MABAS Division 28 investigations team with four certified fire investigators and an arson investigator.
The mission statement maintains that the department:
[S]hall minimize the effects of fire, emergencies, and disasters. The department will accomplish our mission through fire prevention, public education, and continual professional development of emergency response personnel. When called upon the department will provide a rapid and professional response to emergencies and show care and compassion to those in need.
The early history of the Savoy Fire Department is significant in that it was the main reason for the incorporation of the Village of Savoy in 1956. Prior to that year, the Champaign Fire Department responded to all fires in the area, including those outside of the city limits of Champaign. In 1956 the Champaign City Council voted to cut services outside of Champaign in an attempt to cut costs. Suddenly farms and houses outside the city no longer had fire protection, and a petition was signed by 61 citizens to incorporate Savoy into a Village, mainly for the purpose of providing funds for fire protection of the area. On April 7, 1956 Savoy citizens voted to incorporate by a vote of 50 to 49 (the vote was contested and approved). The Village Board convened for the first time on July 11, 1956, and established the Savoy Volunteer Fire Department (VFD), which put out its first fire on the morning of November 6. Within the next year they had raised enough funds to build a department building and buy a fire truck.
The Savoy Fire Department bought its first computer in 1996 and the reporting software it still uses, FIREHOUSE, in 1997. Prior to this all reporting—federal law requires the reporting of every phone call and response—was done by hand or typewriter, which was extremely time-consuming. In 1999 cable modems were installed through a free partnership with a cable company and ISP called Insight, which has since been bought out by Comcast. In February of 2012, the Fire Department launched its new self-hosted website, designed entirely by staff and providing an extensive amount of information to the public.
This CU wiki entry began as a UIUC research project. For more on that see Study of UC2B Anchor Institutions' Technology Use