Letter from President Coats

Please contact your Illinois State Representative, and ask them to support House Bill 923, it is an initiative of the AFFI. It is sponsored by Representative Dan Burke, and co-sponsored by 18 democrat and republican Representatives, and is an initiative of the AFFI.  This bill would define our pension code (article 4) what an “act of duty” is, after an appellate court justice defined via case law. When the appellate court reversed a Kane County circuit court decision and took away a line-of-duty disability from an Aurora firefighter in 2006.

Our opponents, the Illinois Municipal League, and the Northwest Municipal Conference are working hard against our bill, comparing firefighters to janitors.

Most of us as career firefighters work 24-48 hour shifts. In addition to responding to emergency medical calls, fires, HazMat, and rescues, firefighters also participate daily in all types of training scenarios, and also perform routine and unique maintenance of our rigs and in our stations.  On a very rare occasion firefighters can suffer a career-ending injury during training incidents, in our rigs, or at the station during our tour of duty. The Northwest Municipal Conference uses a scenario in their fact sheet to the legislators, of a janitor and a firefighter slipping on a floor they just mopped. This would most likely result in a couple of stitches or perhaps a broken bone. Both would receive medical treatment and return to work.

The Northwest Municipal Conference and the Illinois Municipal League are also claiming that our bill would expand the number of disable firefighters which would be eligible for the “catastrophic injury” health insurance benefit.  This claim is blatantly false, because only those firefighters who suffer career-ending injuries enroute to, or at an emergency call are eligible for the health insurance benefit, and this bill HB 923, only covers incidents that are not on an emergency call.

However, what if a firefighter is seriously injured in a live fire training scenario or falling off the hose bed after a fire, and as a result suffers a career-ending injury. Under current case law, according the the appellate court justices, our members would only be entitled to a non-duty disability. Under HB 923, our members would rightly be eligible for a line-of-duty disability.

Please call your respective Representative and ask him or her to reject the Northwest Municipal Conference’s stance, and support their local firefighters who suffer career-ending injuries and support HB 923.  

The bill will be called to a vote next week, please call ASAP our Legislative Committee has been working very hard on this bill.

Fraternally,

Chris Coats, President
Pekin Firefighters Local 524