Guest Speaker: Pete Polarek
Sycamore Fire Chief Pete Polarek says his department will be able to take advantage of a grant to upgrade the equipment and training it uses...to carry out its task of investigating fires.
During the January 4th Rotary Club meeting, Polarek said a $1,000 grant from Allstate Insurance will be put towards enhancing its fire investigation unit. According to state law, the Fire Chief is responsible for investigation of all fires; but until recently, the department had a severe shortage of trained investigators and couldn't keep up with the influx of cases.
He says that in the last few years, the department has been able to train six more personnel with the skills necessary to find out the cause of a given fire; while many fires aren't that serious, and sometimes the cause can be obvious, there are other cases where it's not so clear -- and takes plenty of study by fire personnel before they can make a determination.
Polarek also discussed last month's fire at the historic Boynton House; he says while the fire was indeed serious, intervention by his department, assistance from many others and a bit of luck kept the blaze from causing even more damage. He says it was fortunate that some of the doorways were closed, which slowed down the spread of the fire; on first glance, it appeared that the entire top floor would burn...but fire personnel were able to keep it from spreading, and saved over half of the historic mansion.