Rantoul Fire Department hopes to see new upgrades at fire station

RANTOUL, Ill. (WAND) — Rantoul Fire Station 2 could be seeing upgrades soon.

The Rantoul Village Board is set to vote tonight on spending $750,000 worth of upgrades for the station.

“By doing these additions we hope to be able to provide showers, additional ways to clean their PPE gear. House fires, maybe bodily fluids in a motor vehicle accident, we need to get that stuff off of us. Get it cleaned, get it sanitized before our next call of service that we may have for the general public and most importantly not taking that material home to our families,” said Fire Chief, Chad Smith.

Smith explained how two firefighters from the department passed away due to cancer. With occupational cancer now the leading cause of death for firefighters, the chief hopes the upgrades could improve the health of his firefighters.

“In the fire service, firefighters are 50% more likely to be diagnosed with the disease of cancer. In the last few years, we’ve had 2 firemen pass away of cancer. So, it’s extremely important for me to provide every opportunity to try to eliminate this horrible disease that the fire service continues to deal with on the day-to-day basis,” stated Smith

For Smith, his main goal is to make the best environment for firefighters so they'll want to return and to continue serving their community.

“It is extremely hard to get people to volunteer within the fire service in society today," said Smith. "We’re just trying to stay up with the times and make it an environment that people want to go back to serving and volunteering within their community.”

If the proposal is approved, Smith said he would like to start construction by June.