ROCHELLE — On Oct. 15, the Rochelle City Council unanimously approved an ordinance establishing the rank of captain in the Rochelle Fire Department. The change will officially take place in January 2025, RFD Chief Dave Sawlsville said. 

The new rank comes in response to a recent expansion to RFD's department that will see six total new firefighters hired. The final three new firefighters will be hired in the coming weeks. The new RFD model will see it utilize one captain, one lieutenant and four firefighters per shift that will all be overseen by Sawlsville.

RFD's expansion, the newest three firefighters of which will be funded by a $919,368 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant it recently received, came due to high call numbers in recent years and the new captain model seeks to have more safety during fire incidents and more specific professional development among RFD personnel.

RFD will now have a captain supervising fires from the outside of structures, and a lieutenant inside the structures supervising and leading firefighters. 

“Fires these days are hotter and faster than they've ever been,” Sawlsville said. “There needs to be somebody outside taking in the whole picture because that fire is jumping floors or moving around the house. When you're inside the building, you can't see anything. The lieutenant’s job is to watch the back of the people who are putting the fire out. We need to guarantee there's somebody on the sidewalk watching the backs of the crews that are putting the fire out. We did some research and the National Fire Protection Association said that 71 percent of the time when a mayday is called and a firefighter is in trouble inside a building, it's because the lieutenant opted to stay outside and watch the overall picture instead of watching the crew that's inside working. That was a pretty compelling number.” 

RFD’s lieutenants will sit for a written test and interview before the city’s fire and police board and be sworn in in January. State law says captains have to be promoted from the lieutenant rank. RFD’s current lieutenants are Jason Underwood, Zach Prewett and Jeremy Good. 

Sawlsville, who has been with RFD since 1980, said the change is exciting to see. He doesn’t recall a time when the department hired this new firefighters and established a new rank structure all at the same time. 

“It's growth,” Sawlsville said. “And our call numbers keep going up. You can't keep beating those same people up. You have to spread that work around. Even though we're adding people, we're also adding calls. The average firefighter is not going to see much of a let up. They're still going to keep going on calls. For the boots on the ground it will look the same. It will just be more people doing more work.”

Sawlsville and City Manager Jeff Fiegenschuh believe the new rank can also act as a retention tool, as firefighters will have more possible positions to advance to. The RFD chief said that earlier in his years with the department, most personnel on the department would start and retire as a firefighter. He’s also seen firefighters leaving departments for other jobs become more common, as firefighters have become more in demand due to shortages and job offers elsewhere have become more lucrative.

Fiegenschuh said the city has seen less applicants for its open firefighter positions in recent years. He believes retention of current personnel is paramount. 

“Having the ability to vertically move within the department is a good thing,” Fiegenschuh said. “This will provide better opportunities for firefighters who choose to go into leadership. They can test and move into the lieutenant's role and then if a vacancy opens at the captain ranks, lieutenants can apply for that role. And a qualified captain would be considered for the chief role if that comes open. It definitely offers more opportunity for vertical movement within the department and organization.”

The three new firefighters funded by the SAFER grant will be hired as soon as possible. Sawlsville said Nov. 20 that RFD has extended three conditional offers that have all been accepted and the hirees are working through the prerequisite process. 

The RFD thanked Underwood and Firefighter Ben Johnson for their work on the grant application process, which was outside of their job description. The grant’s amount represents a third of RFD’s budget. 

Sawlsville said the department’s new captain model makes him feel more comfortable about the safety of fire crews when operating at structure fires.

“It's comforting to know that no matter what the future brings, there will be somebody watching the firefighters' backs inside and somebody watching the structure from the outside,” Sawlsville said. “That's reassuring and it's necessary. You can't have enough accountability.”