West Cook News

River Forest Fire Department responded to 433 calls in 2017 - 26.2 percent more than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in River Forest included 74 fires - 51 structure fires, six vehicle fires and 17 other fires. The fire department also responded to two calls for ruptures, explosions or overheating.

In all, the department saw $551,300 in fire loss - or about $7,450 per fire.

The department also received 357 false calls, including five malicious calls and 352 other false calls.

The calls resulted in one civilian fire-related death.

The River Forest Firefighters Pension Fund, which has 19 active employees and 25 retired or inactive employees, was $2,173,248 in debt as of April 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $31,046 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	57	51	-10.5
Vehicle Fires	1	6	500
Other fires	12	17	41.7
Total Fires	70	74	5.7
Total Calls	343	433	26.2