South Cook News

Homewood Fire Department responded to 287 calls in 2017 - 6.7 percent more than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in Homewood included 66 fires - 29 structure fires, 10 vehicle fires and 27 other fires. The fire department also responded to three calls for ruptures, explosions or overheating.

In all, the department saw $137,584 in fire loss - or about $2,085 per fire.

The department also received 218 false calls, including seven malicious calls and 211 other false calls.

The Homewood Firefighters Pension Fund, which has 17 active employees and 14 retired or inactive employees, was $572,994 in debt as of April 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $9,393 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	40	29	-27.5
Vehicle Fires	8	10	25
Other fires	13	27	107.7
Total Fires	61	66	8.2
Total Calls	269	287	6.7