McLean County Times

Normal Fire Department responded to 591 calls in 2017 - 17 percent more than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in Normal included 94 fires - 47 structure fires, 12 vehicle fires and 35 other fires. The fire department also responded to 19 calls for ruptures, explosions or overheating.

In all, the department saw $744,687 in fire loss - or about $7,922 per fire.

The department also received 478 false calls, including 41 malicious calls and 437 other false calls.

The Normal Firefighters Pension Fund, which has 65 active employees and 45 retired or inactive employees, was $2,225,968 in debt as of March 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $35,333 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	30	47	56.7
Vehicle Fires	11	12	9.1
Other fires	22	35	59.1
Total Fires	63	94	49.2
Total Calls	505	591	17