North Egypt News

Benton Fire Department responded to 156 calls in 2017 - 17.3 percent more than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in Benton included 98 fires - 76 structure fires, nine vehicle fires and 13 other fires.

In all, the department saw $308,750 in fire loss - or about $3,151 per fire.

The department also received 58 false calls, including two malicious calls and 56 other false calls.

The calls resulted in one civilian fire-related injury. Additionally, one fire service member was injured in non fire-related incidents.

The Benton Firefighters Pension Fund, which has six active employees and seven retired or inactive employees, was $251,612 in debt as of April 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $2,735 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	67	76	13.4
Vehicle Fires	11	9	-18.2
Other fires	14	13	-7.1
Total Fires	92	98	6.5
Total Calls	133	156	17.3