Lake County Gazette

Highland Park Fire Department responded to 1351 calls in 2017 - 0.6 percent more than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in Highland Park included 43 fires - 17 structure fires, six vehicle fires and 20 other fires. The fire department also responded to one call for ruptures, explosions or overheating.

In all, the department saw $557,845 in fire loss - or about $12,973 per fire.

The department also received 1307 false calls, including 24 malicious calls and 1283 other false calls.

One fire service member was injured in fire-related incidents.

The Highland Park Firefighters Pension Fund, which has 50 active employees and 60 retired or inactive employees, was $2,286,850 in debt as of December 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $69,298 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	17	17	0
Vehicle Fires	10	6	-40
Other fires	6	20	233.3
Total Fires	33	43	30.3
Total Calls	1,343	1,351	0.6