Illinois Raises Awareness During Community Risk Reduction Week

In 2022, 70% of department responses were EMS calls in Illinois which is the leading reason for departments to be called out.
Springfield, Ill- Governor JB Pritzker has proclaimed Monday, January 15, 2024, through Sunday, January 21, 2024, as Community Risk Reduction (CRR) Week in Illinois. CRR is a data-driven process to identify and prioritize local risks, followed by the integrated and strategic investment of resources (emergency response and prevention) to reduce their occurrence and impact.

The goal of CRR Week is to raise awareness among the fire service that implementing CRR concepts will make communities and departments safer. The idea of CRR week originated with individuals from various fire departments across the country. The focus of the week will be on the five “E’s” of CRR: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, Economic Incentive and Emergency Response. Any fire department or community, big or small, rural or metro, paid or volunteer can use CRR concepts to identify risks in their communities and start to plan how to reduce those risks. Monday, January 15, 2024, is Martin Luther King Day and is nationally recognized as a National Day of Service and an opportunity for communities to reduce the risk in their community through a series of educational and other programs.

“I am excited to see stories and continue to learn about the success communities around the state are having with their newly established or growing CRR programs. This shows that leaders in the fire service are understanding the importance of looking at their data, analyzing their data, and finding ways to use their data to mitigate risks in their communities. I am proud to say, Illinois continues to be a national leader when it comes to CRR,” said Illinois State Fire Marshal James A. Rivera. “It’s simple, CRR works no matter the size of a community.”

“CRR just makes sense! Through the continued engagement of all Illinois fire organizations, stakeholders, and partners, the Illinois CRR Stakeholder Task Force is working to collect and analyze IL fire call data to develop strong strategies to prevent and mitigate community risks throughout the state, said Project Manager Marsha Giesler.” “In turn, these efforts will also keep our firefighters safer.”

According to crrweek.org, every 21 seconds, a fire department in the United States responds to a fire somewhere in the nation. In 2022, 72% of all fire deaths occurred in the home and home fires were responsible for 13,250 civilian injures, causing an estimated $18 billion in property damage. In 2022, 70% of department responses were EMS calls in Illinois which is the leading reason for departments to be called out, and nationally the fire service responds to a growing number of medical calls for service, surpassing 80% of total call volume in some communities.

The CRR process began in the state of Illinois in late 2019 and continues to grow through outreach efforts of the State of Illinois Community Risk Reduction Task Force and its members. The mission of the taskforce is to promote the importance of risk reduction in Illinois by inspiring community ownership and providing coordinated resources. To learn more about the task force and find CRR resources to help get a CRR program started in your community, visit illinoiscrr.com or follow on facebook at @IllinoisCRR.