Rockford Sun

Belvidere Fire Department responded to 279 calls in 2017 - 1.4 percent less than the previous year, according to data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System.

The calls in Belvidere included 56 fires - 30 structure fires, five vehicle fires and 21 other fires.

In all, the department saw $805,926 in fire loss - or about $14,392 per fire.

The department also received 223 false calls, including seven malicious calls and 216 other false calls.

Two fire service member were injured in non fire-related incidents.

The Belvidere Firefighters Pension Fund, which has 29 active employees and 34 retired or inactive employees, was $1,454,187 in debt as of April 2016, according to the fund's mandated filings with the Illinois Department of Insurance. That amounts to $23,839 for every fire in 2016.

	2016	2017	Year-over-year change (%)
Structure Fires	31	30	-3.2
Vehicle Fires	9	5	-44.4
Other fires	21	21	0
Total Fires	61	56	-8.2
Total Calls	283	279	-1.4