(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Naperville’s elected leaders have agreed to beef up fire department resources to deal with situations that include mental health after the city’s fire chief said “we can do more” to aid the community.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the hiring of six new firefighter-paramedics at an annual cost of $750,000 to help to deal with the increasing number of 9-1-1 calls related to mental health and quality-of-life concerns.
“We need to be more proactive,” Naperville Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis told council members. “This is a paradigm shift in the fire service today. Not just for Naperville, not just for this region but around the country.
“You will see more of this happening, especially with departments our size and larger, because there’s a need out there. The world has changed, and the situations that we respond to, we’ve noticed, we can do more.”
Puknaitis said the goal is to minimize or eliminate the issues before they become life-threatening events.
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