Witt Volunteer Fire Dept

10/13/2026

PUBLIC SAFETY ADVISORY – ELEVATED FIRE DANGER
The Witt Volunteer Fire Department is asking residents to voluntarily refrain from all outdoor burning until conditions improve.
Recent hot temperatures, low humidity, and a lack of significant rainfall have created increasingly dry conditions throughout our response area. While winds are expected to remain relatively light, vegetation and other combustible materials have become dry enough that even a small fire could spread quickly and become difficult to control.
Fire departments across Illinois have responded to numerous outdoor fires as conditions have continued to deteriorate. Fortunately, our immediate area has avoided similar incidents, and we would like to keep it that way.
At this time, we are not issuing a burn ban. With significant rainfall forecast for Tuesday night into Wednesday, we are hopeful that conditions will improve. However, until adequate rainfall occurs, the potential for rapidly spreading fires remains a concern.
We ask everyone to use good judgment over the next several days. Please avoid burning brush, leaves, trash, or other outdoor materials. Additionally, exercise caution with equipment, discarded smoking materials, and any activity that could produce sparks or open flames.
A little extra caution now can prevent a potentially serious incident.
We appreciate our community's cooperation in helping protect lives, property, and our firefighters.
Witt Volunteer Fire Department
Neighbors Helping Neighbors

09/12/2026

Call #160 – Mutual Aid Structure Fire

Last night, the Witt Volunteer Fire Department assisted the Fillmore Fire Protection District with a structure fire.

WVFD responded with Ladder 307 staffed with six firefighters, Tender 302 staffed with two firefighters, and Command 300, providing a total of nine WVFD personnel.

Upon arrival, Ladder 307 was positioned for aerial operations and assigned to vertical ventilation. Crews worked alongside Fillmore, Nokomis and other responding agencies to support fireground operations, while Tender 302 remain staged to support rural water supply operation.

Incidents like this are a strong reminder of the importance of mutual aid, interoperability, and regular training between neighboring departments. No single department can handle every incident alone, and these established partnerships ensure that additional personnel, apparatus, water, and specialized capabilities are available when they are needed most.

We appreciate the Fillmore Fire Protection District and all responding agencies for the continued teamwork and cooperation.

Strong departments. Strong partnerships. Safer communities.

09/12/2026

09/11/2026

For the members of the Witt Volunteer Fire Department, September 11, 2001, is more than a date in history. In their memory, we will be posting a timeline throughout the day. WE REMEMBER.

Many of us remember exactly where we were that morning. We remember watching the unimaginable unfold and seeing firefighters, police officers, EMS personnel, and ordinary citizens run toward danger when every instinct told others to run away. Some of our younger members were children—or not yet born—but the lessons and sacrifices of that day are now part of the fire service they serve in.

It's true. September 11 changed the American fire service forever.

There is an old saying in the fire service that many of our rules, standards, and procedures have been “written in blood.” They exist because someone before us paid an unimaginable price for a lesson we cannot afford to learn twice. September 11 was no different. Communications, accountability, incident command, interoperability, building intelligence, firefighter survival, and emergency preparedness were forever changed by what happened that day.

But behind every lesson learned are people.

343 FDNY firefighters answered their final alarm that day. They climbed stairwells carrying tools and equipment while thousands of people were coming down. They knew the danger. They knew the risk. And they continued upward.

Twenty-five years have now passed. A generation has entered the fire service with no personal memory of that September morning. That makes our responsibility to remember—and to teach—even greater.

Today, the members of the Witt Volunteer Fire Department remember those who answered the call, those who never returned home, the families who continue to carry their loss, and those whose lives were forever changed by September 11, 2001.

We train because of the lessons they left us.
We serve in honor of the example they set.
And we remember because their sacrifice deserves nothing less.

25 years later, we have not forgotten.
We will not forget.

09/10/2026

You should know where your money goes and how we use it.

At the WVFD, nearly every dollar we spend is brought before our membership for a vote. If someone questions a purchase or disagrees with an expense, we stop, we listen, and we have the discussion. Every concern deserves to be heard.

We owe that respect not only to our members, but to you—the taxpayers, donors, and supporters who make what we do possible.

It’s your money. It’s our responsibility to use it wisely, transparently, and in the best interest of the community we serve.