Oskroba v. The Village of Hoffman Estates

Village did not err in ruling that firefighter was not injured when responding to an emergency, and was thus not entitled to insurance benefits under the Public Safety Employee Benefits Act. Firefighter sustained rotator cuff injury when lifting a wet fire hose from fire truck which had just returned from an emergency call, to replace it with a dry fire hose for truck to be ready to respond once another call came. Employee Benefits Act does not provide all firefighters who are injured in the line of duty and receive a line of duty disability pension with an automatic entitlement to benefits. Plaintiff's injury did not occur while he was responding to what is reasonably believed to be an emergency, as fire truck was not being prepared to respond to a pending call; and Fire Chief testified that nearest station was 4 1/2 miles away and in his opinion the situation was not an emergency. (O'MARA FROSSARD and NEVILLE, concurring.)