10 Firefighters Quit After Convicted Arsonist Is Appointed Acting Chief
The Police Tribune | 12/22/21Ten out of 13 members of the Prairie Du Pont Volunteer Fire Department quit at a fire district board meeting on Monday night after a convicted arsonist was appointed acting fire chief.
The Prairie Du Pont Volunteer Fire Protection District Board of Trustees met in East Carondelet on Dec. 20 and fired Prairie Du Pont Volunteer Fire Chief John Rosencranz, KTVI reported.
The board gave no reason for the termination as they replaced Chief Rosencranz with Prairie Du Pont Volunteer Fire Assistant Chief Jerame Simmons, who was sitting at the same table.
In a statement released after the meeting on the fire department’s official Facebook page, the board of trustees simply said it had become apparent “over the last several months that a change in the Fire Department’s leadership is needed.”
But their choice to replace the popular Chief Rosencranz quickly became a huge problem.
Simmons is the son of Herb Simmons, the long-time director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency, KTVI reported.
But 20 years ago, he pleaded guilty to arson after setting fire to a vacant home and setting a small fire in Dupo High School.
Simmons was 18 when he set the fires, and he told KTVI that Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has since pardoned him.
But that’s not good enough for the firefighters on the department that he will be heading and some members of the community he will serve.
“It’s a pardon. Still, the town remembers the school being set on fire,” former Prairie Du Pont Volunteer Fire Captain Laura Rosencranz, who is also the wife of the now-former chief, told KTVI.
“The town remembers the house set on fire where we had firefighters fall and be injured,” Laura Rosencranz added.
A soon as the board appointed Simmons to acting chief, firefighters rose from their seats and began turning in gear right in the meeting room along with their resignations, FOX News reported.
By the time the meeting had ended, 10 of the 13 firefighters on the department had submitted their resignations.
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Not a big fan of Gomer Pyle USMC but any time Larry Storch plays a South American military emissary on a tv show is worth my time.
Thank you Corporal Agarn, for teaching us to laugh about love, again.
This summer a couple of friends and I are all meeting at a house in a seaside town that one of the group owns. Not a beach house, just a little house near the sea. We’ll be there for a few days. Anyway, I’ve discovered how you know who your friends are. I suggested a game I called the Dr Pepper Challenge. without the use of clocks or timers, the player has to drink a Dr Pepper at 10am, 2pm, and 4pm. The player that gets closest to those three times wins.
I know these guys are true friends because instead of saying “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard”, the response was. “I’m going to win”.
This reminded me of the meme where a husband and wife were in bed. The wife had a thought bubble that read “I bet he’s thinking about other women”, the husband had a thought bubble that would say “how can I figure out how to time my Dr Pepper drinking to drink one at exactly the right time?”
Who among us has not started a house fire and tried to burn down their school when we were young?
A next door neighbor brought his kid brother a half dozen Phosphorus grenades from Vietnam. The kid thought it a good idea to stash them in the
Chimney. 50 years later it’s still an empty lot.
I heard Walrus is the one that has burned down half of California…good work you big little Pyromaniac you.
Call it Urban renewal.