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Continuing to build: La Salle recognizes Camatti as first homegrown firefighter paramedic · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Continuing to build, LaSalle recognizes Kamathi as first hometown firefighters paramedic. Written
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  by Emily Beebe. This article is being read by an automated voice,
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  brought to you by Everlett. When Kyle Comati was a kid, he
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  watched his hometown firefighters run out to a garage fire. He saw
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  the names on the backs of their coats, and he recognized the
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  as people he knew. I'm like, that'd be really cool to do
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  that one day, he said. At sixteen, he walked into the Standard
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  Fire Department and told them he was interested in the Cadet program.
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  His path started from there, and, seventeen years later, that kid watching
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  the hometown firefighters became the first homegrown firefighter paramedic in La Salle.
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  Comatti was hired part time as an EMT in June 2024 and
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  made full time the following February as the first hire following a
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  union agreement approved by the City Council that expanded the education requirements
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  for all firefighters, including that they must acquire paramedic certification as a
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  condition of employment. For eleven months Comati sat in a classroom at
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  Illinois Valley Community College for four hours every Tuesday and Thursday. He
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  logged 6:26 hours while at IVCC between class time, clinical rotations at
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  the hospital and ride time at the fire department. On top of
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  that, he was working shifts of 24 hours on and 48 hours
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  off The schedule of a full-time firefighter, all the while raising four
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  children, two of his own and two of his girlfriends. His youngest
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  was 3 or 4 months old when he started The
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  program. Very stressful, he said. The big thing that helped was our
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  family helping watch the kids. And the people here at the department
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  kinda helped me push through, push me harder to learn it, because
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  it was a lot. The city covered the cost of the program,
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  including tuition, books and fees. He graduated july twenty third and sat
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  for the National Registry of Paramedic Exam on august seventeenth. The results
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  came the next day. He passed. On August 18, Kamadi became a
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  paramedic trained, tested and certified from within its own department which is
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  something LaSalle had never had. Commoditi was recognized at the LaSalle City
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  Council meeting on august 31. LaSalle Fire Chief Jerry Janick told the
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  other council members in the audience about Commoditi's path to becoming the
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  first homegrown firefighter paramedic in LaSalle. I think it's awesome, Comadie said.
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  I'm really looking forward to growing with the department. Them department's doing
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  great things, and I'm just glad to be a part of it.
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  Comadie said four more firefighters are currently going through the program and
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  he wants to be there for them. Hopefully I can help them
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  make it easier, give them the little tricks that I found out
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  the hard way, and just continue to build the department, Comati said.