Last Monday three new Full-time Firefighters started their careers with the Pingree Grove & Countryside Fire Protection District. The last week has been busy for the new Firefighters, with paper work, orientation, and training.

Timothy Kaplan:

Tim is married and has 3 children. He spent 7 years in the Navy as a Corpsman with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He works Part-Time as a Firefighter/Medic for the Peotone Fire Protection District, and started working at Pingree Grove and Countryside as a Part-Time Firefighter/Medic in June 2021. He attended Paramedic training through Morris Hospital in 2019. Attended The Romeoville Fire Academy in 2021. Has been certified in Vehicle and Machine Operations and as a Critical Care Paramedic.

Eric Wonneberger:

Eric is married and has a daughter. He has worked Part-Time at Pingree Grove for almost three years, prior to working at Pingree Grove he worked Part-Time for Marengo Fire District and Atec Ambulance. While working for Atec he was deployed to South Carolina for Hurricane Florence and then to Florida for Hurricane Michael.

Brett McKillip:

Brett started as an EMT working for Sunstar in Pinellas County Florida in 2006. He attended his Firefighter II in 2009 and attanded his Paramedic license in 2010. Brett worked as a Paid-on-Call Firefighter for Rockton FPD from 2008 to 2012, Worked for Superior Ambulance in Rockford from 2007 to 2011 and 2018 to 2020. While at Superior he became a Medic Preceptor and an Advance Scope Medic. Brett also worked as a Firefighter/Medic for Freeport Fire Department from 2012 to 2018, where he attained Advanced Firefighter, Haz-Mat Tech A & B, FAE and Instructor I. He also worked for Win-Bur-Sew FPD from 2020 to 2021.