The Park Forest Fire Department held a swearing-in ceremony during Monday evening's board meeting. During this event, one member was promoted, and another was officially welcomed to the department.
Elisabeth "Bess" Vlahakis, a native of Park Forest, has been serving as the department's emergency medical services (EMS) coordinator. She has now been promoted to lieutenant, making her the second female lieutenant in the department's history, following Lieutenant Michelle Paradise, who became the first in 2023.
Vlahakis joined the Park Forest Fire Department in 2016, but her career in the fire service began in 2003. She graduated as an EMT-B, became a firefighter in 2007, and earned her paramedic certification in 2009. Prior to joining her hometown's department, she worked for several other fire departments in the area.
Over the past two decades, Vlahakis has obtained 32 fire service certifications, including various technical rescue certifications. She is an active Combined Agency Response Team member and serves as a rescue specialist with the Illinois Task Force 1 Team.
Vlahakis is passionate about EMS. She has developed EMS training programs to benefit firefighters and paramedics from the Park Forest Fire Department and the surrounding departments that assist them. Additionally, for 13 years, she has been an instructor with the Prairie State Fire and EMS Academies, helping to train the next generation of firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics.
The Park Forest Fire Department also welcomed Jacob Reece to its family during Monday night's Board meeting. The 24-year-old is a native of the southland and comes from a family of firefighters. His grandfather was a firefighter in Lansing, and his father is a Hazel Crest Fire Department lieutenant.
Reece began his fire service career with the Beecher Fire Protection District, where he completed the fire academy in 2021. Recently, he also obtained his paramedic certification. All Park Forest Fire Department members serve as both firefighters and paramedics.
Reece's grandfather, Don Reece Sr., pinned his badge on him to cement the occasion.