Illinois moving toward partial online firefighter training. The new course to become a firefighter in Illinois could make it a lot easier.

About 70 percent of firefighters in Illinois are volunteers. But the ranks are thinning, thanks in part to weeks of mandatory training that used to pull wannabe firefighters away from home.

The Illinois State Fire Marshal is changing that. Fire Marshal spokesman J.C. Fultz says a new blended training program will allow firefighters to learn the classroom stuff online at home during the week, and train on the job on the weekends. Firefighters will train at the U of I or a few local sites if they live too far from Champaign-Urbana.

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