The South Holland Fire Department is reportedly going to take delivery of a new Pierce Velocity 100′ tower ladder at the International Fire Chief’s Conference this week at McCormick Place. We will post photos as soon as we get them.
Archive for August, 2010
New tower for South Holland
Aug 24
Illinois updates at Ferrara
Aug 15
There are recent photos HERE showing the current status of the new tower ladder and engine in production at Ferrara for the Algonquin Lake-in-the-Hills Fire Department. The painted bodies for both rigs have been mounted to the chassis and they appear to be approaching completion.
Also at Ferrara and not yet mentioned in this blog is a new Igniter engine for Glenside (DuPage County). The XL cab will have a 16″ raised roof and the unit will have a 1,500-GPM pump and a 1,000-gallon water tank. The cab has been painted and the chassis is nearing completion. Images and a description can be seen HERE as well. Simply scroll down to find the images as the listing is alphabetical.
This is one of four commemorative markings that now adorns Truck 2.
Last Monday, the 9th of August, CFD FF/PM Chris Wheatley of Truck Co 2 succumbed to injuries incurred after he fell from a ladder near the roof line while working at a fire at 615 W. Randolph. Chris was laid to rest yesterday, August 13, 2010 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip following a mass at St. John Fisher Church on South Washtenaw.
The casket is loaded onto Engine 5 for the journey to the church.
Chicago Fire Department commissioners and chiefs salute as the casket is brought out of the funeral home.
Chicago Fire Department personnel line the street in front of St John Fisher Church. Beyond the city firefighters and officers are members of the AFFI Honor Guard representing many suburban Chicago fire departments.
Members carry the casket from the church.
Images documenting the ceremonies and service can be viewed at Tim Olk’s website HERE and Larry Shapiro’s website HERE.
As of 6PM today, August 14, 2010, the Wheeling Fire Department is occupying their new headquarters fire station #24 at 499 S. Milwaukee Avenue. The old station #24 at what was the public safety complex, 255 W. Dundee Road, will not house any fire apparatus or firefighters for the near future. This facility will be remodeled so that the fire department can have a small presence within what will be the new expanded police headquarters. Eventually a single company will run out of the 255 W. Dundee Road location to maintain an optimum response to the northwest portion of their district.
Algonquin updates
Aug 6
Firefighters from Algonquin were at Ferrara recently inspecting their new tower ladder and engine that are being built. Ferrara has posted new photos HERE showing the progress of both units. The body has been mounted to both units and the truck body was recently painted. The rescue pumper apparently will be a large unit.
Alexis Fire Equipment has been refurbishing and updating a Pierce Arrow engine for the North Maine Fire Protection District as reported HERE and HERE. District Chief Mike Fox recently returned from inspecting the progress of the unit and submitted the photos shown below.
Chief Fox offered the following notes on the work:
The rig will be in the paint shop next week. After that, three and a half to four weeks before we get it back. Ladder rack is a single arm instead of a double. The 5 inch re-piping is all done. The rear lights will be modified and lowered. Many of the doors are already in the paint shop getting primed. There will be monster gauges on three sides of the vehicle. The wireless Firecomm system is ordered. The artist is coming along on the lettering.
The following article from today’s Daily Herald describes the efforts of Buffalo Grove firefighter Steve Rusin and the entire department with their efforts in support of promoting breast cancer awareness and the Pink Heals Tour.
A woman signs one of the pink fire trucks. Daily Herald photo
Buffalo Grove firefighters go pink in fight against cancer
Red is the color associated in most minds with fire departments.
In Buffalo Grove, however, pink predominates.
That is due to the fire department’s commitment to the fight against cancer in women.
During September and October, Buffalo Grove firefighters – as well as village employees and officials – will be wearing pink shirts bearing the logo of the Pink Heals Tour, which will feature a fleet of pink fire engines touring the country to spread awareness.
In September, Buffalo Grove Firefighter/Paramedic Steve Rusin will be one of the drivers guiding the pink posse.
The 2010 version of the Pink Heals Tour kicks off on Aug. 18 and runs through Oct. 31. From Aug. 27-29, trucks will be on display at the Fire Chiefs Conference in Chicago. And at 6 p.m. on Sept. 1, Buffalo Grove residents, as well as neighbors from surrounding towns, can view four of the trucks near the corner of Lake-Cook Road and Raupp Boulevard, one-half hour before the annual Buffalo Grove Days charity softball game between the Village of Buffalo Grove and the Buffalo Grove Area Chamber of Commerce.
The tour began with an Arizona firefighter, Dave Graybill, manning a single fire truck out of Glendale, Ariz. The firefighter spread awareness by driving his truck across the country. The truck now bears 38,000 signatures from survivors and relatives and friends of survivors.
Buffalo Grove’s involvement started last year with an effort to sell 30 T-shirts to his fellow firefighters. Rusin’s expectations were greatly exceeded when the department raised $2,500 after selling more than 400 shirts.
“(Graybill) took the money after we donated it and gave it to the Wellness Place in Palatine,” Rusin said.
This year, Rusin is once again selling the shirts, which will be available on the village’s website. In addition, one can also purchase sweatshirts with a hoodie. This year Buffalo Grove Firefighter Frank Doll has designed a local version of the T-shirt with the addition of a village logo.
“They say that the fire department is a macho tough guy thing, and I think the fire service has grasped the pink T-shirt concept to support cancer awareness,” Rusin said.
At this week’s village board meeting, Fire Chief Terry Vavra praised Rusin’s efforts, as well as the sacrifice of everyone in Rusin’s family. “Everybody in his family has bought into this, enough that they have given up their dad and their husband for a week,” as Rusin drives one of the trucks through the southern part of the country.
The new unit for Engine 4 in Naperville is also moving along well at Crimson. There are updated photos HERE showing that the body has been mounted to the chassis.
Our thanks go out to Chris, one of our readers, for informing us that Crimson has updated the production photos of the first CFD Spartan/Crimson aerial ladder shown HERE. Crimson has mounted the aerial to a chassis with a finished cab. It appears that Crimson will have something to display later this month at the Fire Rescue International trade show in Chicago. It will be interesting to see the status of the body, since there have been no updated photos on the site for several weeks showing the progress. They’re obviously working very hard to make a good showing in Chicago.
There are also updated shots of an engine shown HERE with the pump module and body mounted to the chassis. perhaps this one will also be at the show.
Addison Fire District Station 2
In Division 12, the Addison Fire District No. 1 runs out of three stations. They staff one truck, three engines, three ambulances (medic units) and a battalion chief covering 13 square miles. There are a bunch of missing photos though in this listing as Larry Shapiro visited the department Monday with limited time and was not able to complete the photography. A few of the apparatus photos represent the units on-scene at fires over the past year or so. The images will be updated with more flattering shots when new photos are submitted. Addison runs Medtec Type I ambulances and E-ONE engines; two of which are on Cyclone chassis and the newest unit has a Spartan Gladiator chassis. They have a Pierce 100′ tower ladder as their frontline piece with an E-ONE tower in reserve.
Interestingly, their E-ONE tower ladder is unique to this area. By far, the best selling tower ladder for E-ONE for many years has been the 95′ rear mount tower. Addison was one of the few departments in the US that took advantage of a newer EONE model in 1993 when they introduced a longer tower ladder with a reach of 105′. The 105′ model in the E-ONE product line was replaced by the HP100 (100′) tower ladder over 10 years later.
