The Fox Lake Fire Department received calls for a fire in an apartment building in the 500 block of Autumn Boulevard in Lakemoor around 11PM last night. Arriving roughly four minutes later, companies found fire through the roof of the three-story, light-weight constructed building. A structural collapse occurred shortly thereafter. This was a 3-11 for tankers and a Box Alarm for the structural collapse with at least 19 fire departments represented on the scene.
Four tower ladders went to work (Fox Lake, McHenry Township, Wauconda, and Round Lake) in addition to several handlines and ground level master streams.
Interesting apparatus notes from the incident include the following:
- Countryside and Grayslake both had their new apparatus at the fire.
- Several of the units on-scene were equipped with Nightscan or Command Light towers including engines from Antioch, Grayslake, and Round Lake plus squads from Fox Lake and Barrington.
- At one point late into the fire, the Fox Lake Tower Ladder (Spartan/3D/Nova Quintech) which was in sector 1, deployed the articulating jib of the fly-section of the ladder over the building
- McHenry Township had four units on the scene: engine, tower, tanker and squad
- Round Lake had three units on the scene; engine, tower, and tanker
- Lake Villa had three units on the scene; engine, tanker, and ambulance
- Grayslake had an engine and tanker at the scene
- Lake Bluff responded with an engine … probably the farthest distance travelled
Antioch's American LaFrance/Alexis engine with a Nightscan lighting up the scene. Larry Shapiro photo
This Fox Lake squad has two light towers capable of providing enough light for any scene. Larry Shapiro photo
Countryside put this new tanker into service this summer. It is shown here working at it's second tanker box already. In the background, Round Lake's engine is lighting up the porta-tanks with a Command Light mounted on the cab roof. Larry Shapiro photo
The Nova Quintech Sky Arm tower ladder from Fox Lake with the jib section articulating down from the main ladder. Larry Shapiro photo
Of the 19 departments represented at this fire, chicagoareafire.com has the following departments posted to the website:
- Buffalo Grove
- Cary
- Countryside
- Lake Bluff
- Lake Forest
- Lake Villa
- Libertyville
- Long Grove
- McHenry Township
- Mundelein
- Newport Township
- Wauconda
These are not yet represented on the site:
- Antioch
- Barrington
- Fox Lake
- Grayslake
- Lake Villa
- Nunda Rural
- Round Lake
Larry Shapiro has a gallery of images from this fire which can be viewed HERE.
