In northern Lake County, the North Chicago Fire Department runs a fleet of Pierce and Medtec units out of two stations. Their 8 square mile district borders the Great Lakes Naval Training Center on two sides. Their newest piece of apparatus is an 85′ tower ladder from Pierce which replaced a 1977 Hendrickson 1871-S/Pierce/LTI 85′ tower ladder. North Chicago is expecting another new Pierce in January. This will be a Pierce custom Contender engine to replace a 1986 Pierce Dash engine with open jump seats.
North Chicago's 1977 Hendrickson 1871-S/Pierce/LTI 85' tower ladder which was disposed of recently with the arrival of the new tower ladder. Larry Shapiro collection
At North Chicago Station 2 on Buckley Road is their newest ambulance. Purchased in 2009, this was a Medtec demonstrator that was built in 2002. It arrived with blue decals which was the design that Medtec had created so the unit would appeal to a traditional rescue squad. The blue was subsequently removed and replaced with red graphics. This explains why this ambulance design is different looking than the other North Chicago ambulances.
Prior to changing the graphics on this 2002 Medtec demonstrator that North Chicago purchased in 2009, it was in service for a short time with the blue graphics seen here. This photo was taken on-scene at a 2nd alarm fire response in Libertyville in July of 2009 shortly after the new ambulance was delivered. Larry Shapiro photo
The ambulance with updated red graphics.
