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13 Comments

• #1 by David on April 29, 2012 - 12:09 PM

  

  Bill, thank you much for all the data around the 1959 “UFO” and the rest of the CFD Snorkels! I think I’ll have to copy this and read it over a few times to absorb it all. Really quite a bit of CFD history. Thanks again for sharing all this knowledge with us!

• #2 by Bill Post on April 27, 2012 - 6:54 PM

  

  This is a correction for my previous posting about Snorkels 4 and 5. I had meant to type that they were both delivered with red roofs and they weren’t painted black.

• #3 by Bill Post on April 27, 2012 - 2:13 PM

  

  David, I don’t remember whether it had the specific CFD famous script lettering on it, but probably not. As I mentioned, it was red over red as far as I could remember.
  Something that you would find interesting however is that the original Snorkel 5 and 4 Ford/High Ranger Snorkels were delivered without red roofs, and Snorkel 5’s roof remained that way. Snorkel 4 had remained most of it’s life that way. Snorkel 4’s original rig was at Snorkel 3 the last year or so before they received the 1971 55-foot Ford/Pierce. Snorkel 5 was the only Snorkel on the CFD with two fixed turret nozzles in the basket.
  Chicago’s original Snorkels were shifted around quite a bit. This was originally done because not only did they want to distribute them around the city, but at the beginning there weren’t that many large stations that could accommodate them. As more new and larger stations were built, they did manage to relocate some of them.
  Snorkel 5 had been relocated more than any of the other original (pre-1981) Snorkels. Snorkel 3 had the most rigs assigned to it of the (pre-1981) Snorkels. The reason why I emphasize the pre-1981 Snorkels, is because in 1981 the Snorkel companies as well as the squads, the light wagons, and deluge units were all renumbered to reflect the district that they were assigned to at the time.
  In 1981 Snorkel 5 became Snorkel 1, Snorkel 4 became Snorkel 2, and Snorkel 6 became Snorkel 3. The new Snorkel 4 was a new company that was originally assigned the 55-foot Hendrickson/Pierce rig which had been assigned to Snorkel Squad 1 and Snorkel 3 (which became Snorkel 5). Within two years, a 6th district was added. At that time, Snorkel 4 became Snorkel 5 and Snorkel 5 became Snorkel 6. Snorkel 1’s rig became the new Snorkel 4 and our current reserve Snorkel, the 1982 Seagrave/Pierce 85-footer had become the new Snorkel 1. However, about a year later, Snorkels 3, 4, and 5 were taken out of service to become official reserve Snorkels. Snorkels 1, 2, and 6 were combined with Squads 1, 2, and 6 to become today’s 2-piece Snorkel Squads 1, 2, and 5.
  The current reserve Snorkel had become a reserve Snorkel within a year of the creation of the new Snorkel Squads, and they gave the new Snorkel Squad 1 the Oshkosh/Pierce that had been Snorkel 4.
  Snorkel Squad 6 was renumbered Squad 5 about a year or so after going in service, as they were originally put in service at Engine 122’s house (which was really in District 5 and not in District 6). In December of 1987 they were relocated to Engine 116’s house.
  To add to the game of musical chairs that the CFD was playing with it’s Snorkel and Squad companies, the CFD had Engine 12 (1975 Oshkosh/FMC/Bean) converted into Snorkel Squad 6 in February of 1982. However, it was changed to Snorkel Squad 7 in September. Engine 12 had a 55-foot Snorkel installed on it in 1979. The Snorkel at Squad 7 was removed from service in late 1988.

• #4 by Bill Post on April 27, 2012 - 12:21 PM

  

  Phil the most that I could remember is that it had a red roof with the 2 revolving red dome lights. As far as other markings go I do remember that it did say Chicago Fire Department but that’s about it. I could tell you that it was on the northwest corner of State and Madison, because that’s where I was at.

• #5 by David on April 27, 2012 - 11:58 AM

  

  Last thing I’d like to ask – Bill, don’t you remember – was it running in Chicago colors back then when you saw it or it was without the CFD lettering?!

• #6 by Bill Post on April 27, 2012 - 10:19 AM

  

  Thanks for the information Phil. I actually saw that rig running as Snorkel 1 at the 1959 Christmas parade in Chicago where they were using it as a television camera boom.
  At the time, they were sampling it at Snorkel 1, there were only three Snorkel companies in service and Snorkel 1 was the “south side Snorkel”. Snorkel 1 was running from Engine 50’s old quarters when they were in the 4600 block of south Wentworth. That’s before they moved in with Battalion 11 and Truck 18 at the old Fire Insurance Patrol Station where they are now.
  I seriously wonder if they would have bought that Snorkel if they would have been able to keep it at Snorkel 1 because of the overhang of the 65-foot Pitman? Snorkel 1 would later be located at two more crowded fire stations before being taken out of service.
  Snorkel 1 was relocated into Engine 50 and Truck 18’s newer house for about a year and then to the West side where they shared quarters with Engine 109 and Truck 32 in late 1961. Both of those stations were two-bay stations and both trucks were using 85-foot wooden tillered aerials which had long rear overhangs, so the Snorkel would have needed to be parked behind the engine, or it would have had to be parked next to one of the rigs. In any event, it would have been a tight squeeze out of the station.

• #7 by Phil Stenholm on April 27, 2012 - 3:13 AM

  

  The 11-24-1959 photo provides a rare glimpse of the first “Snorkel” built by Pitman in 1959 in the wake of the success of the CFD’s Pitman Giraffe.

  The rig (a 1959 Ford “C” with a 65′ articulated boom) was a prototype demonstrator that was initially displayed at the IAFC convention in Michigan before going on a national tour to drum up business for the Pitman Snorkel.

  The Chicago F. D. was apparently one of the fire departments that gave it a look, but chose not to buy it (probably because MAT’s “Hi-Ranger” was cheaper). The rig was sold to the Elwood Fire Dept in Indiana in 1960.

  Here is a later picture of the first Pitman Snorkel:

  http://www.indianafiretrucks.com/pages/madison/elwood.html

• #8 by Bill Post on April 25, 2012 - 9:22 PM

  

  Yes David, the CFD did indeed purchase a small Ford-C cab 55-foot Snorkel in 1971. However, it was initially assigned to Snorkel Company 3 (at Engine 60’s quarters) for the first year before being reassigned to Snorkel 6 about a year and half later when Snorkel 3 received a new 75-foot Oshkosh/Pierce Snorkel in late 1972.
  It really didn’t make that much sense for Snorkel 3 to be running with a relatively small 55-foot Snorkel, when at the time Snorkel 3 was the only Snorkel on the south side while Snorkel 6 was running from a smaller 2-bay fire station that they had to share with Engine 110 as well as Flying Manpower Squad 6. They had to park behind the Flying Squad in the same apparatus bay.

• #9 by David on April 25, 2012 - 10:47 AM

  

  Btw, another interesting thing, as you wrote the rig was probably in use just for a short time and they didn’t decide to purchase it, still some 11 years later in 1971 they purchased a very similar Ford C snorkel which run as snkl. 6 (??)

• #10 by David on April 25, 2012 - 10:40 AM

  

  Bill, thanks much for the info! I was wondering if the date under the photo is correct as the Ford looks a few years ahead of the time (I mean when compared to the original GMC/Pitman). Also I’ve never ever before heard of anything like this being used by the dept. back in 1959, looks like I’ve still got a lot to learn.. I’d love to see some clear photo of the truck. I’m just wondering that there wasn’t any mention of this one in the CFD history books from Ken Little.
  Bill anyway, thanks a lot again!

• #11 by Bill Post on April 25, 2012 - 12:10 AM

  

  David the rig that you saw was indeed a Ford C which was being used as Snorkel 1 for a short period of time in 1959. I am assuming that the rig was probably a loaner from somewhere or was being tested. The emergency light configuration on the roof you’ll notice has got 2 revolving red dome-type emergency lights on the top. The rig wasn’t kept and the CFD went back to using the original GMC/Pitman Snorkel for Snorkel 1.

• #12 by Dan on April 24, 2012 - 8:28 PM

  

  Just a question for those of you in the know. I was driving by the CFD shop yard off North Ave. the other day. The old reserve snorkel (RS1) was out in the yard. Might it have been in for routine maintenance or is it being relegated to the boneyard? I really hope it was down for service. It has to be the coolest rig in the fleet.

• #13 by David on April 24, 2012 - 3:21 PM

  

  NOW what’s the rig on the right in the first photo?! A Ford C in CFD back in 1959??! Is it a snorkel or it just looks like?! Thanks for any info!

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