More from Dan McInerney about Engine 77’s house on the day it was closed. Descriptions for these images:
- basement boiler area, (they had a sauna in the basement attached to the boiler)
- Watch desk
- board of weekly/daily house duties, cleaning schedule, general house information, go/no go buttons with box alarm bells
- the last day was 1/23/05 and they had had a few runs already, rig was dirty from being out. This view also shows how tight the fit was with a 1924-5-ish firehouse and a modern size rig
- E77 door #
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
#1 by Martin on September 14, 2012 - 11:28 PM
Thanks to the both of you for making it clear.
#2 by D. McInerney on September 14, 2012 - 1:21 AM
House closed due to E38/T48 being moved to a brand new firehouse at 16th/Pulaski – 4 blocks south of E77.
#3 by Bill Post on September 14, 2012 - 1:14 AM
Martin that’s a good question as most station closings come as the result of long term studies that are usually done by consultants or sometimes they are done in-house. This station closing seemed to be an internal decision as it certainly had not been recommended in the Maatman (consultant) reports of the 60s and early 70s.
The Chicago Fire Department had done an in-house study during the mid 80s and Engine 77 wasn’t recommended to be shut in that study either. By moving Engine 38 and Truck 48 about half a mile further north of their old quarters they apparently had felt that they could close Engine 77 as the new station was about half way in between Engine 77 and Engine 38’s old quarters. In 2004 which was the last full year that Engine 77 was in service, Engine 77 had ranked number 30 in the amount of runs that they had gone out on. They had gone out on 2799 runs of which 1183 were fire emergencies and 1616 were officially classified as non fire emergencies, which in reality are mainly ambulance assist or EMS runs. While I don’t have the 2011 run numbers, I do have the 2010 run numbers and in 2010 Engine 38 (who covers most of Engine 77’s old district) was the number one engine in terms of runs with a total of 4969 runs. While I don’t have a breakdown on the types of runs, it can be safely assumed that most of those runs were for EMS. Engine 95, whose district was directly north of Engine 77’s, ranked number six in amount of runs in 2010.
In 2005 (the first year Engine 77 was out of service) Engine 38’s runs had shot up from 3410 to 4695, and Engine 95’s runs went from 3902 to 4471. This was in part due to Engine 77 being taken out of service and having Engine 95 and Engine 38 handling the runs in most of Engine 77’s old district. Engines 38 and 95 are also ALS (advance life support) engines which Engine 77 wasn’t.
#4 by Martin on September 13, 2012 - 10:12 PM
Why did they close this house?