This from Steve Redick:
Thanks again to Kevin Kirkley for sharing this one with us. The audio starts at the 3-11 and as many times as we may all have heard this, it is interesting … Anyone know the real story behind “no not fog-pressure but high-pressure” ??Also notice the famous send everybody available request? This was Mayor Daley’s palace and Commissioner Quinn was really on the spot.
Steve
From Wikipedia:
The 1960 exposition hall was destroyed in a spectacular 1967 fire, despite being thought fireproof by virtue of its steel and concrete construction. At the time of the fire, the building contained highly combustible exhibits, several hydrants were shut off, and there were no sprinklers on the main floor where the fire started. Thus the fire spread quickly and destructively, taking the life of a security guard.[4] The fire was investigated by a team led by Rolf H. Jensen, Professor of Fire Protection Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, who later went on to found RJA Group. Many lessons were learned and the city’s building code was amended so a similar situation would not be repeated. Although many wanted to rebuild the hall on a different site, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley elected to rebuild on the foundations of the burned building. The new design of dark steel and glass, by Gene Summers of C. F. Murphy and Associates (and formerly of Mies van der Rohe‘s office) contrasted markedly with the white look of the structure that had burned down. On January 3, 1971, the replacement building, later called the East Building and now called the Lakeside Center, opened with a 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) main exhibition hall.
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#1 by Drew Smith on April 9, 2013 - 10:41 PM
When I entered the fire service back in the late 1970s it was related to me by more than one old timer that the reason this fire grew to such great proportion was that the janitors never pulled the alarm until they exhausted several fire extinguishers that had little to no effect. I was never able to determine if this was fact or an urban legend. But I do remember that when this fire came up in conversation, and firemen older than my father would eventually bring up this account.
#2 by Bill Post on April 9, 2013 - 6:15 PM
In regards to the real story of the ‘high-pressure wagons with the 3-1/2 inch high-pressure hose’, the story as far as I know is that 2-1-5, who was Chief Fire Marshall Curtis Volkamer at the time, was having a memory lapse since the last of the old high-pressure wagons was taken out of service on November 16th 1964. It was located at Engine 1’s house at the time. All of the other high-pressure wagons were out of service by then.
The high-pressure wagons were really hose wagons that carried 3-1/2 inch boat hose in a large divided hose bed. They also were equipped with one or sometimes two permanently mounted adjustable water turrets or deck guns. Chicago had as many as eight of them in service at one time. The first three consecutively numbered high-pressure wagons were located and usually responded with Water Towers 1, 2, and 3. The next four, numbers 4 through 7 were located separately with engine companies around the city in target hazard areas where big lines would sometimes be put to use.
High Pressure Wagons 2 though 7 were taken out of service between 1960 and 1963. The high-pressure wagons (with the exception of High Pressure 8) were all first put in service during the 1920s. High Pressure 8 was first put in service on December 24th 1935, and was taken out of service on June 10th 1936 from Engine 19’s old quarters at 3444 S Rhodes Street.
The next time that High Pressure Wagon 8 was put in service was on June 10, 1959 at Engine 56’s quarters, which in effect (with the exception in 1935/36) was the last high-pressure wagon to go in service. They were taken out of service on May 11th 1963.
High Pressure Wagon 4, which was located at Engine 23’s house at 1702 W 21st Place, responded on fires with a fireboat (Engine 41) that was located at the southwest branch of the Chicago River at Throop Street. They had their own dedicated crew building just north of the river.
The last apparatus that were ordered specifically for the high-pressure wagons were five 1956 model International Harvester hose wagons that were equipped with a large turret. At least one of them was modified and had a second turret added in the early 1960s. Two of the five were taken out of service in 1961/62. They had squad bodies with 40-foot Snorkels installed on them. These become Snorkel Squads 1 and 2.
Chief Volkamer probably didn’t realize that all of the high-pressure wagons were out of service by the time of the McCormick Place fire in January of 1967. The remaining three International Harvester high-pressure hose wagons were being used as squad wagons at the time. Squad 4, which was located with Engine 83 at 1219 W Gunnison, was using one of the 1956 International Harvester high-pressure wagons as their regular assigned apparatus since their squad apparatus had been totaled a few years earlier. Squad 2, which was then located with Engine 5, was about to be redesignated as Salvage Squad 2 in February of 1967. They would also be assigned a 1956 International Harvester high-pressure hose wagon as their regular rig. So the International Harvester high-pressure wagons weren’t even being used as reserve units since they were either squads or spare squads. The reason that high-pressure wagons were used as spare squads was because the old squad companies were all equipped with a permanently mounted deck gun, and since the high-pressure wagons had them they were ideally suited to be spare squad apparatus.
During the last few years before these were taken out of service, the CFD also had mounted a high-pressure wagon body on the chassis of an older model International Harvester fuel truck. Two 1940 model Mack squads were also being used as high-pressure wagons. High Pressure Wagon 8 at Engine 56’s quarters was assigned a 1940 Mack squad wagon.
– High Pressure Wagon 1 (the last high-pressure wagon in service) was originally located at Engine 5 with Water Tower 1, but was relocated to Engine 1 after the water tower was taken out of service and Snorkel 2 moved in with Engine 5.
– High Pressure Wagon 2 was located with Engine 14 and Water Tower 2 when they were at 509 W Chicago Avenue.
– High Pressure Wagon 3 was located with Water Tower 3 at Engine 104 and Truck 31 when they were at 1401 S Michigan.
– High Pressure 4 was located with Engine 23 at 1702 W 21st Place.
– The last quarters of High Pressure 5 was at Engine 53’s old station at 4005 S Packers in the old Union Stockyards.
– The last quarters of High Pressure 6 was at Engine 87’s old house at 8701 S Escanaba.
– High Pressure 7 was located with Engine 12 when they were at 1641 W Lake Street. They would respond on 2-11 alarms and in some places on still and box alarms. High Pressure 8 would normally respond to still and box alarms to much of the north side in the early 1960s using their old squad wagon.