Milwaukee Fire Show 7-13-13 « chicagoareafire.com

Milwaukee Fire Show 7-13-13

From Matt Tessler

Milwaukee tower ladder. Matt Tessler photo

North Shore Fire Rescue quint. Matt Tessler photo

Flight For Life. Matt Tessler photo

Tags: fire engine pictures, fire truck pictures, Flight for Life helicopter, helicopter picture, Matt Tessler, medevac, Milwaukee Fire Department, North Shore Fire Rescue

This entry was posted on July 14, 2013, 7:47 AM and is filed under Fire Service Photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Comments

#1 by Mike Mc on July 15, 2013 - 11:24 PM

I drove through Milwaukee on Monday and I was surprised by the changes. If I understand correctly, they now have two rescue companies that are full time companies. In the past, they were “jump” companies. Rescue 1 is at Engine 12 and I was told that Rescue 2 is at Engine 24. I was also told that they respond on working fires.

Can anyone provide some additional information, such as how the city is divided up between the two rescues, what alarms they respond on, etc.?

I was told that Ladder 11 (out of Engine 12), is not officially out of service, but no one is assigned to it. They now staff Rescue 1. I am assuming the same is true of Ladder 13, out of Engine 24. I was also told that the rescues are on a six month, trial basis. However, they had blue rescue shields on the helmets, which sound pretty permanent to me.

Is Engine 1 now by themselves in the downtown firehouse? If so, is it just a matter of time before the move to Engine 2 and the house is closed?

The dive rescue is still out of Engine 3 in a rig numbered Rescue 3 (SOC numbering of rigs?) and it is not a third rescue company, or so I have been told.

Thanks in advance for any replies.
#2 by Crabby Milton on July 15, 2013 - 6:07 AM

The reasons for the cuts are polititcal but I’ll restrain myself on the city hall end of it. I didn’t see FLIGHT FOR LIFE land(I got there about 10:00) but I got the video of it departing. I’m trying to remember if they ever came in the past but it was a treat for sure. I was a bit disappointed that the main building was locked up since there’s a small museum in there devoted to fire and police history and a few memorials. Perhaps lack of man power is to blame. I’ve been in there any number of times but sometimes there are new items added for display.
#3 by Bill Post on July 14, 2013 - 8:05 PM

Milwaukee has a very impressive fleet of apparatus which is almost exclusively Pierce. The city unfortunately has been making some serious cutbacks in the Fire Department over the last several years almost on an annual basis. In recent years Milwaukee lost a Battalion as well as a Truck company and they recently lost a 2nd Engine company. One of the Engines (20) was taken out service from their headquarters station on the West End of Downtown however it was located in a “double engine station”. The most recently eliminated Engine was Engine 3 and was from their “landmark” Virginia avenue station which is also next door to their repair shops and where their “Scuba Diving Team” is. Because the dive team was at the station Milwaukee ended up relocating Tower Ladder 1 (in the top photo) from it’s station on the East end of downtown where they were located with Engine 1 in order to man the Dive Squad at former Engine 3’s station, creating a single Truck station. It also seems like the Milwaukee fire department is going backwards in terms of company elimination.
They also have eliminated the fifth man from their Trucks over the last few years. I also understand that they have been “browning out” up to 3 Engines there, as well.
They even eliminated a BLS ambulance that was created a year ago that was put in service to help cut the first responder workload in their busiest Engine District (13).
They do have an interesting EMS system which I understand is pretty effective as while their fire companies are first responders their Ambulances (known as Med Units) pnly make ALS removals and the BLS removals are given over to one of four local private ambulance companies to handle.
#4 by Daniel Shevlin on July 14, 2013 - 4:48 PM

I never had a bad time in Milwaukee & I enjoy driving up . This was my first time to the muster and it’s well worth the trip . I took my son for the ride & he loved it . I took several photos that I haven’t been able to work on but hopefully I’ll be able to submit a few tonite . The Milwaukee Police & Fire Pipe Band kept us entertained with their music , several older rigs as well as modern day to photograph , a Flight for Life landing , & everybody was dynamite with my son . Great day !
#5 by Crabby Milton on July 14, 2013 - 11:21 AM

I have been to every one of those musters since 1987 and this one was a good one. For those not familiar, that muster is held on odd number years. Frankly, ’09 and ’11 stunk as far as attendance were concerned. I think in ’11, there were less than 10 rigs that showed up other than a few MFD rigs. But some years are better than others so it was a pleasant surprise to see so many more apparatus and people this time. I hope 2015 will be even better but it’s still a good time for those of us who love fire apparatus. So come on up in ’15!!!