Archive for March, 2016

New head for Chicago OEMC

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

Two days after naming a new police superintendent from within the Chicago Police Department, Mayor Rahm Emanuel will appoint a top official in the Illinois National Guard to run the Office of Emergency Management and Communications.

Alicia Tate-Nadeau will succeed Gary Schenkel, who headed the agency that includes the city’s 911 dispatch center and plays a key role in coordinating the municipal response to events like large snowstorms and the NATO protests, since shortly after Emanuel took office.

The Emanuel administration said Schenkel, a former U.S. Marine, decided to retire. He is stepping down three months after two call takers at the 911 center failed to send police squad cars to a West Side residence where Quintonio LeGrier had called for help, saying someone was threatening his life. When Legrier called OEMC a third time, officers were dispatched to the home and one of them fatally shot the 19-year-old college student and neighbor Bettie Jones.

Two 911 dispatchers were suspended without pay for failing to send police to the residence. The FBI has joined a probe into the late December police shootings, and the officer who fatally shot baseball bat-wielding Legrier did not initially tell investigators that the teen had swung the bat at his head, police reports obtained by the Tribune show.

In a statement, Emanuel said Tate-Nadeau, an assistant adjutant general of the Illinois National Guard and also the deputy commanding general of the Army National Guard in Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., has the skills needed to head up complex public safety responses.

As part of her work with the Illinois National Guard, Tate-Nadeau served in Israel from 2011 to 2014, where she coordinated emergency management exercises with international partners. She also served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. Last year, Tate-Nadeau became the first woman promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Illinois National Guard.

And she’s part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency team working on the Flint, Mich., water crisis, according to the Emanuel administration. Tate-Nadeau has lived in Illinois for more than 15 years and grew up on the dusty outskirts of Oklahoma City.

thanks Dan

Tags: , ,

Glen Ellyn VFC history

Excerpts from MySuburbanlife.com:

Former Glen Ellyn Volunteer Fire Company Capt. James Pierce Jr. had a passion for firefighting.

“He just loved to fight fires,” said Fire Chief Jim Bodony, who had worked alongside Pierce for 20 years. “He gave it his all.” He liked the challenges that came with being a firefighter, Bodony said.

Pierce died March 26 at the age of 77. He had worked for the fire company for almost 28 years – from 1960 to 1976, and then from 1980 to 1992.

A memorial gathering for Pierce will be from 4 to 8 p.m. April 1 at Leonard Memorial Home, 565 Duane St., Glen Ellyn. A funeral service will be at 10 a.m. April 2 at Leonard Memorial Home, with interment to follow at Forest Hill Cemetery.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in it, and I think that’s what draws a lot of people to this profession,” Bodony said. “It’s a challenge, and it tests you physically and mentally to go into some place that’s unknown. You really can’t see when you go into a burning building. The smoke is down to the floor, and you have to go in there and find a fire or find a victim and bring them out and put the fire out.”

Pierce retired from the fire company in 1992 as a captain. Bodony first joined the company in 1972.

He was a quiet leader,” Bodony said. “He was very dedicated to the guys that he supervised.”

Pierce also worked for the Schaumburg Fire Department from 1971 to 1980.

“He was very proud of both departments and also of his service to his country as a United States Marine,” Bodony said. “He was especially proud of that.”

Tags: , , ,

Multi-vehicle crash with entrapment in Sugar Grove, 3-31-16

This from Mark Cooper:

Here are a couple pics from a bad crash on Rt. 56/30 this morning in Sugar Grove. Sugar Grove and North Aurora FD’s on scene. At least one pinned driver and at least two serious injuries.

bad crash scene on highway

Mark Cooper photo

bad crash scene on highway

Mark Cooper photo

This from Dave Weaver:

The car was traveling eastbound on IL-56 towards I-88 when it crossed through the median striking the SUV. North Aurora FD assisted Sugar Grove at the scene. A medevac was requested but they could not fly due to weather. A storm poured down rain just after the two patients began their transport to Mercy Center Hospital. A Big Rock engine was dispatched to protect the LZ but was diverted to stand by in the Sugar Grove station along with a an ambulance from Bristol-Kendall FPD.

Tags: , , , , ,

House fire in Evanston, 3-25-16

Radio traffic for the Box Alarm fire in Evanston 3/25/26 at 2306 Grant.

Excerpts from the ChicagoSun-Times.com:

Evanston firefighters responded to a fire in a one-and-a-half story, single-family home in the 2300 block of Grant Street about 2:20 p.m., last Friday according to a statement from the Evanston Fire Department.

Smoke was coming from the home’s eaves, and the alarm was upgraded, but the fire, which had started in the home’s attic, was extinguished about ten minutes later.

A contractor doing some electrical work suffered minor burns to a hand … he was evaluated at the scene, and no other injuries were reported.

Tags: ,

Rockford FD dispatchers begin new protocol

Excerpts from restart.com:

Starting next week, Rockford dispatchers will enforce a new no-no-go policy that could save more people from fatal cardiac arrest.

Those calling 911 will hear two questions: Is your loved one conscious? Is he or she breathing normally?

If the caller responds no to both, then it’s go. Instead of being asked if they’d like to do cardiopulmonary resuscitation, callers will receive dispatch orders to get the person flat on the ground, bare their chest and put their hands between their nipples.

Rockford Fire Department’s 42 dispatchers will pace callers through about 100 compressions a minute to improve its best yet 46.2 percent out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rate from 2015.

Chief Derek Bergsten and Dr. Jane Pearson, an emergency medicine physician from OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center, announced the new no-no-go initiative today at the Rockford Fire Department headquarters. If all goes well, they’re hoping for a 50 percent out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rate within a year.

“If you ask someone in a crisis situation, they’re generally going to say no,” Bergsten said. “In a crisis situation, you’re looking for somebody to give you direction. A lot of people might not know what CPR is at that time. They’re not thinking. They just saw their loved one unresponsive.”

He and Pearson, who trains dispatchers, say the national average out-of-hospital cardiac arrest rate is 20 to 30 percent. King County, which has Seattle in its boundaries, is thought to have the best survival rate of at least 62 percent, according to officials there.

Cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function, according to the American Heart Association. More than 420,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen nationwide every year.

Rockford Fire Department’s out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival rate was 40 percent in late 2014. Fire officials said they improved it by returning to the basics of chest compressions. The fire department’s emergency responders Firefighters at fire, crash and emergency scenes also are moving toward performing CPR for approximately 20 minutes — more than three times the previous 6-minute average — before transporting patients to hospitals.

“When we work together as a team, we have been able to achieve remarkable save rates,” said Pearson, noting that training, drilling and cooperation between dispatchers, EMTs and hospitals helps. “When we speak about a save, we’re not talking about filling up nursing homes with people that aren’t able to function. A save in this case is defined as someone who is fully functional.”

Tags: , , ,

Fatal fire in Chicago, 3-30-16

Excerpts from CBSChicago.com:

A woman was killed and a man was critically injured in an apartment fire early Wednesday in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Firefighters arrived at the scene in the 1000 block of North Hamlin Avenue shortly before 1 a.m.

Witnesses heard explosions and windows breaking, and saw heavy smoke and fire coming from the second floor of the building, which has three apartments above a corner grocery store.

“As the Fire Department was coming around the alley, I seen somebody up in the window, and I was screaming to them, ‘There’s somebody in the building still. There’s somebody up there.’ So I could hear fire department, like,‘Where? Where?’ and I’m like, ‘In the window,” so all of a sudden they just started running up to the roof and breaking all the windows,” Jose Cedeno said.

Firefighters found a 72-year-old woman on second floor. She was taken to Norwegian American Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.  A 74-year-old man also was found on the second floor, suffering from smoke inhalation. He was rushed to Norwegian in serious to critical condition, but his condition had stabilized by later Wednesday morning, and investigators were questioning him about what might have started the fire.

“We found heavy fire on the second floor. During a primary search, Tower Ladder 14 and Truck 36 found two victims,” Fire Department Deputy District Chief Jack Nagle said.

Nagle said smoke detectors were found in the hallway and in the rear apartments, but some of them were not working.

Tags: , ,

Smeal/Ladder Tower Co building first 55′ Snorkel (more)

From Danny Nelms:

It appears its reaching the final stages of the build

From interstate Emergency Vehicles Inc. Facebook page

LTC 55′ Snorkel is on the move !
Build # L7003

Snorkel fire truck being built

LTC photo

Snorkel fire truck being built

LTC photo

Snorkel fire truck being built

LTC photo

Snorkel fire truck being built

LTC photo

Snorkel fire truck being built

LTC photo

Tags: , , , , ,

Chicago Fire Department history (more)

This from Fred McCahey:

Here are a few pics found on the internet of what might be Truck 8 & Truck 10. Pics by Don Feipel from illinoisfiretrucks.com where there are a lot of good photos, especially in the Down Memory Lane folder.
Chicago FD Mack Magirus ladder

Mack Magirus ladder. Don Feipel photo

Chicago FD Mack Magirus ladder

CFD Truck 10, Mack Magirus ladder. Don Feipel photo

Tags: , ,

North Riverside considers privatizing the fire department (more)

Excerpts from the RBLandmark.com:

An administrative law judge for the Illinois Labor Relations Board has ordered the village of North Riverside to rescind termination notices issued to firefighters in October 2014 and ordered it back to the bargaining table after rejecting the village’s claim that it had the right to unilaterally terminate the union contract.

Anna Hamburg-Gal, in a recommended decision and order dated March 25, ruled that the village engaged in unfair labor practices related to their plan to privatize firefighting services and outsource them to Paramedic Services of Illinois, which has provided paramedic services for the village for decades.

Specifically, according to Hamburg-Gal, the village engaged in what is known as “surface” bargaining when it met with the union during the late summer and early fall of 2014 to negotiate a new contract with firefighters.

The most recent union contract expired April 30, 2014, but the two sides did not sit down at the bargaining table until June 24, 2014. Months prior to that, however, the village had been planning to privatize the fire department.

In early January 2014, according to the recommended decision and order, Mayor Hubert Hermanek Jr. met with Village Attorney Burt Odelson to discuss whether privatization was feasible.

By sometime in February 2014, Hermanek had met with officials from PSI to see if the company could provide firefighting services and to tell them that the village wouldn’t seek competitive bids, the decision states.

In June of that year, PSI presented the village with an estimate that predicted the firm could provide firefighting services at savings of about $1 million compared to what the village was paying its union firefighters. Even before sitting down with the union at the bargaining table, the village published a letter to residents pitching privatization as an alternative.

Hamburg-Gal ruled that the village’s quick rejection of union proposals to consolidate firefighting services into a fire protection district or to form a private company that would serve to provide qualified firefighters to the village “indicate a rush to reach impasse rather than meaningful consideration of the union’s proposals.”

Arguments that the village didn’t have time to go through a referendum petition process for consolidation, stated Hamburg-Gal, were undercut by a village proposal to offer firefighters an 11-year contract that would gradually phase out union firefighters and replace them with PSI employees.

North Riverside “was willing to wait 11 years required to reap the full cost-savings of its own privatization plan,” Hamburg-Gal wrote. “Surely, a modicum of investigation into the union’s novel cost-savings proposal would not have taken so long.”

The recommended decision and order also states that the village improperly changed the terms and conditions of employment while interest arbitration was pending and “interfered, restrained and coerced employees” when the village issued termination notices shortly after the union invoked interest arbitration proceedings.

Hamburg-Gal rejected the village’s contention that it had the right to unilaterally terminate its contract with firefighters, who are considered “protective service employees” and are not allowed to strike.

Rather, she wrote, the law’s “specific prohibition against unilateral changes to protective service unit employees’ terms and conditions of employment applies where the employees at issue are firefighters.”

J. Dale Berry, the attorney representing the firefighters’ union said the village’s interpretation of the law was “ridiculous” and the recommended decision highlighted that.

“The cornerstone of their strategy was the [interpretation] of [that part of the law], and she rejected it as being without merit,” Berry said.

In response to the recommended decision and order, Hermanek told the Landmark that the absence of any sanctions, such as awarding the union its demand for the village to pay its attorneys’ fees, was a win for the village.

Hermanek and union leaders have met informally several times since late 2015, and the mayor said he hopes both sides can still reach an agreement beneficial to both sides.

“Without sanctioning us, she’s telling us to bargain with them,” Hermanek said. “That’s what I’ve been doing. I’m trying to get a long-term contract done.”

The village and the union are allowed to file exceptions to the administrative law judge’s recommended decision and order within 30 days.

Hermanek also said, for now, the village will not rescind its termination letters to firefighters, since it still is waiting on a ruling from the Illinois Court of Appeals.

“We’re not going to remove the termination notices, but we will continue to bargain,” Hermanek said.

North Riverside filed a lawsuit in circuit court in October 2014 after declaring it had reached an impasse in negotiations with the fire union.

The village at the time filed a motion asking Circuit Court Judge Diane Larsen to rule on its claim that it had the authority to unilaterally terminate the union contract. Larsen ruled that she didn’t have jurisdiction because the village had not exhausted all avenues for remedies, which included arbitration by the ILRB.

Hermanek contended that Larsen made her ruling believing the village to be right, legally speaking, but didn’t wish to overturn decades of labor law precedent.

The appellate court could decide to send the matter back to Larsen or it could make a ruling on its own that the village has the right to terminate the union contract, though that would be unlikely, according to Berry.

“The chances of that are, like, zero,” he said.

thanks Dan

Previous posts can be viewed HERE

Tags: , , , , , , ,

New industrial engine for BP in Whiting (more)

Updated production photos from Ferrara Fire Apparatus of the 2nd industrial unit being built for BP in Whiting, IN that features a Schwing boom

industrial fire truck with Schwing boom

Ferrara Fire Apparatus photo

industrial fire truck with Schwing boom

Ferrara Fire Apparatus photo

industrial fire truck with Schwing boom

Ferrara Fire Apparatus photo

Tags: , , , ,