Archive for March 31st, 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

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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