Lake Zurich firefighters were called to 3160 Louise Court in Hawthorn Woods Wednesday night (5/25/16) for a house fire. A series of heavy thunderstorms were moving through the area at the time. First arriving units reported smoke showing and pushing out from the eaves in front. Fire soon vented through the roof and interior companies made an aggressive attack knocking down the majority of the fire quickly. The alarm was upgraded to a Box Alarm bringing mutual aid from close to a dozen neighboring departments.
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Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
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#1 by Mike on May 27, 2016 - 8:09 AM
Lake Zurich for years has been struggling with staffing. Years back due to financial reasons the department went from a staffed engine/tower and staffed ambulance at station 1 and jump companies at stations 2, 3 and 4 to rotating station closures and even a 2 man ambulance only conpany at station 1. Not only did they get rid of the tower, they got rid of their tanker too. LZ is pretty busy for their size especially since they do a lot of auto aid with barrington, barrington countryside and countryside FPD. Regarding a truck for LZ on fires there are a lot of trucks in the area that could respond besides wauconda. Countryside, palatine, and buffalo grove have tower ladders while barrington, mundelein, buffalo grove, Lincolnshire and palatine all have trucks too. I’m sure with chief Malcolm still being new there he is working on his plan and we shall see what his ideas for lake Zurich come to be.
#2 by Bill Post on May 27, 2016 - 4:04 AM
That was an interesting video Larry. One of the main parts of the video happens to be how Waucondas Tower Ladder was pouring water through the second floor partially collapsed roof with the gaping hole in it.
This fire happened to be under the primary Jurisdiction of the Lake Zurich fire department however the Lake Zurich fire department no longers owns a Tower Ladder, Straight Aerial Ladder or so much as a Quint company.
If you recall just a few years in 2012 the Lake Zurich fire department had put it’s Tower Ladder up for sale and ended up selling it Des Plaines claiming that they didn’t need it. Since Lake Zurich sold its Tower Ladder , Lake Zurich has been having Wauconda send it’s Tower Ladder into Lake Zurich for working structure fires. The only problem is that there are many parts of Lake Zurich that are over 2 and a half miles away (from Waucondas Truck which is the Maximum distance that a Truck is supposed to travel to keep it’s “built upon” district covered according ISO which grades the towns fire protection. At this particular fire Wauconda’s Truck had to travel 7 and a half miles to get to the scene of the fire.
Now I’m not saying that the damage would have been less had a Truck company or a Tower Ladder was closer then 7 1/2 miles but there are at least 5 or 6 fire stations that are less then 7 1/2 miles from the scene of the fire.
The town of Lake Zurich was on record as wanting to make serious cuts to it’s already minimally manned fire department. To my understanding each of it’s 4 fire stations even runs their ambulances as “jump companies” which means the if an ambulance is called for then the Engine goes out of service or vice versa. Lake Zurich’s former Tower Ladder from what I understand was donated from the Motorola corporation and the Deer Park Town Center which is protected by the Lake Zurich fire department. Lake Zurich’s former Tower Ladder also had quint capabilities. There is no question that the leadership of the town was irresponsible by getting rid of it it’s multi functional Tower Ladder a few years ago. Their former fire chief at the time had replaced the Tower Ladder with an extra Engine as he had claimed that the Tower wasn’t used that often. While it may true that Trucks or Tower Ladders are not used as often as Engine companies the fact is that when they are needed at a fire or an accident they are indispensable and they can make a difference between life and death, as well as losing or saving property. It would have been a lot smarter to keep their Tower Ladder as a jump company where if worse came to worse the Tower Ladder could have exchanged crews with one of their ambulances if the Tower was needed at a structure fire. Considering that the first due Station was not more then about 2 miles away and the second and third due Stations were less then 3 miles away at least one of those stations should have been equipped with a Quint that could have been used as a Truck company. In small fire departments with limited resources and manpower a Quint unit can make a difference when the fire department is on a tight budget.