chicagoareafire.com

Rosemont Fire Department history

Rosemont Snorkels

Larry Shapiro photo

Larry Shapiro photo

Des Plaines Theater fire. Larry Shapiro photo

Larry Shapiro photo

Tags: Des Plaines theater fire, Larry Shapiro, Pierce Snorkel, Pitman Snorkel, Rosemont FD history, Rosemont FD Snorkel, Rosemont Fire Department, Spartan E-ONE Snorkel, two Snorkels

This entry was posted on December 29, 2016, 5:00 PM and is filed under Apparatus on-scene, Fire Department History, Fire Truck photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Comments

• #1 by Joe on January 3, 2017 - 9:47 AM

  

  Bill, you are correct, station 1 is staffed by public safety officers and 2 contract (PSSI) paramedics. Station 2 is staffed by 2 contract paramedics and when I was there the fire prevention bureau worked out of offices at station 2, I’m not sure if they are based there any longer. Each house had an ambulance that was staffed by PSSI contract personnel only, no public safety officers were assigned to the ambulances.

  A code 1 ambulance request would get station 1’s ambulance and the engine if it was on the east side of town (east of the tri-state) and station 2’s ambulance and the station 1 engine if it was on the west side of town. A code 2 would be a mixture of apparatus depending on the type of call. A code 3 (automatic alarm) would get all in service Rosemont rigs (Engine, Truck, BC if in service, 2 ambulances) and a Schiller Park truck and Park Ridge Engine on the east side, or a Des Plaines Engine on the west side, and occasionally a Park Ridge Engine as well. There was not a set number of companies that would respond on every automatic alarm. I don’t believe I ever saw a Norwood Park company respond automatic aid.

  There was only one engine manned at all times, the engine that is (was?) at station 2 was there only in a 2nd reserve capacity and would only be in service in extremely rare instances such as both the frontline and first reserve engine being out of service for mechanical failure at the same time, or in the event of 2 large incidents in town at the same time that required the use of recall personnel. Any time either the engine, truck, or squad went out of town on a mutual aid request, public safety officer personnel would be recalled to staff reserve apparatus, but they rarely utilized the engine at station 2.

  While I worked there they played around with changing the responses. When I started it was pretty traditional engine and ambulance responses for ambulance requests. However, toward the end of my time there they had begun dispatching 1 or 2 beat police officers on ambulance requests so the engine would not respond unless requested by the ambulance later, or for a run on one of the highways. I believe they’ve since scrapped that system and have gone back to an engine and ambulance response for medical calls.

• #2 by scott on January 3, 2017 - 7:41 AM

  

  “Back in the day”, when the “modern” snorkel was the truck company, it was 3 on the engine, 3 on the snorkel, 2 on each ambulance. At Sta 2 is just an ambulance with a spare engine and spare ambulance inside. Sta 1 Sqd (as previously mentioned) would be taken to the tollways for any accident by the snorkel/truck company along with the engine.

  This year, the apparatus is now the Pierce Quantum PUC tower ladder, the snorkel is gone, and the E-One Tower ladder is reserve.

  Finally, keep in mind that Rosemont is a true Public Safety Department with each shift capable of being deployed as needed for fire or police needs. Each shift manpower is for all of those needs, not just the firehouse. Glencoe is the only other public safety agency in Illinois.

• #3 by Bill Post on December 31, 2016 - 9:37 PM

  

  Thanks for the information Joe. When you say that station 1 was staffed by the public safety officers. Was station 2 then staffed by the contract paramedics or were they strictly a reserve apparatus station. Is station 2 used strictly as an ambulance paramedic station and then Station 1 used strictly for fire and rescue apparatus or do they run ambulances out of both stations. If I’m correct due to the fact that only one engine in Rosemont is usually manned, they normally would get a second Engine into Rosemont on automatic aide either from Park Ridge ,Desplaines, Schiller Park or Norwood Park depending on what part of town the fire alarm is in?

• #4 by Joe on December 30, 2016 - 10:07 AM

  

  I can’t tell you much about the old-old days. However, I briefly worked there on the paramedic contract many years ago. The Ford was gone by those days and the Snorkel in the last shot (158) was used as the spare truck. Rosemont had 2 spare ambulances (mostly for staffing the Horizon/Allstate Arena), but obviously also for swapping into when one of the 2 frontline ambulances were down.

  They have the 2 firehouses, station 1 on River, station 2 on Higgins. The public safety officers staffed station 1. There was an engine, truck, staffed daily. The BC was in service only when there was a lieutenant and two sergeants working. Otherwise, the LT would be the officer on the engine or truck and the BC would be OOS for the day. The squad was staffed as a jump company with a guy from the engine and the truck. Later on in my time there they upped the manning and did some restructuring so that there was a BC (lieutenant) on duty every day and enough staffing for 2 on the squad everyday too. Point is, they’ve always had a lot of spare rigs (2 spare engines, 1 front line when I was there.) They wanted them there for staffing with recalled guys when there was a larger incident, so they always had a lot of spare equipment.

  From my understanding, the Snorkels were used as truck companies, so it’s likely that the aerial ladder in the first shot was just a spare rig. Or the Ford was a spare by that point and the aerial was the new rig. Those rigs predate me.

• #5 by Bill Post on December 29, 2016 - 9:51 PM

  

  I agree that both rigs really look good in the photos. I was wondering how the Snorkel was staffed in those days? Was it manned by recalled personnel from other shifts when there was an extra alarm fire? Were they jump companies? I can see that the Ford C cab Snorkel was parked next to an aerial ladder which tells me that the Snorkel wasn’t being used as a truck company. It must have been a standby company whenever the Snorkel was actually needed, like for an extra alarm fire, correct?

• #6 by Crabby Milton on December 29, 2016 - 5:07 PM

  

  Quite the shine on those two old rigs.

Comments are closed.