This from Larry Shapiro:
With the ongoing discussion of classic Seagrave apparatus that served our area which Mike Summa started, here are photos of the early Seagrave units from Glenview. (#throwbackthursday)
Classic Seagrave engine servicing the Glenview Fire Department. Larry Shapiro photo
Classic Seagrave engine servicing the Glenview Fire Department. Larry Shapiro photo
Classic Seagrave aerial servicing the Glenview Fire Department. Larry Shapiro photo
#1 by Mike Summa on April 14, 2017 - 8:08 PM
Thanks a bunch for the positive feedback of my photos. I am glad so many of you enjoy them. Thanks again.
#2 by CrabbyMilton on April 14, 2017 - 6:47 AM
Too beautiful!!! You can’t beat a 70th ANNIVERSAY SEAGRAVE. Too bad they still don’t build such a version today. Imagine a modern version of this one.
Oh well we can only dream.
#3 by Wally T on April 14, 2017 - 4:42 AM
Used to ride the tailbiard of Engine 11 back in the early 70s. Nothing like the sound of a 906 ci in V-12 when that monster started up. Later was driver of Truck 10. 1980 driving it with no roof at 26 below with 80 below wind chill was something. Your eyes would freeze in the open position.
#4 by Phil Stenholm on April 14, 2017 - 12:21 AM
BILL: The Glenview Rural Fire Protection District was created after World War II to provide fire protection to unincorporated areas west of Glenview, as well as to the Village of Golf. (The Evanston Fire Department was contracted to provide fire protection to the Village of Golf prior to the creation of the GRFPD).
The name was changed to the Glenbrook Fire Protection District in about 1970 when unincorporated areas south of Northbrook were added to the FPD and Station #8 was built on Landwehr Road at that time. So what are now Station #7 and Station #8 were originally the two Glenbrook Fire Protection District fire stations, with Station #7 being the original Glenview Rural FPD station.
The Glenview Rural Fire Protection District (later Glenbrook FPD) was a separate entity from the Glenview FD, and while the two fire departments did have a mutual-aid pact back in the day, they did not automatically respond to each other’s calls until RED Center was formed in the 1970’s. (Prior to RED Center, most fire departments were dispatched by the town’s police dispatchers, or in the case of fire protection districts, by the FPD’s own dispatchers). So there was no coordination between the Glenview Rural Fire Protection District and the Glenview Fire Department when the original GFPD fire station (now known as Station #7) on Glenview Road was constructed because they served different areas.
The Glenbrook FPD was eventually combined with the Glenview FD, but that was sometime after I left Evanston PD/FD (post-1987), because I have MABAS run cards from 1987 that show the Glenbrook Fire Protection District as a separate fire department from the Glenview FD.
As far as the Glenview FD rigs pictured above are concerned, Engine 11 became the front-line engine when it was acquired, and GFD Engine 7 (not to be confused with what was later known as Glenbrook FPD Engine 7) then became the second-line engine staffed by paid-on-call firefighters. (Like a lot of smaller fire departments back in the day, the Village of Glenview purchased a new pumper about once every ten years (and a new ladder truck and a new squad about once every 20 years), with older pumpers first going into second-line service (POC), and then reserve/spare, and then scrapped).
The numbering of the GFD rigs that are pictured above (Engine 7, Truck 10, and Engine 11) was sequential and had absolutely nothing to do with the RED Center and MABAS fire station and apparatus numbers presently assigned to the Glenview FD. So for example, 50 years ago the Glenview Rural FPD’s front-line 1961 Seagrave 750 GPM pumper (NOT pictured above) that was located for many years at what is now Station #7 was numbered “3” because it was the third GRFPD rig (the older ones were #1 and #2), even though it was the go-to first-out front-line pumper for the FPD at that time. It was only later that it would be re-designated “Engine 7” to correspond to RED Center Station #7.
#5 by Bill Post on April 13, 2017 - 9:22 PM
Those are interesting shots, Larry. That must have been when Glenview only had one fire station. Do you or anyone on the site know where Glenview’s fire station was before the one at 1815 Glenview Rd? Does anyone know the story of the two Seagrave engines? Was one of them a reserve unit or were they both running as frontline companies?
Stations 7 and 8 were to my knowledge part of a the Glenview Rural Fire Department which was separate. Did they at least run with automatic aid because Station 7 was just a few miles up Glenview rd from Glenview Station 6 ?