Archive for September 20th, 2017

Elgin Fire Department’s 150th Anniversary

Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:

For Elgin Fire Assistant Fire Chief Robb Cagann, Saturday was a special way to celebrate the Elgin Fire Department’s 150th Anniversary. 

The Fire Barn No. 5 Museum’s open house Saturday showcased the department’s history as part of the celebration of the day it began exactly 150 years earlier.

Cagann credited the museum board with building the collection housed in the early 1900s fire barn. The volunteer museum board takes care of the fire engines and all the memorabilia, he said.

Elgin Fire Department was established on September 16, 1867, and the all-volunteer force worked out of a building at 9 N. Spring St., according to a brochure the department created. The city’s first company, the Elgin Hook and Ladder Company, had a hose wagon and two horses to serve 5,441 residents, it stated.

Fire Station No. 5 was built in 1903 to 1904 at 533 St. Charles Street. By 1904, the fire department had 5 fully staffed fire barns with three hose wagons, two combination hose/chemical engines and horse-drawn engines, according to the museum. It was decommissioned in 1991, later becoming a fire museum, officials said. It is on the National Register of Historic Places, the brochure states.

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St Charles Fire Department history

Excerpts from at the St Charles History Museum online:

The LaFayette Fire Company, the first organized fire department in St. Charles, was chartered in Kane County on March 18, 1842.  Fifty-six members signed the charter and paid a $25 subscription fee. This followed a fire in February 1842 that destroyed several three-story buildings, including that of the St. Charles Patriot newspaper, on the northeast corner of First and East Main Streets. 

From 1842 to 1852, the Fire Company operated with buckets and hand tools; it was a bucket brigade of volunteers that formed a line to pass buckets of water from the Fox River to fight fires. In 1852, they obtained a four-wheel pumping engine from Chicago, as well as a hand-pulled hose cart.

During the 1800’s, the Fire Company was unable to get the City to finance a fire station, so it rented various spaces to store its equipment and moved many times. In 1857, the City authorized the repair of a small barn next to Brett’s Cabinet Shop for storage of the Lafayette Fire Co.’s equipment and fire engine. The barn was utilized until 1870 when the City sold the building. Once again, the Fire Co. began renting spaces. The equipment began to fall into disrepair, and the hand pumper was sold for salvage.

click the link above to see the complete historical information

thanks Dan

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As seen around … Kenosha

This from Chuck Mankin:

I checked out the Kenosha County Safety Day, hosted by the Somers Fire Department on Sat 9-16.  Here are a few shots of the equipment on display. 
Haz Mat Team trailer

Chuck Mankin photo

Kenosha FD ARFF

Chuck Mankin photo

Kenosha County Sheriff Mobile Command Post

Chuck Mankin photo

Somers Fire Department utility unit

Chuck Mankin photo

Memorial for fallen deputy sheriff

Chuck Mankin photo

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As seen around … Glenview

From Josh Boyajian:

Glenview FD Dive Rescue Squad

Josh Boyajian photo

Glenview FD Engine 8

Josh Boyajian photo

Glenview FD reserve engine

Josh Boyajian photo

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North Riverside Fire Department news

From the North Riverside Firefighters Union-Local 2714 Facebook page:

Copy of UNANIMOUS 100% approved Vote of No Confidence.
Take special note to lines about use of aging unsafe apparatus

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