Working fire in Chicago, 4-19-19 « chicagoareafire.com

Working fire in Chicago, 4-19-19

This from Eric Haak:

A windy day in Chicago on Friday (4/19/19) led to a primary power line coming down on top of garages in the 6200 block of West 64th St. The live wire ignited two garages and companies had to wait for power to be cut before going to work. The power was cut just as the roof began to get going and the fire was extinguished before it could extend to any other exposures. Engine 65 and 127 worked this incident because Engine 32 was committed on a prior incident.

Eric Haak photo

Firefighters advance on fire with hose line

Eric Haak photo

Eric Haak photo

Tags: Chicago Fire Department, Chicago Firefighters extinguish garage fires, detached garage fire, Eric Haak, power line ignites alley garages in Chicago

This entry was posted on April 20, 2019, 1:00 PM and is filed under Fire Scene photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Comments

#1 by Eric Haak on April 22, 2019 - 2:05 PM

Engine 32 got stuck in the mud at a brush fire and was awaiting a wrecker to pull them out. 65 was sent there first for the downed wire and then informed the office that it was a primary line that was catching the garages. Once the garages ignited, the 16th asked for help and 127 responded with the working fire response.
#2 by Bill Post on April 22, 2019 - 1:51 AM

Eric was Engine 65 on a change of quarters at Engine 32, because if Engine 32 wasn’t available like you said, the second due company would have been Engine 88 after 127.
#3 by BMurphy on April 21, 2019 - 11:55 PM

Couldn’t agree more! Key words: proper and frequent training. That definitely is what will make it user friendly. A 3-person company, using this approach, can quickly place it into effective use in a variety of situations. We use it as a first line for commercial/industrial, high-rise, large dwellings, garages, large vehicles (even on booster tank supply during blitz attacks), and as a second line at a majority of our working fires. Our engines have 4 types of 2 1/2” hose setups: crosslay and rear minuteman preconnects, skid load, and standpipe pack (horseshoe). Frequent drills/practice in-house and with neighboring auto- and mutual aid companies are the key.
#4 by Big Moe on April 21, 2019 - 12:04 PM

My favorite fire service tool… 2 1/2″ hose!! A tactic that we need to pass on to future firefighters. You don’t see it in pictures much any more. With proper and frequent training, and use of adjuncts as seen here(hose strap), a big line is user friendly and effective at killing fire. 30″ Halligan is 1A.