Chicago Fire Department history « chicagoareafire.com

Chicago Fire Department history

This from Steve Redick:

If this ain’t a cool picture then I dunno what is. Photo by George Brown

George Brown photo

Tags: Chicago FD Autocar squad, Chicago FD Squad 1, Chicago Fire Department history, George Brown, historic fire engine

This entry was posted on January 8, 2020, 3:30 PM and is filed under Fire Department History, Historic fire apparatus. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

4 Comments

#1 by Chris on January 30, 2020 - 4:47 PM

A frontal view of the ’54 Autocar’s grillwork just made that rig LOOK mean !!!
#2 by Mike Mc on January 9, 2020 - 11:26 PM

Bill, I do believe that 42’s old house had a handball court and that was the reason why Quinn’s buggy was there. He liked to play handball.

That is an awesome photo, but the aurora borealis looks out of place. Would look better with the Mars dx-40 (football light).
#3 by Phil Stenholm on January 9, 2020 - 7:26 PM

BILL: To further date the photo, Squad 1 is displaying a 1968 Illinois license plate and there are leaves on the tree in the background.
#4 by Bill Post on January 9, 2020 - 2:21 AM

I agree with Steve. That has got to be one of coolest pictures I have seen of a 1954 Autocar Chicago squad. That was taken in front of Engine 42’s house at 228 W Illinois just east of Franklin. It was sometime between August of 1963 and September 30 of 1968 which was the last day that they were stationed there. In February of 1967 they were re-designated as Salvage Squad 1 however they continued using the same rig. Squad 1 stood out the last several years as they were retrofitted with an Aurora Borealis light on the roof. Most of the other squads didn’t get those.
I met the late Fire Commissioner Robert J Quinn at that house for the first time in April of 1967. I stopped by one afternoon and not only was the squad in front but Commissioner Quinn was there. I think his car and driver were stationed there at the time. I heard that he was living at Marina City and even though there were two other stations closer, they were both smaller with no room for an extra car. Engine 13 and old Ambulance 21 were a block south of Marina City while Engine 11 and Truck 9 were a about a block to the north.