Orland Fire Protection District history

This from Mike Summa for #TBT:

For TBT-The Orland FPD.’s Truck 6004, a 1987 Spartan/Darley 1500/0/55′. As seen just delivered and lettered.

Mike Summa

#Chicagoareafire.com; #MikeSumma; #TBT; #Spartan; #firetruck; #Darley; #Snorkel

Mke Summa photo

Mike Summa photo

Tags: #TBT, 55' Snorkel, chicagoareafire.com, Darley fire truck, Mike Summa, Orland Fire Protection District history, Spartan Gladiator, throw back thursday, throwbackthursday

This entry was posted on May 12, 2022, 7:00 AM and is filed under Fire Department History, Historic fire apparatus, throwbackthursday. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

9 Comments

#1 by Tim on May 15, 2022 - 12:26 AM

Rich S., the snorkel is still down there, along with the 99 Pierce engine Orland donated to Moraine Valley. Lots of other stuff down there too. A Highland Park, Sutphen, a Downers engine, and a few others.
#2 by Rich S. on May 12, 2022 - 10:55 PM

Tom, is it still at QCFE? Last I was there I didn’t see it. I know the guy who purchased it from Orland Park was going to use it for his department but the board voted no. So it was for sale sitting at QCFE.
#3 by Tom on May 12, 2022 - 10:16 PM

This rig is sitting at quad county fire apparatus sales and repair in Saunimin, IL which is located between Pontiac and Dwight, IL in Livingston county
#4 by Tim on May 12, 2022 - 9:14 PM

Mc this rig never had the logo you mentioned. Only on the Kenworth.

Mike M. it was frontline until about 2000. Then it was relegated to station 1 as a back up truck to Orland’s 2 other trucks. They ran the LaFrance truck out of 2 and the tower ladder out of 6 at the time. Then it went out of service and Orland kept it as a parade/pub ed piece for years. They sold it around 2017.
#5 by mike mc on May 12, 2022 - 8:36 PM

No one’s accusing Orland of copy rite violations. I remember the logo because the rig was an obvious snorkel squad somewhat misnamed (in Chicago area anyway) as Rescue 1.
#6 by michael m on May 12, 2022 - 8:34 PM

How long did they have this rig? How many years was it frontline, how many years was it a reserve rig? When did they get rid of it?
#7 by Tim on May 12, 2022 - 4:53 PM

It actually was at station 3 for a few years in the early 90’s. It was speced for station 2’s area with all the townhome complexes on the east side of the district. Ran as Rescue 1 starting about 1996 along with Squad 4 the Kenworth/Saulsbury. Chief McCastland spearheaded this response with both rigs splitting the fire district in half. Rescue 1 covered 1,3,5’s area and Squad 4 covered 2, 4 and 6’s area. They both responded on all fires district wide and Squad 4 responded to all Mabas 19 fires. Chief McCastlands order was “If you guys hear a fire anywhere in Mabas 19, get on the rig and go, dispatch will catch up.

Rescue 1 did not have a copied FDNY Rescue 1 logo on it. It had a generic logo on that resembled an eagle. It was a gold sticker and nothing more.

Squad 4 had an eagle on it that was not a copy of FDNY, they’re similar as they both use an eagle but that’s where the similarities stop. Orland’s eagle on the squad has a pike pole, axe, and spreaders in it’ talons. FDNY doesn’t.
The eagle is Orland’s logo as it’s on the uniform patch.

In later years the Kenworth was at station 1 as a haz-mat squad, and now has been at station 3 as the haz-mat squad. The snorkel has been long gone, I think Sandwich FD or someone out there has it.

Bill Foley was a Fire district trustee and he had difficulty understanding why there were 3 guys on an apparatus in Orland and not 5, 6 or 7. There were a few ex-CFD chiefs that were trustees that had difficulty understanding the suburbs are not CFD and vice versa.
#8 by MABAS 21 on May 12, 2022 - 3:28 PM

I believe that this ran as Truck 2 prior to becoming Rescue 1 as their “Districtwide” Squad Co.
#9 by Mike Mc on May 12, 2022 - 2:00 PM

They converted it to a squad, actually called Rescue 1, with a copied FNDY Rescue 1 logo. This was back when Oak Lawn also had a fully staffed squad. A few years later, converted back to a truck and used as a reserve truck for several years.

Bill Foley, retired CFD Chief Fire Marshal and member of the police and fire board in Orland Park argued against it. “Squads are never there when you need them” is what he used to say. Goes back to when he was chief of the 28th Battalion and Squad 7 would be tied up at another fire. Once a truckman, always a truckman.