Photos and video from Keith Grzadziel of the 3-Alarm fire in Willow Springs, 10-28-16
Tags: 5-Alarm fire in Willow Springs IL, Bedford Park Fire Department, fire scene photos, fire scene video, Keith Grzadziel, Pleasantview Fire Protection District, restaurant in Willow Springs gutted by fire, Tri-State Fire Protection District
This entry was posted on October 30, 2016, 7:00 AM and is filed under Apparatus on-scene, Fire Scene photos, Fire Scene video. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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#1 by operator 57 on November 10, 2016 - 6:34 PM
As I remember it was another roofing crew who instigated the fire at the former Allstars Gentlemens Club in unincorporated Leyden Township some years back.
Which was strange as the club was fighting being forcibly annexed into Northlake which would have shuttered them.
#2 by LT501 on October 30, 2016 - 10:58 PM
The Fire Service needs to push for stricter regulation of the roofing industry and those trades which utilize torches
while performing roof repairs.
Safer alternatives need to be pursued. Some roofers won’t even consider using a torch on a roof, feeling it is far too dangerous. The Fire Service has done an outstanding job throughout the years in promoting automatic sprinkler protection, but what value is it when the roof comes crashing down? I don’t know exactly what caused the Willowbrook fire, but it certainly appears that it started on the roof. Since there were no reports of “lightning” that afternoon, and there were reports of workers on the roof, exactly what were they doing and what tools were they using? While accidents do happen, the Fire Service needs to be more proactive and aggressive in preventing them.
The mandating of “hot work” permits and even a “standby detail” should be considered whenever torch work on a roof becomes the only option.
#3 by Keith Grzadziel on October 31, 2016 - 8:20 AM
If I remember correctly, I thought it was dispatched as a grill fire in the kitchen. Engine 541 arrived with heavy smoke from the bowstring truss roof and it went defensive within 2-3 minutes as heavy fire was through the roof. Tower 529 was not on the scene because the crew was out in Engine 521 on another run prior to this coming in, therefore Pleasantview’s truck took their place.