Posts Tagged Evanston FD Chief George Beattie

Evanston Fire Department history Part 74

From Phil Stenholm:

Another installment about the History of the Evanston Fire Department

EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICE

In January 1976, MICU Co. 1 (AKA “Ambulance 1”) was placed into service at Evanston Fire Station # 1, staffed by a three-man crew — including two paramedics — each shift. The seven firefighters who had been cross-trained as paramedics at St. Francis Hospital during 1975 — Roger Bush, Dave Cleland, Jim Dillon, Randy Drott, Jerry McDermott, Jim McLaughlin, and Dave Pettinger — were the first Evanston firefighters assigned to Ambulance 1. ALS gear was donated by the Washington National Insurance Company, one of Evanston’s largest employers at the time. The first Ambulance 1 (fleet # 310) was a 1975 Dodge Type II van ambulance. 

The Evanston Police Department continued to maintain its three stretcher & first-aid equipped station-wagon patrol ambulances through 1976, backed-up by the EFD’s two 1970 Dodge stretcher & first-aid equipped station-wagon staff cars that were replaced by Dodge sedans and Honda compact cars in 1977. Whenever possible, a police department station wagon patrol-ambulance or a fire department station-wagon auxiliary-ambulance was dispatched to relieve Ambulance 1 at the scene of any EMS incident where paramedics and the MICU were not needed.

During 1976, five more Evanston firefighters — Joe Hayes, Dave Lopina, Art Miller, Jim Potts, and Bob Wagner — were trained and certified as paramedics, so that by the end of the year, the EFD had a total of twelve certified paramedics. A second MICU — a 1976 Chevrolet Type I modular ambulance with a “box” attached to the chassis (fleet # 314) — was purchased at a cost of $35,000 and was placed in service at Fire Station # 1 in January 1977.

In November 1976, Ambulance 1 was nearly demolished and three firefighters — Jim McLaughlin, Jerry McDermott, and Phil Burns — and a nurse from St. Francis Hospital were injured, when the ambulance in which they were riding en route to a medical emergency on Dewey Avenue was struck broadside by a drunk driver at Church & Ridge, the exact same spot as the crash involving Truck Co. 2 almost exactly 50 years earlier!.

With Ambulance 1 out of service and the second MICU not scheduled to arrive until after the first of the year, the EFD borrowed an old Cadillac ambulance from the Skokie F. D. to run temporarily as Ambulance 1. This 1968 Cadillac ambulance was eventually purchased by Evanston from Skokie and was retained by the EFD even after Ambulance 1 was repaired, becoming the first Ambulance 3.

The new MICU arrived in January 1977 and was designated Ambulance 2. Capt. Bill Best, and firefighters Mike Adam, Miriam Boyle, Ken Dohm, Bob Hayden, Ben Jaremus, Don Kunita, Ernesto Martinez, Mike Whalen, and Don Williams were trained and certified as paramedics during 1977, as the EFD expanded to a force of 114. Capt. Best was the first captain certified as a paramedic.

With its three-man crew, Ambulance 1 had responded to EMS calls in Station # 1’s first-due area by itself without a support engine throughout 1976, but with staffing on the two front-line ambulances cut-back to two in 1977, an engine company was now assigned to all EMS calls as a first-responder and/or manpower company. 

After Ambulance 2 arrived and was placed in service, it was assigned first-due to all EMS calls city-wide, and  because it was not an MICU, the ex-Skokie F. D. Cadillac ambulance responded first-due to fire calls, and to EMS calls only if Ambulance 2 was not available. Even after Ambulance 1 was repaired and returned to  service at Station # 1 in the second quarter of 1977, Ambulance 2 continued to respond first-due to EMS calls, and Ambulance 1 responded first-due to fire calls.

Prior to 1980, EFD paramedics assigned to ambulances routinely worked without any restriction as firefighters at a fire, sometimes assisting a truck company ventilating the roof, or pulling a line and attacking the fire. It was only later that the ambulance crew was prohibited from engaging in fire suppression or assisting with ventilation, although they could assist an engine company hooking up to a hydrant, as long as they were available to provide EMS immediately when needed.

Chief George Beattie retired in January 1976 after 29 years of service, 28-year veteran Assistant Chief Ed Pettinger retired a month later, and Capt. Richard Schumacher and Capt. John Becker were promoted to  assistant chief (platoon commander). Meanwhile, 35-year EFD veteran Assistant Chief Willard Thiel — the EFD’s training officer since 1958 — was appointed acting chief by City Manager Ed Martin while the city manager and city council began a nation-wide search for a new fire chief. Chief Thiel was chosen to be acting chief only because he said he had no interest in becoming chief, and that he would retire as soon as a new chief was named.

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Evanston Fire Department history Part 73

From Phil Stenholm:

Another installment about the History of the Evanston Fire Department

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  

On May 1, 1975, the Evanston City Council accepted bids for a new 1,000 / 300 triple-combination pumper, with the exact same specifications as the two Howe pumpers purchased a year earlier. The new pumper would replace the 1952 Pirsch 1000 / 100 TCP (Engine 25) that was originally Squad 21 before being rebuilt as a TCP by General Body in 1966. Mack came in with the low bid of $53,725, beating out FWD Seagrave, Pirsch, and several other apparatus manufacturers for the contract. As expected, EFD Chief George Beattie specified that the new Mack pumper be painted “safety yellow,” just like the two Howe pumpers delivered in 1974 and 1975.

In addition, Chief Beattie received a new Plymouth sedan (fleet # 301) in 1975 that was painted red instead of “safety yellow,” with the chief’s 1973 Plymouth station wagon transferred to the platoon commanders as the new F-2 after a light bar was installed on the roof replacing the portable “Kojak light.” The former F-2 (1971 Dodge station wagon) was transferred to the Fire Prevention Bureau (FPB) to be used by the newly-created fire investigation unit (“arson squad”) that would be staffed each shift by a trained fire investigator. Firefighters Bob Schwarz, Pat Lynn, and Jim Hayes were appointed fire investigators by Chief Beattie. As part of the reorganization, one of the two FPB captain positions was eliminated after Capt. Joe Thill retired. 


Also, as part of the contract resulting from the firefighters strike of February 1974, the average work-week for firefighters was reduced from 56 hours to 54 hours, with two new positions created in the EFD in 1975 that increased  total membership from 100 to 102. One fireman would now be assigned each shift to cover for a fireman absent while on a “short day” (formerly known as a “Kelly Day”), with three firemen on each shift covering for vacations and sick leave. As a result, the de facto EFD minimum shift staffing was reduced from 28 to 27, with six three-man companies (the five engine companies plus Truck 22), two four-man companies (Truck 21 and Squad 21), and the shift commander (F-2).     

Eighteen new firefighters were hired in 1974-75, including Samuel Boddie, Art Miller, Bill Betke, Jim Potts, Dave Lopina, Bob Hayden, Mike Adam, Don Gschwind, Thomas Simpson, Joe Hayes, Bob Wagner, Keith Filipowski, Ken Dohm, Tom Kavanagh, Milton Dunbar, Ward Cook, Jim Keaty, and Donald Williams. Also, Fireman James “Guv” Whalen was promoted to captain, firemen Harry Harloff and Ken Perysian retired after 23 years of service, and several other firefighters resigned.  

On Wednesday, May 28, 1975, the Evanston Fire Department responded to a report of a fire in the rear storage yard of the Rust-Oleum Corporation at 2301 Oakton Street. A second alarm was struck immediately upon arrival of the first companies, and a MABAS box was eventually pulled, the first time the EFD had requested a MABAS box since the system was implemented in 1968.

At the peak of the fire, 19 2-1/2-inch hand lines, two deluge nozzles, one multi-versal, one ladder pipe from Truck 22, one street jack, and one deck gun from Squad 21 supplied streams that were played onto the storage yard and nearby exposures, as numerous 55-gallon drums full of paint exploded and were sent hundreds of feet into the air. Evanston police temporarily evacuated some of the residences to the east and north. 

A 200,000-gallon water storage tank located at the southwest corner of Cleveland & Hartrey was supplied by a 24-inch feeder main that extended south from Church Street. The storage tank fed a 1,000-GPM pump owned by Rust-Oleum and operated by their company fire brigade, as well as the standard ten-inch and twelve-inch residential mains in the neighborhood. Engines from the Evanston, Skokie, Wilmette, Morton Grove, and Winnetka fire departments pumped water from numerous hydrants located to the east and north of the fire, including one hydrant at the dead-end of Cleveland Street at the C&NW RR Mayfair Division tracks 1/4 mile north of Rust-Oleum.

The conflagration was eventually surrounded, drowned, contained, and extinguished, but not before causing $775,000 in damage, making it the fourth highest loss from a fire in Evanston’s history up until that point in time. Only the fires at the American Hospital Supply Corporation (October 1963), the Rolled Steel Corporation (January 1970), and Bramson’s clothing store (October 1971) cause greater damage. If nothing else, the Rust-Oleum fire was certainly the most spectacular fire in Evanston’s history!

The next day — May 29, 1975 — the Evanston Fire Department celebrated its centennial. Although May 29, 1875, was the date that the EFD was legally established by ordinance, the actual genesis of the village fire department was January 7, 1873, when the 60-man volunteer Pioneer Fire Company of Evanston was accepted for service by the village board. 

The purpose of the fire department ordinance of May 29, 1875 was not to create a firefighting force. The Pioneer Fire Company — renamed “Pioneer Hose Co. No. 1” in December 1874 when the Holly High-Pressure Waterworks was placed into service — already existed, and had existed for more than two years. Rather, the  real purpose of the ordinance was to legally describe the method by which additional volunteer fire companies could be organized and accepted for service with the village going forward, since by May 1875 the C. J. Gilbert Hose Company was already in the process of being organized, chartered, and trained.

Once the C. J. Gilbert Hose Company was ready to be accepted for service, the ordinance needed to describe the relationship between the two hose companies. They might be rivals, but they could not be competitors. They had to work together for a common purpose. Also, the ordinance legally installed the fire marshal as chief of the fire department, with the two hose companies plus any other companies that might eventually be organized and accepted for service officially and legally under the command and direction of the fire marshal.  

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