Posts Tagged Fire Chief Kent Adams

Romeoville Fire Department news

Excerpts from romeoville.org:

Earlier in the year, the Romeoville Fire Department was one of 40 police and fire departments in the country to receive a Public Safety Drone Training Grant from DARTdrones, the nation’s leading drone pilot school. This grant, which consisted of $3,500 in free training, is being put to good use. Anyone who operates a drone for professional purposes is required to undergo training and be licensed by the FAA. Fire Chief Kent Adams is a fully licensed drone pilot. This is not the first drone based grant the department has benefitted from. They purchased the drone using money from a previous grant.

“We use drones for a variety of operations,” explains Adams. “The list gets longer and longer every day. Pretty much any type of incident we have, we can use the drone to give us some aerial perspective of what’s going on.” A few of these incidents include using thermal imaging to find hot spots and advancing fire, fire investigation, search and rescue, and finding victims along the waterways. “In the past we’d need to have Chicago’s helicopter come out and fly the waterway for us because we didn’t have any aerial way of looking. Now we have the ability to do that with our drones.”

Adams says more fire and police departments are moving towards using drones, but it’s still sporadic right now.

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Romeoville to replace Station 1

Excerpts from MySuburbanlife.com:

The Romeoville Fire Station 1 has not seen major renovations since the mid-1980s,  [and] the fire station’s walls are deteriorating, paint is chipping in flakes from the roof and the concrete is cracking, Fire Chief Kent Adams said.

The Village Board Wednesday night approved demolition of the fire station at 18 Montrose Drive, and architectural and construction services for the building of a new one in its place.

“I mean, it was pretty much a pole barn when it was built,” Adams said. “We were eventually going to need a new station.”

An Oakbrook Terrace firm was hired to demolish the fire station for $103,400, an architect received a contract not to exceed $66,212, and a contract not to exceed $3 million was awarded for construction.

Assistant Village Manager Dawn Caldwell said the village has been discussing the reconstruction or renovation of the fire station for several years. “We did a lot of research on the existing building,” Caldwell said. “It made sense, due to the amount of work needed on that building, to construct a new building.” … the project will be paid by village funds saved over the years while the project was being discussed.

Necessary emergency services will be moved to an industrial space a block away while the fire station construction is taking place. The fire engine and ambulance will be housed in the temporary location along with four people. Other services and personnel, including administration, will work out of the village hall or Fire Station 3.

 

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