The following comes to us from Bill Post:
Here is something new about Skokie Engine 18.
Skokie Fire Department Engine Company 18 has been a part-time engine company for the last few weeks. It is on-duty from 8am to 8pm and is deactivated from 8pm to 8am the next morning.
The Skokie Fire Department does run a Squad/Pumper out of Station 18, as well as straight aerial ladder truck and an ambulance, so they still have a company with engine capabilities running out of Station 18 at night. Normally when Engine 18 is on-duty, the engine is the first-due company along with the ambulance on EMS runs. When the engine is unavailable or off-duty, the truck is sent on the EMS runs with Ambulance 18. Squad 18 runs village-wide on still alarms and special duties such as pin-in accidents. As such, Skokie normally doesn’t send the squad as the first-due company on EMS runs. The squad does normally run first-due on stuck elevators however.
The Skokie Fire Department is one of three ISO (Insurance Service Organization) rated Class One fire departments in the Chicago area and runs out of three multi-company stations. Skokie in reality is a four engine department as Station 17 (the east side fire station) has Rescue 17 which runs as a second engine to Engine 17. Tower Ladder 16 out of Station 16 (headquarters) also has pumping capabilities in addition to Squad 18.
