Posts Tagged Shapiro

Gurnee is on the site

Gurnee Fire Department patch

Fire departments in Lake County, MABAS Division 4, continue to be added to the site. The Gurnee Fire Department is now the latest to be posted. They have two stations covering 33 square miles which includes the Six Flags Great America amusement park and Gurnee Mills, an enormous outlet mall. The Gurnee suppression fleet is made up entirely of E-ONE apparatus and currently all four of their ambulances are Type I models from Road Rescue on IHC 4700 or IHC 4300 series’ chassis. A new Type I ambulance is presently on order from Wheeled Coach.

Gurnee also houses some specialty MABAS assets. They store an interesting 1991 Mack/Volvo roll-off chassis which is used to transport metal storage containers which contain equipment and supplies for MABAS Divisions 4&5. One container is for the Technical Rescue Team (TRT) with tools and lumber and the other is for the Wildland Task Force which carries, among other things, an ATV.

Lake County and McHenry County TRT unit

Gurnee Fire Department Station 1

Gurnee Fire Department headquarters Station 1 on Old Grand Avenue. Larry Shapiro photo

An interesting note about the E-ONE apparatus is the wide range of chassis and cab styles that are represented.

Gurnee Fire Department E-ONE Cyclone II engine

This engine features the newest version of the Cyclone II which is a tilt-cab.

Gurnee Fire Department EONE Cyclone engine

This 1995 engine uses the early Cyclone chassis with a fixed cab.

Gurnee also has two engines with a Cyclone tilt-cab with a previous grille design. The tower ladder is built on a Hurricane chassis which has a fixed cab.

Gurnee Fire Department E-ONE Hurricane 95' tower ladder

In 1998 when Gurnee received their new E-ONE tower ladder, they arranged to have the unit photographed with one of the main town attractions. At that time, Gurnee Mills was billed as the largest outlet mall in the country. Planet Hollywood was one of the anchor restaurants at the mall. Larry Shapiro collection

Gurnee Fire Department E-ONE Sentry HDR

Gurnee Squad 1352 was ordered with a four-door Sentry cab and a vista roof. The Sentry is distinguishable by the straight, non-contoured door line of the driver's door. The vista roof was a raised roof that E-ONE offered without full height rear doors. This photo was taken inside Six Flags Great America when the squad was delivered. The graphics are no longer representative of how the squad looks today. Larry Shapiro collection

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Carol Stream is on the site

Carol Stream Fire District patch

In Dupage County (Division 12), the Carol Stream Fire District has three stations. They staff one engine company, one two-piece squad company, one tower ladder, three ambulances, plus a battalion chief. Their apparatus consists of two E-ONE engines, an E-ONE tower ladder, an Alexis engine, plus an Alexis heavy rescue. All of the ambulances are from Life Line on various IHC chassis.

The headquarters station has four drive-through bays, the administrative offices, and a complete training facility which includes a burn tower. This station staffs a battalion car, an ambulance, and a tower ladder quint. It is home to a spare ambulance, an OEM Mobile Command Unit, a spare engine, and two antiques in addition to FPB and other staff vehicles.

Carol Stream Fire District headquarters station and training facility

Carol Stream Station 1 at 35 N. Kuhn Road, has the administrative offices and an extensive training facility complete with a burn tower. Larry Shapiro photo

Keeneyville Fire Protection District 1947 Ford Darley antique pumper

The Carol Stream Fire District web site has a nice history of the department which tells the story of the Keeneyville Fire Protection District and the Carol Stream Company. The fire apparatus for many years was painted black over yellow until 1996 when the yellow was changed to red.

At Station 3 which is located at 1045 Lies Road, Carol Stream runs a two-piece squad company. These units always respond together. The first piece of the company is the squad 235, a 2006 Spartan Gladiator Classic/Alexis 1500/750 pumper squad. The second piece is rescue 235, their brand new 2010 Spartan Metro Star Alexis HDR. The ‘squad’ has a complete complement of hydraulic rescue tools and the ‘rescue’ has supplemental equipment, and air cascade system, and is more of a specialty unit with extensive TRT materials and supplies.

Carol Stream Fire District 2010 Spartan Metro Star Alexis technical rescue unit

Rescue 235 is the 2nd piece of the squad company. It was built by Alexis on a Spartan chassis with a stubby, 2-dr, Metro Star cab. Larry SHapiro photo

Carol Stream Fire District 2010 Spartan Metro Star Alexis technical rescue unit

Both sides of the rescue are packed solid with technical rescue equipment. The hydraulic rescue tools for auto extrications are located on Squad 235 which is the 1st piece of this company. Larry Shapiro photo

Carol Stream Fire District 2010 Spartan Metro Star Alexis technical rescue unit

The rear door of the rescue is designed like a rear ramp on a trailer to permit access to the large lumber stored down the center of the unit. Roof access to reach the top storage compartments is via the folding ladder at the rear. Larry Shapiro photo

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First fire for Buffalo Grove tower

Buffalo Grove firefighter Andy Russell breast cancer awareness

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, Buffalo Grove firefighters join other fire departments around the country by wearing pink. Larry Shapiro

At the height of the morning storm yesterday and within a ½ hour of shift change, four calls for service came into Northwest Central Dispatch for the Buffalo Grove Fire Department within minutes of each other. There were two ambulance calls, a reported transformer fire with extension to a shed, and a working fire in a townhouse. As companies scrambled to each call, the transformer fire was just that and had not extended to the shed, but smoke met firefighters on arrival at a center unit in a four-unit townhouse. The fire was upgraded immediately and companies that were already en-route to the shed fire were rerouted providing quick back-up to first-due units.

Buffalo Grove’s 2010 Ferrara Inferno tower ladder was the first fire suppression unit on the scene and was deployed for the first time at a Buffalo Grove fire.

Buffalo Grove Fire Department 2010 Ferrara Inferno tower ladder townhouse fire

Tower Ladder 25 (235) is deployed at a townhouse fire at 161 Old Oak Court E during the storm on Tuesday morning. Larry Shapiro photo

Buffalo Grove townhouse fire at 161 Old Oak Court E

The storm did not let up during fire fighting operations Tuesday morning as high winds knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses. Larry Shapiro photo

More images from this fire can be seen HERE.

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North Chicago is on the site

North Chicago Fire Department patch

In northern Lake County, the North Chicago Fire Department runs a fleet of Pierce and Medtec units out of two stations. Their 8 square mile district borders the Great Lakes Naval Training Center on two sides. Their newest piece of apparatus is an 85′ tower ladder from Pierce which replaced a 1977 Hendrickson 1871-S/Pierce/LTI 85′ tower ladder. North Chicago is expecting another new Pierce in January. This will be a Pierce custom Contender engine to replace a 1986 Pierce Dash engine with open jump seats.

North Chicago Fire Department Hendrickson Pierce LTI 85' tower ladder

North Chicago's 1977 Hendrickson 1871-S/Pierce/LTI 85' tower ladder which was disposed of recently with the arrival of the new tower ladder. Larry Shapiro collection

North Chicago Fire Department Pierce Arrow XT 85' tower ladder

At North Chicago Station 2 on Buckley Road is their newest ambulance. Purchased in 2009, this was a Medtec demonstrator that was built in 2002. It arrived with blue decals which was the design that Medtec had created so the unit would appeal to a traditional rescue squad. The blue was subsequently removed and replaced with red graphics. This explains why this ambulance design is different looking than the other North Chicago ambulances.

North Chicago Fire Department Ford Medtec Type III ambulance demonstrator

Prior to changing the graphics on this 2002 Medtec demonstrator that North Chicago purchased in 2009, it was in service for a short time with the blue graphics seen here. This photo was taken on-scene at a 2nd alarm fire response in Libertyville in July of 2009 shortly after the new ambulance was delivered. Larry Shapiro photo

North Chicago Fire Department Ford Medtec Type III ambulance

The ambulance with updated red graphics.

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New rigs respond to help Central Stickney

Last night the Central Stickney Fire Protection District responded to a structure fire at Frankie and Johnnie’s Roadhouse located at 5009 S. Central Avenue. First arriving companies were met with heavy fire at the rear of the building and requested a box alarm for additional companies. A successful attack kept the bulk of the fire at the rear of the building and prevented it from extending to an exposure less than fifteen feet away.

Among the departments that responded were Roberts Park with their new Pierce Arrow XT aluminum ladder and Bedford Park with their new Pierce Impel pumper. Other units on the scene included engines from Summit, McCook, Lyons, and Bridgeview; squads from Burbank and Oak Lawn; trucks from Bedford Park and Stickney; medic units from Bedford Park and Summit.

Roberts Park Pierce Arrow XT aerial from Rescue Me

The 2008 Pierce Arrow XT rear mount aerial recently purchased by Roberts Park that was one of the units featured in the "Rescue Me" tv show. Larry Shapiro photo

Bedford Park Pierce Impel pumper

Bedford Park's 2010 Pierce Impel pumper on the scene at the Central Stickney box alarm on Central Avenue last night. Larry Shapiro photo

There is a small gallery with images from the scene including the apparatus HERE.

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100th Department posted!

Chicagoareafire.com has reached a notable milestone with the recent posting of Lake Villa to the site. There are now 100 departments posted! We had a goal to add 40 departments this ‘season’ and have now surpassed that number, and we’re not done yet. The Indian summer which we have been experiencing has and continues to allow the contributing photographers to visit new departments. Karl Klotz has provided us with three departments from Division 7 in Kankakee County which are in the queue for posting and there are several more departments slated for a visit this fall. Dennis McGuire, Jr. has informed us that he too has the images to add several new departments to the site. Hank Sajovic and Larry Shapiro have contacts with several more departments to visit in the coming weeks. Our new goal is to get to 125 departments posted before the winter.

A sincere thank you goes out to all of the contributors, the departments who have graciously assisted us so that we can gather everything we need, and to the readers for visiting the site and commenting.

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Lake Villa is on the site

Lake Villa Fire Department patch

Another Lake County (Division 4) department has been added to the site. The Lake Villa Fire Department/Lake Villa Fire District/Lake Villa Rescue Squad is an interesting marriage of resources and organizations. Together, they currently occupy three fire stations in Lake Villa and Lindenhurst. The downtown station and most of the apparatus assigned there is owned by the Lake Villa Fire Department which is a private organization. They do their own fundraising in addition to being paid for contract services from the Lake Villa Fire District. The other two stations and the fire vehicles in them are owned by the Lake Villa Fire District. The ambulances in all three stations which are white and blue, are owned and staffed by the Lake Villa Rescue Squad.

Lake Villa Fire Department station

The Lake Villa Fire Department station which has been expanded three times since the original building was constructed. Photo by Hank Sajovic

The Lake Villa Fire Department station in downtown Lake Villa is an interesting building which has had three separate additions built over the years. The building now has eight bays. Each two bay addition has an engraved stone with the year of that particular addition.

Lake Villa Fire Department Engine 241 Pierce Arrow XT

All of the fire suppression equipment with the exception of a 1973 CF-Mack/Welch was made by Pierce. This includes four engines, a pumper/squad, a 105′ ladder, and two tankers of which all but one are on Dash chassis. The newest piece is a 2009, Arrow XT engine at station 1.

Lake Villa Rescue Squad Ford Osage Type III ambulance

The rescue squad currently has five Ford/Osage Type III ambulances which are painted in the traditional rescue squad color scheme of blue and white. As mentioned in a previous post HERE, there are two new ambulances on order and they will be red, and lettered for the Lake Villa Fire District as are the current units.

Lake Villa Fire District Mack CF Pierce engine

Lake Villa Mack CF Pierce engine

The Mack/Pierce engine shortly after it was purchased. It was Engine 2420 at the time, was purchased by the FIre Department and did not have the Wil-Burt Nightscan mounted on the roof. Lake Villa had been a Mack customer for many years. When Mack stopped building fire trucks, many of its customers continued to buy the CF chassis with other companies completing the unit. Lake Villa's transition to Pierce began with this unit. By the time they were ready to purchase their next vehicle, Mack was no longer offering the CF chassis. Photo by Larry Shapiro

Annandale, NJ Mack CF engine

This engine from Annandale, NJ is an example of a four-door fabricated by Mack. The rear doors are recessed, flat, and cover the step. The engine was originally built in 1981 and was updated and refurbished in 1996 by The Swab Wagon Company. Larry Shapiro photo

There are three rather uniquely interesting units on the roster in Lake Villa. One is a 1933 Pirsch antique that’s in great shape. The other two units are a throw back to a time when all of the Lake Villa engines were built by Mack on CF chassis. They have a 1973 CF-Mack that was refurbished with a new body complete with high-side compartments by Welch, and the other is a 1989/1990 CF-Mack/Pierce combination. One trait which makes this unit especially nice is the four-door conversion which was fabricated by Pierce. When Mack enclosed the CF cab with four doors, the rear doors were flat, straight, and set in from the contour of the body by several inches. Pierce fabricated the enclosure using a set of front doors for the rear of the cab which kept the same contours and body lines of the cab from the front to the rear.

Lake Villa Fire Department 1933 Pirsch antique

Lake Villa Fire Department 1968 Mack CF engine

This is one of the CF Mack engines that preceded the Pierce units in Lake Villa. Engine 621 as shown here was built in 1969 and carried 750 gallons of water with a 1,000-GPM pump. Larry Shapiro photo

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Unique Station 2 for Newport Township

In Wadsworth, IL on the north end of Lake County, the Newport Township Fire Protection District covers 33 square miles with one main station off of Wadsworth Road just east of US 41. This station is packed full with a tanker, two engines, a pumper squad, two ambulances, a utility, staff car, ATV, and brush unit. In order to provide better response times to the northern edge of their district, the FPD rents a portion of a barn on the property of Doug Reno, who is one of their members.

Newport Township FPD Station 2

The Newport Township FPD rents out this portion of a building on the property of Doug Reno at 42874 Delaney Road in Zion. Larry Shapiro photo

Newport Township Fire Protection District auxilary building

The crane truck is stored in this building on a neighbor's farm. Larry Shapiro photo

Doug is also a collector of fire engines in his own right and has several pieces of equipment of his own housed there and on yet another neighbor’s property with additional Newport apparatus. First things first though, the Newport apparatus includes …

Newport Township FPD Mack engine 141 X-Ligonier, PA

Newport Township FPD Mack engine drafting from Lake Michigan in Winthrop Harbor

In the winter of 2008 at a 4-11 alarm fire in Winthrop Harbor, Engine 1413 drafted for the better part of a day out of Lake Mighigan. Larry Shapiro photo

Newport Township FPD Mack engine drafting from Lake Michigan at a Winthrop Harbor fire

Here's another view of the drafting operation with the fire in the background. That's Doug Reno trying to keep warm in the cab of the engine. Larry Shapiro photo

  • A 1977 CF Mack engine that carries 4,000 feet of 4″ hose. Unlike the other Newport rigs, this one has a black roof on the cab. It previously saw service in Ligonier, PA and was purchased  through the generosity of two department members.
  • A 1951 Willy’s Jeep parade piece with a 100-GPM front mounted pump and a 150-gallon water tank
  • A decommissioned and beautifully restored, 1969 Dodge Power Wagon W-300 which used to be the department’s brush rig
  • A 1981 R-Model Mack box truck ‘Heavy Rescue’ unit which carries TRT supplies
  • A 1988 R-Model Mack flatbed with a 6,000# knuckle boom crane which carries a trench box or, when it acts as a foam tender for the Quad 2 ARFF unit, it carries bulk foam
Newport Township FPD Dodge Power Wagon

Doug’s collection includes:

Wadsworth OH Ward LaFrance Ambassador engine

This engine is owned by Doug Reno ... just outside of Wadsworth, IL. The engine is from Wadsworth, OH. There is no Wadsworth Fire Department in Illinois as the town is covered by the Newport Fire Protection District. Larry Shapiro photo

  • A 1975 Ward LaFrance Ambassador engine labeled for the Wadsworth Fire Department (OH) with a 1,250-GPM pump and 500-gallon water tank sn 80-1129
  • A 1971 CF Mack engine that was refurbished in 1987 by Pierce for the Geneva, IL Fire Department in Kane County
  • A CF Mack engine from Duncannon, PA
Personal fire truck collection of Doug Reno

These are two of Doug's engines. They're stored in one end of the building which also houses Newport's crane truck 1455. Larry Shapiro photo

Geneva, IL Fire Department Mack CF Pierce engine

Geneva, IL (Kane County) had this 1971 Mack CF656 1000-GPM pumper refurbished by Pierce in 1987. Larry Shapiro photo

Geneva Fire Department Mack CF engine

The Geneva Mack/Pierce engine today as part of Doug Reno's collection. Larry Shapiro photo

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Newport Township FPD has been added to the site

Newport Township FPD patchThe Newport Township Fire Protection District in Wadsworth (Lake County MABAS Division 4) is now represented on the site. They operate out of two stations and their district runs all the way to the Wisconsin border. This department has three engines, a pumper squad, an elliptical tanker, two ambulances, a brush rig, an ATV on tracks, and two 1980s R-Model Mack trucks that are assigned as TRT support units.

Newport Township FPD Kubota ATV

Photo by Larry Shapiro

Newport Township Fire Protection District crane truck

Station 1 is by the Wadsworth Post Office just off of Wadsworth Road but Station 2 has an interesting story to it in a separate article HERE.

Newport Township Fire Protection District Fire Station

Station 1 is at 39010 Caroline in Wadsworth and is full to the brim with vehicles. Larry Shapiro photo

Newport Township FPD decal

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Lakemoor apartment fire goes to 3 alarms

The Fox Lake Fire Department received calls for a fire in an apartment building in the 500 block of Autumn Boulevard in Lakemoor around 11PM last night. Arriving roughly four minutes later, companies found fire through the roof of the three-story, light-weight constructed building. A structural collapse occurred shortly thereafter.  This was a 3-11 for tankers and a Box Alarm for the structural collapse with at least 19 fire departments represented on the scene.

Four tower ladders went to work (Fox Lake, McHenry Township, Wauconda, and Round Lake) in addition to several handlines and ground level master streams.

Interesting apparatus notes from the incident include the following:

  • Countryside and Grayslake both had their new apparatus at the fire.
  • Several of the units on-scene were equipped with Nightscan or Command Light towers including engines from Antioch, Grayslake, and Round Lake plus squads from Fox Lake and Barrington.
  • At one point late into the fire, the Fox Lake Tower Ladder (Spartan/3D/Nova Quintech) which was in sector 1, deployed the articulating jib of the fly-section of the ladder over the building
  • McHenry Township had four units on the scene: engine, tower, tanker and squad
  • Round Lake had three units on the scene; engine, tower, and tanker
  • Lake Villa had three units on the scene; engine, tanker, and ambulance
  • Grayslake had an engine and tanker at the scene
  • Lake Bluff responded with an engine … probably the farthest distance travelled
Antioch Fire Department Alexis engine

Antioch's American LaFrance/Alexis engine with a Nightscan lighting up the scene. Larry Shapiro photo

Fox Lake Fire Department Spartan Alexis squad

This Fox Lake squad has two light towers capable of providing enough light for any scene. Larry Shapiro photo

Countryside FPD US Tank tanker

Countryside put this new tanker into service this summer. It is shown here working at it's second tanker box already. In the background, Round Lake's engine is lighting up the porta-tanks with a Command Light mounted on the cab roof. Larry Shapiro photo

Fox Lake Fire Department Nova Quintech Sky Arm

The Nova Quintech Sky Arm tower ladder from Fox Lake with the jib section articulating down from the main ladder. Larry Shapiro photo

Of the 19 departments represented at this fire, chicagoareafire.com has the following departments posted to the website:

  • Buffalo Grove
  • Cary
  • Countryside
  • Lake Bluff
  • Lake Forest
  • Lake Villa
  • Libertyville
  • Long Grove
  • McHenry Township
  • Mundelein
  • Newport Township
  • Wauconda

These are not yet represented on the site:

  • Antioch
  • Barrington
  • Fox Lake
  • Grayslake
  • Lake Villa
  • Nunda Rural
  • Round Lake

Larry Shapiro  has a gallery of images from this fire which can be viewed HERE.

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