Two-part video from Larry Shapiro of the Box Alarm house fire in Des Plaines, 8-16-19
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More photos and a video from the House fire in Mt Prospect, 6-18-19
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
A brief video from the 40th Anniversary Memorial Service for AA Flight 191
This from Drew Smith:
Part of the area where Flight 191 crashed had several Quonset huts from the former Orchard Field (where O’Hare gets its “ORD” from). In one of those huts was Andy’s Auto Repair. In Des Plaines, my father operated Lee’s Brake and Clutch, an auto parts and machine shop. Andy was a loyal customer. I had made deliveries to Andy working for my father. Earlier in that fateful day my father had made a delivery to Andy. Speed ahead to 2009, the year my father died. I was cleaning out the shop when my brother asked if I knew what this was about showing me the attached invoice hanging on the wall on a small clipboard, the type we use for those deliveries. It brought back memories of that day.
I had taken in the crash as a high school senior preparing to graduate. I had completed the High School District 214 Fire Cadet program conducted by the Mount Prospect FD. Back then you could buff or fan a fire with your own gear and find work to do. Not this time. Once the main fire was out there wasn’t much left.
The area of the crash was in the Elk Grove Township Fire Protection District and they had just went into operation as a FD in January of the same year, not even six months in operation. I was passing DPFD Station 3 (now 63) and saw the header. 61, 71, and 81 were all still in quarters. I thought it might be a tank farm fire as there had been a couple of them in the late 1970s. I turned onto Mount Prospect Road and started heading towards the header. Soon the rigs from Station 3 were passing me. As I got closer I still didn’t know what had happened but I knew it wasn’t a tank farm fire. I pulled up near the Chicago PD’s K-9 facility on Touhy Ave. adjacent to the crash site. I parked on the opposite side of the road and saw probably the most smoke I’ve ever seen, but not for long.
To this day, I vividly remember seeing the ARFF rigs (back then they were called CFR – Crash Fire Rescue) from O’Hare coming closer at a good pace. They barely slowed and drove into the tall chain link and barbed wire fence surrounding the K-9 facility and started to discharge their agent. When the smoke began to clear it was a scorched earth, Quonset huts and vehicles in that area reduced to a heap, and other than a few large components of the aircraft not much else. Nearly all of the fuselage was gone. I will refrain from describing the human remains that were present.
I have the original invoice stored with my many keepsakes. I’ll never know why my dad kept it hanging there all those years.
Strangely, there was another Flight 191 crash at DFW in 1985. In that incident 27 of the 164 souls on board lived.
The Wilmette FD had an open house Saturday morning (5/18/19). This included several antique apparatus and an opportunity to showcase new Engine 27 for residents followed by ceremoniously pushing it into the station.
Engine 27 is a 2019 Pierce Dash CF PUC so 32569. It has a 1500-GPM pump, 750 gallons of water, and a foam cell which has either a 20 or 30-gallon capacity. This engine was outfitted with a 35-foot ground ladder and will run as Engine 26 if the tower ladder is out of service. It will go into service at Station 27, and the 2017 2013 E-ONE engine will become a reserve piece.
Larry Shapiro photo
; Wilmette FD Engine 27; Pierce Dash CF PUC
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
From the Prospect Heights Fire District:
PROSPECT HEIGHTS —Today, Friday May 3, 2019 at 12:28 p.m. the Prospect Heights Fire Protection District was dispatched to a reported fire at 1535 Cove Drive, part of the Quincy Park Condominiums.
While still responding to this location, 9-1-1 dispatchers at our Regional Emergency Dispatch (RED) Center received additional information and multiple phone calls indicating the situation was much more serious than first reported. As a result of that information our dispatchers upgraded the response sending even more fire apparatus to the location. At this time, four engines, two aerial ladder trucks, a rescue squad, two ambulances, and multiple chief officers were responding.
Heavy smoke could be seen more than one-half mile away from the scene. When the first fire engine arrived on the scene the fire was visible and coming from the rear of the condo on the east side of the building. The fire had spread up into the second floor and roof.
The building is a two-story, wood-frame structure that has four units, each with its own exterior entrance and an attached garage. With the current fire conditions and the proximity of other structures only feet away, an immediate call for reinforcements was made to our Mutual Aid Box Alarm System (MABAS). This added three more engines, one more truck, ambulance, and rescue squad, plus three chief officers. The alarm additionally sent an engine and ambulance to the Prospect Heights fire station to provide coverage to the rest of the city while this fire was fought.
Within a few minutes of their arrival, the first engine had a hose stream on the fire and extinguished the original fire. Efforts were then focused on the fire spreading in the upper walls, roof, and attic. Additional firefighters with hoses were deployed to attack the fire and were successful in keeping it from spreading. Simultaneous with this, a search was made of all four units and while no humans were located, several cats and dogs were removed from various units that had smoke in them. The fire was brought under control and extinguished within 20 minutes of arrival using three hose lines and more than a dozen fire apparatus. Approximately 50 firefighters composed the response force. Firefighters spent nearly one hour checking for hot spots and fire spread to ensure the fire was completely out.
Besides the Prospect Heights Fire Protection District and Wheeling Fire Department that were initially dispatched, assistance was provided by Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Des Plaines, Glenview, Mount Prospect, Northbrook, Northfield, and Palatine fire departments; the Countryside, Lincolnshire-Riverwoods, Long Grove, and North Maine fire protection districts; and the Rosemont Public Safety Department.
The unit where the fire began and the building’s exterior sustained extensive fire damage. The other three units sustained smoke and water damage as well as some damage made necessary by the firefighter’s efforts to ensure the fire had not spread into other areas. The cause of the fire remains under investigation but is not suspicious in origin. The Prospect Heights Fire Protection District will not be estimating the total dollar loss but expects losses to be several thousands of dollars. Such estimates are best left to the insurance companies.
The Prospect Heights Fire Protections District reminds everyone to always have two ways to escape from their home, to ensure smoke alarms are present and working, and to develop an emergency plan should their home be destroyed by a fire or other disaster.
Fire sprinklers save lives and property. Had this structure been equipped with fire sprinklers, the original fire would have been extinguished prior to the arrival of the fire department or at the worst, contained to the single room where it had started.
more photos and a video from the Box Alarm fire in Prospect Heights, 5-3-19
Prospect Heights FD photo
Prospect Heights FD photo
Excerpts from abc7chicago.com:
A fire that broke out at a home in Northbrook Wednesday morning had three families running for their lives. An off-duty firefighter was on his way to work when he spotted a home in the 2500-block of Melanie Lane fully engulfed by flames. The Northbrook Fire Department was on the scene about 8 minutes later. Helicopter footage shows fire billowing out of the home and spreading to the houses on either side of it.
The woman who owns the home where the fire started said she heard a loud pop, then saw a wall of flames and managed to escape relatively unharmed. The neighbors got out too.
Video from Larry Shapiro of the 4-Alarm fire in Justice, 12-30-18
More on the Fatal House fire in Highland Park, 4-18-18
Max Weingardt photo
Excerpts from wgntv.com:
The Lake County coroner has confirmed that two people were killed in a massive fire that destroyed a home in Highland Park. A neighbor reported the fire around 1:15 a.m. Wednesday at a two-story house on Kipling Lane off Ridge Road.
When fire crews arrived to the scene, the home was fully engulfed. Firefighters got word that an elderly couple have been known to live in the home, so they attempted to go in through the garage but were pushed back by flames.
The home is a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Buffalo Grove firefighters were called to 685 Le Parc Circle late Tuesday afternoon after a homeowner was alerted on his phone of an alarm going off. The Code 2 for the alarm investigation was elevated to a Code 3 for the reported fire after receiving an update from the homeowner who arrived home and found smoke in the unit.
Buffalo Grove (BG) Battalion 4 arrived to find light smoke around the eaves and upgraded to a Code 4 for the working fire. BG companies went to the roof and inside the unit while mutual aid crews investigated the adjoining units. Heavy smoke conditions inside initially hampered locating the seat of the attic fire and a fear of extension throughout the multiple unit building prompted further upgrading the alarm to a MABAS Box Alarm.
Companies at the scene were: Buffalo Grove Battalion 4, Engine 26, Quints 25 and 27, Squad 25, Ambulances 25 and 26, plus three additional chief officers. Mutual aid companies were: Arlington Heights Engine 4, Ambulance 4, and 400; Long Grove Squad 55 and 5500; Palatine Engine 82; Lincolnshire-Riverwoods Squad 51; Wheeling Engine 42 and 2400; ambulances from Barrington Countryside, Lake Zurich, Schaumburg, and Lake Villa; a Libertyville squad, a Countryside engine, trucks from Mundelein and Grayslake (in a spare truck X-Mundelein), the Mess Canteen Unit M5, plus Buffalo Grove EMA.
One firefighter was transported to an area hospital for observation after being evaluated in rehab.
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Dan McInerney photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Dan McInerney photo
Dan McInerney photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Larry Shapiro photo
Dan McInerney photo
more photos at Shapirophotography.net
