Posts Tagged Snorkels in the Chicago Fire Department

Chicago 3-11 Alarm fire, August 27, 2014 (part 7)

Video by Larry Shapiro of the 3-11 Alarm fire at 6308 S. Halsted on August 27th

 

Also, from Dave Weaver:

FIREGROUND RECORDING:
8/27/14 CHICAGO – 3-11 Alarm Apartments Over Commercial Fire 6308 S. Halsted St.
http://radioman911.com/news/2014_08_27_CFD_3_11.php

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Chicago Fire Department history

This from Dan Jasina:

I toured the American LaFrance museum in North Charleston, SC on February 5, 2014. The first Chicago FD snorkel, a 1958 GMC/Pitman Mfg. was display. The apparatus was restored by Snorkel in 1988. This museum has the largest collection of fully restored American LaFrance apparatus in the country, hands-on interactive safety exhibits, and a children’s activity center.

Dan

Chicago's first Snorkel fire truck

Chicago’s original 1958 GMC/Pitman Snorkel on display as part of the American LaFrance Collection in North Charleston, SC. Dan Jasina photo

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Chicago 2-11 Alarm fire, 1-26-14 (more)

More images from Steve Redick of the 2-11 Alarm fire on 1-26-14 at 5601 W. Irving Park Road.

fire trucks at night fire scene with blowing snow

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

fire trucks at night fire scene with blowing snow

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

fire hydrant in snow being used

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

fire trucks at night fire scene with blowing snow

Steve Redick photo

firemen battle night fire in the snow

Steve Redick photo

fire trucks at night fire scene with blowing snow

Steve Redick photo

fire trucks at night fire scene with blowing snow

Steve Redick photo

fire trucks at night fire scene with blowing snow

Steve Redick photo

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Chicago Fire Department history – Commissioner Robert J. Quinn

The Chicago Tribune has an article about former Chicago Fire Commissioner Robert J. Quinn:

On Oct. 18, 1958, a bizarre-looking apparatus responded to a blaze at a lumberyard on Cermak Road, raised a steel arm hinged in the middle like an elbow, and revolutionized firefighting the world over.

“A fireman in a crow’s nest at the top of the tower directs the stream and gets his orders from below by observers using a walkie-talkie radio,” the Tribune reported.

Shortly, the new firetruck was lettered “Quinn’s Snorkel,” and with good reason. Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn’s brainchild enabled firefighters to stand firmly on a flat platform instead of precariously clinging to the top rungs of a ladder. Shortly after becoming commissioner in 1957, Quinn saw tree trimmers using an aerial platform and realized its potential for attacking fires. Other fire departments quickly followed Quinn’s lead.

In his 21 years as commissioner, the colorful and innovative Quinn was always good newspaper copy. He responded to fires wearing a battered old helmet. He equipped fire vehicles with radios, constructed humongous water cannons with fanciful nicknames like “Big Mo,” acquired helicopters that gave fire chiefs a bird’s-eye view of a blaze and established a photographic unit so fires could be documented and studied.

Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn regularly responded to fires wearing a battered old helmet. (Chicago Tribune file photo)

Fire Commissioner Robert Quinn regularly responded to fires wearing a battered old helmet. (Chicago Tribune file photo)

He was named commissioner by Mayor Richard J. Daley — the two were alums of Bridgeport’s Hamburg Athletic Club, a neighborhood hangout — though Quinn denied street corner loyalties got him the job. “We lived west of Halsted Street, and he (Daley) lived east,” Quinn told a Trib reporter, “and that made a difference in those days. You never had anything to do with the guys on the other side of the tracks.”

Either way, Quinn’s reign over the Chicago Fire Department corresponded with Daley’s reign over the city. He was eased out by Daley’s successor Michael Bilandic in 1978, though he wanted to serve another few months, making him a firefighter for half a century.

Quinn presided over major fires — including the horrific Our Lady of the Angels school fire in 1958, the one that destroyed the original McCormick Place in 1967 and the 1968 West Side riot conflagration — during years when fire deaths were all too common: 206 in 1963 (the worst in modern times), compared with 16 in 2013 (the lowest).

He also kept Chicagoans alternately amused and bemused with madcap antics and the tall tales with which he explained them. As a Tribune editorial noted when Quinn stepped down, he had provided “us all with a few special stories to tell friends from out of town.”

In 1969, a 19-year-old Irish immigrant was overcome by smoke in a Lake Shore Drive apartment rented by Quinn. He explained his presence at the scene by saying he went there from the Marina Towers apartment where he lived to direct firefighting operations. “I hadn’t been in the apartment for two years until last night,” Quinn said. He explained that he met her in Ireland while searching for his parents’ birthplace and helped her come to America. In some versions of the story, she was a distant relative; in others, the friend of a friend.

When it was disclosed that a fire lieutenant was detailed to Quinn’s Wisconsin farm, he explained the officer was a good match for the assignment. “He’s really good with animals,” Quinn said.

When the White Sox clinched the American League pennant with a late-night victory in September 1959, Quinn set off the city’s air-raid sirens. At the height of the Cold War, some Chicagoans thought it signaled not a forthcoming World Series but an atomic Armageddon. “If the Sox ever win another pennant, I’ll do it again,” Quinn said.

Yet for all his goofiness, Quinn was a hero. In 1934, he climbed eight stories to rescue three civilians from a fire in a Loop building. The same year, he put a 200-pound woman over his shoulder and, with her clothing on fire, leaped 4 feet to an adjoining building. For that feat, he was awarded $100 as the Tribune’s hero of the month.

Serving in the Navy in World War II, Quinn was decorated for heroism during a three-day battle against a fire on a tanker loaded with aviation fuel.

He returned to Chicago convinced that a fire department should be run like a military organization. More than a bit of a martinet, he tried to introduce naval-style dress uniforms that his firefighters decried as “sailor suits.” A national champion handball player, Quinn subjected recruits to the physical-fitness regimen he followed. To publicize it, he sponsored a marathon run for firefighters from Chicago to what is now Naval Station Great Lakes that caused a massive traffic jam on the highway that he appropriated for the event.

A 1969 study faulted Quinn’s department for being slow to equip firefighters with the breathing apparatus that can make the difference between life and death. Quinn said the department couldn’t afford them.

He famously opposed switching from limousine ambulances to the boxy, modern vehicles, “apparently on the theory that a Chicagoan would rather die in style than be saved in the back of a panel truck,” the Tribune noted.

Quinn thought firefighters should be “he-men.” He told a reporter he was disgusted by pictures of firefighters with long hair in fire-industry publications. “If the good Lord wanted a man to look like a woman, he would’ve made him a woman,” he said. His racial views were equally antediluvian. He answered critics who said his department discriminated against African-American firefighter applicants by saying blacks “don’t like heat and smoke.”

In the years since, whole doses of Quinn’s approach to firefighting have been abandoned. Although Chicago still runs his beloved snorkels, other cities have scrapped them in favor of telescoping ladders with aerial platforms.

A bit of advice he gave to recruits 40 years ago is still worth pondering. A firefighter, he noted, must be ready to go instantly from sitting around the station to hopping on a rig, prepared to put his own life at risk to save another’s.

“When you get out in the field, you’ll be sitting on your ass for a long time,” he said. ” Be ready to go to work. Pay attention to the rules. Compete in sports. Stay in shape. Get your hair cut. And for Christ’s sake, be men.”

thanks Scott, Drew & Dan

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Chicago 4-11 Alarm fire, 11-15-13 (pt 4)

Video by Larry Shapiro of the 4-11 Alarm Fire on Friday at 3106 W. Peterson Avenue in Chicago.

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Chicago 4-11 Alarm fire 11-15-13 (pt2)

This from Larry Shapiro:

I took in the 4-11 yesterday at Peterson & Lincoln. Was on the highway when they dispatched the still alarm and had a hunch it would be worthwhile to head that way. The Box Alarm was about the time of the first image here (through the windshield) and the 2-11 was as I jumped out of the car in traffic half a block away. My wife, being the good sport that she is, parked the car and sat.

Engine 71 had a deck gun going in Sector 4 on Albany and I just missed Truck 56 with their Spartan ladder to the 1-4 roof. It was backing out as I got to that side … was hoping to see it up and working for two reasons. First, I’ve yet to photograph one of these aerials at a working fire, and second was the fact that the last fire I remember at this center, a Still & Box Alarm, was the day before they were to turn in their Seagrave to pickup the Spartan.

Eventually, 71 had to move as the electric transformer on the 3-4 corner exploded violently from the massive fire storm that was active where they were working.

A third tower ladder was added to the alarm as were two additional truck companies. The fire crossed one firewall on the eastern edge of the center and was basically stopped at the next one between the mattress store and hair shop.

I am working a a video which will post when it’s completed.

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

View from the west on Peterson, just after the Box was requested. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

A shot from across Peterson at Lincoln. Engine 71 facing heavy fire. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

An early view just after the 2-11 upgrade. Engine 71 facing heavy fire. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores

Smoke escapes from everywhere on the roof which is filled with roofing materials. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores

Squad 2A waits for water. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Engine 71 on Albany in Sector 4. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores. Larry Shapiro photo

Albany was blanketed in smoke. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Engine 71 facing heavy fire. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Tower Ladder 23 setting up at the 1-4 corner, at Peterson & Albany. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Fire consumes the fourth occupancy. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Massive smoke and flames on the east leg of the strip center. Engine 71 facing heavy fire. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

One of multiple master streams. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Big fire load in the mattress store. Larry Shapiro photo

Massive 4-alarm fire on Chicago's north side destroys strip center and 5 stores.

Fire up against the wall opposite of the hair cutting shop. Larry Shapiro photo

An extensive gallery with over 200 images can be viewed HERE.

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Chicago FD 3-11 Alarm fire 7-13-13 (more)

More from Steve Redick on the 3-11 Alarm fire at S. Union on Saturday:

We had a 3-11 today at 45th & Union..4 frame dwellings. Eng 50 boxed it on arrival. Fire appeared to be heaviest in the rear. Numerous handlines, snorkel and tower ladder were used. Fire was in full possesion of 3 buildings when I arrived and companies were still setting up. This is a congested area and many units stretched lines down gangways from the next block over (see 29 photo).

More images on my site:

www.ksc711.smugmug.com

The members did a lot of work here..this was a tough job.

Steve

 

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Steve Redick photo

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Chicago FD 3-11 Alarm fire 7-13-13 (more)

Some panoramic images and a video from Steve Redick showing Sector 1 of today’s 3-11 Alarm fire on S. Union

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Panoramic image of Sector 1. Steve Redick photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Panoramic image of Sector 1. Steve Redick photo

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Chicago FD 3-11 Alarm fire 7-13-13 (more)

This from Josh Boyajian:

Here are some shots from the 3-11 on Union this morning. I arrived about an hour into the fire. Very smokey conditions for taking pictures.

 

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

 

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

3-11 Alarm fire on South Union in Chicago

Josh Boyajian photo

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Chicago 2-11 Alarm fire 3-15-13 (pt 2)

More images from the 2-11 on 75th Street from Josh Boyajian:

here are some of my pictures from the 2-11 yesterday!

 

fire engine pumping at Chicago FD 2-11 alarm fire

Josh Boyajian photo

Chicago Squad 5 Snorkel working at extra alarm fire

Josh Boyajian photo

Chicago Squad 5 Snorkel working at extra alarm fire

Josh Boyajian photo

Chicago 2-11 Alarm fire 3-15-13

Josh Boyajian photo

Chicago 2-11 Alarm fire 3-15-13

Josh Boyajian photo

Chicago 2-11 Alarm fire 3-15-13

Josh Boyajian photo

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