Posts Tagged volunteer

Lake Bluff is added to the site

Lake Bluff Fire Department patch

Another Division 4 department has been added to the site. The Lake Bluff Fire Department is another volunteer department covering the roughly 4 square miles of Lake Bluff along Lake Michigan between Lake Forest and North Chicago. This is mostly a Pierce department with four Pierce units plus a brush rig built by Danko.

There are several interesting points with regard to the apparatus here. First of all, each of the suppression rigs bears a unique name on the front of the cab. Lake Bluff has always gone to the local third grade class for help with a name when a new piece of equipment is ordered. The current names are ‘The Volunteer’, ‘The Defender’, ‘Guardian’, and ‘Centennial Pride’.

Lake Bluff Fire Department rescue 520

Built-in, color-coded, cross-lays are located amidship. Larry Shapiro photo

Lake Bluff Fire Department Pierce Saber pumper squad

Rescue 520 has a rear pump along with rescue squad type storage and a full complement of hydraulic tools. Larry Shapiro photo

Lake Bluff has an interesting rescue/pumper. Rescue 520 is a Pierce Saber with a squad body that features a rear 1500-GPM pump, built-in cross-lays, and has a roof-mounted, Will-Burt Night Scan, light tower. As a matter of fact, all three of Lake Bluff’s engines also have a Night Scan.

Lake Bluff Fire Department Ford C-8000 Pierce engine

At one time, all of the Lake Bluff engines were built by Pierce on Ford C-Series chassis. When they purchased their last Ford unit in 1990, they were informed by Pierce that this unit would be the last Ford-C-8000 that Pierce would build on.

Lake Bluff Fire Department

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Glen Ellyn is on the site

Glen Ellyn FC 1926 Seagrave pumper

The Glen Ellyn Fire Company becomes only the second department posted to date representing Division 12. They are a volunteer department with a paid chief and contract medics who staff one ambulance in each station. Glen Ellyn has a reputation for purchasing interesting apparatus that are not the ‘norm’ for the area. Unique to them, they order engines in pairs so that they can place identical units in each station. They have two pair of engines that were purchased like this; one pair from 1983 built by 3D on Spartan Silent Knight (rear engine) chassis and the other pair was purchased in 1993 that are on Spartan Gladiator chassis with Saulsbury bodies.

Glen Ellyn has a truck in each station and various squad units. For many years now one of their trucks has been a Snorkel. Currently they have a 2000 Spartan Gladiator/Marion 75′ Snorkel in the downtown house and a 102′ Grumman AerialCat in the Taft Avenue station.

Glen Ellyn Spartan/Marion/Snorkel

They have a beautiful statue outside their headquarters building, the money for which was donated to the department by an individual in recognition of the fire company celebrating their 100th anniversary in 2007.

Firefighter bronze statue Glen Ellyn

The money for this statue which resides at Glen Ellyn Station 1 was donated by an individual in recognition of the Glen Ellyn Fire Company Centennial in 2007. Larry Shairo photo

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