Oct 19
Karl Klotz has sumbitted the following departments that will be posted soon:
Jack Connors has submitted several updated CFD apparatus images:
Jeff Rudolph has submitted several updated images from Skokie.
These should be posted soon.
Oct 18
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.
Oct 18
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
Oct 17
Lt. Andy Hilk from Naperville has informed us that the new 2010 Spartan Gladiator/Crimson engine is having equipment mounted before it is put into service at Engine 4, probably within the next week. The engine has a 1,500-GPM Hale pump, carries 750 gallons of water and 50 gallons of Class B foam. It features ROM Roll-up doors and has an 8KW Smartpower generator.
Naperville's newest engine just prior to going into service. This unit was displayed in the Crimson booth at the Fire Rescue International that was in Chicago this past August. Andy Hilk photo
The 1991 E-ONE Hush pumper which was in reserve has been sold to the Rockford Fire Department.
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.
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
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 …
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
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
Doug’s collection includes:
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
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 (Kane County) had this 1971 Mack CF656 1000-GPM pumper refurbished by Pierce in 1987. Larry Shapiro photo
The Geneva Mack/Pierce engine today as part of Doug Reno's collection. Larry Shapiro photo
The 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.
Photo by Larry Shapiro
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.
Station 1 is at 39010 Caroline in Wadsworth and is full to the brim with vehicles. Larry Shapiro photo
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:
Antioch's American LaFrance/Alexis engine with a Nightscan lighting up the scene. Larry Shapiro photo
This Fox Lake squad has two light towers capable of providing enough light for any scene. Larry Shapiro photo
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
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:
These are not yet represented on the site:
Larry Shapiro has a gallery of images from this fire which can be viewed HERE.
Oct 15
Here are a few recent area updates:
Limestone Squad 3 is a 2010, Ferrara, inferno pumper/squad with a 2,000-GPM pump, and 500 gallons of water. Photo by Karl Klotz
Bellwood's new GMC/Osage ambulance before lettering. Osage photo
Interior view of Bellwood's new Osage ambulance. Osage photo
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’.
Built-in, color-coded, cross-lays are located amidship. Larry Shapiro photo
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.
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.
Oct 14
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