This from Steve Redick:

I found some of my images from the Hawthorne Racetrack fire. The slides are stamped Nov 78. My buddy Hank and I were fanning at 84 truck 51 when the man on watch woke us up and told us to look out the 2nd floor window of the firehouse. Needless to say we went running for our cars. I recall the Cicero ALF tiller arrived about the same time we did and took a corner so fast we thought the tiller wheels were gonna come off. CFD had sent a few companies as well … 34, 364, 88, a turret wagon, and a buggy. This was a real old time classic suburban extravaganza!

Steve

Forest View Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Sticky Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Sticky Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Sticky Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Cicero Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Berwyn Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Chicago Fire Department at the Hawthorne Race Track grandstand fire of 1978

Steve Redick photo

Excerpt from theChicagoTribune.com:

Another big fire, on Nov. 19, 1978, destroyed the grandstand and heavily damaged the clubhouse at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney. The park was rebuilt and reopened in September, 1980.

Before they were destroyed, Hawthorne and Washington Park were considered extremely susceptible to fire because of extensive wooden structures. Hawthorne was built in 1891 and Washington Park in 1926, when building restrictions and fire codes were not as strict as today`s.