This from Josh Boyajian:
Drew and I were recently in Madison and we visited several firehouses and shot a lot of rigs. Every firehouse we were at had at least one guy from the Chicago land area that now works there. When we went to Engine 4’s house, the lieutenant on duty was a previous Naperville fireman. He expressed to us how he recognized our names from CAF, (and that he views the site daily). He was more than happy to talk to us and take us wherever we wanted to go to shoot the rig. We went back to the firehouse where he invited us to stay for dinner. After dinner, we made our way downstairs, he gave us their new house t-shirts, and in exchange asked for two favors. One was to mail him back the picture of his rig, along with a Stickney t-shirt, and the other was for me to send these pictures to post on chicagoareafire.com. If you can that would be great!
Along with the pictures, can you post this thank you …
– Thank you LT. Komarck and the shift at Engine 4.
Josh Boyajian
Josh Boyajian photo
Madison Engine 4. Josh Boyajian photo
Editor’s note: Josh, thanks for the story, and the photos. And thank you LT. Komarck for being a regular viewer. Perhaps we can use today’s post to begin a new series … of Long Distance Dedications!
#1 by bubbaK on September 8, 2015 - 10:19 AM
Bill, all 5 trucks carry full compliments of TNT extrication tools as well as full sets of airbags and Paratech stabilizing struts. There was talk of equipping the squad with TNT tools and running it east for pins and S8 would go west for pins. This remains to be seen after the moves when Station 1 reopens.
#2 by Bill Post on September 7, 2015 - 8:02 PM
Thats quite interesting BubbaK, I remember that when there were only 6 ambulances in service there was no ambulance at Station 1 however as you know there was an Ambulance that was regularly assigned to Station 3 and another one at Station 4 and they kind of split the center of the city between the 2 of them.
BubbaK do the Trucks in Madison carry complete extrication packages on them including Airbags as well as the Jaws ,spreaders and cutters. Since Squad 4 was stripped of most of it’s equipment am I correct in assuming that it doesn’t get sent on any extrication runs? I had thought that it might have still been sent out on some of the more serious accidents when perhaps more then one set of Jaws or Airbags were needed but I guess that is not the case now?
In Chicago all of the Trucks are equpped with Hurst tools however Squads are still dispatched on pin/in’s along with an Engine and Truck and it is up to the first due units to hold the Squad or have it continue in. The Trucks in Chicago don’t carry airbags however and Squads do and they usually carry the Heavier Hurst tools on them. Of course Chicago’s Squads are fully manned and have very large running districts so in many cases the Truck company will usually get the victim out of the wrecked vehicle before the Squad arrives.
#3 by bubbaK on September 7, 2015 - 7:36 PM
Hi Bill, Squad 4, the smaller Pierce, was moved to Engine 9’s house for the year. While it was at 4’s, it was pretty much stripped of all equipment except for air bottles and the cascade. When there was an east side job, the squad would go with 1 FF from E4 to fill/exchange bottles. RIT was done by E3 west and E4 east. RIT has since gone city wide. Station 1 is being remodeled as we speak. Ladder 1 was moved to our house and Engine 1 is in a rented building down around Blount & E Washington on the other side of the capital. #1 is expected to be done and ready for the Companies to move back in mid to late November. Also, Medic 1 was relocated to Engine 3’s house and Medic 9 was moved to the 4’s. With the relocation of the Medic Companies, runs have come close to evening out for all the Medics city wide. Therefore, it sounds like the Companies may stay in their current houses and will be renamed, Medic 3 & 4, respectively. Weather the Squad comes back to 4 or not has not been discussed yet.
#4 by Bill Post on September 7, 2015 - 5:01 PM
Hi bubbaK, are you at Station 4? Don’t you still have the small Pierce walk around type of Squad at your station? When the smaller Squad gets called out does the Engine crew take that rig instead of the Engine or do you just assign someone from the Engine to drive it to the scene. Wasn’t the smaller Pierce Squad assigned to Station 3 before the Large Urban Search and Rescue Squad moved from Station 4 to Station 8? I know that a few years ago there was a RIT company assigned to station 3 for a while, was that Smaller Pierce Squad or was that an extra Engine that was the RIT company? Does Middleton run automatic aide into Madison or does only Madison respond to runs on the far west end of town? I noticed that there are some areas just west and east of route 12 (north of Sauk rd) where MIddleton could probably respond quicker to the scene as Stations 12 and 2 have greater distance to go to get there. Thats the area where Sprechers pub is that I’m talking about.
#5 by bubbaK on September 7, 2015 - 3:11 PM
Josh & Drew, nice to meet you guys and yeah… nice surprise to see my rig on your site! Thanks!… you do an awesome job with your site and I am looking forward to the revamped site. Thanks for letting a few “cheeseheads” in! Bill… quite accurate in your MFD descriptions. The Squad was moved to Station 8 2 years ago so the HURT team would be housed in a triple company house. As for Station 14, word in the street is it was removed from the budget for next year. We will still be looking for a few good firemen… Application period is Oct. 10th – Dec 6th.
http://www.cityofmadison.com/fire/join-mfd.
#6 by Bill Post on September 6, 2015 - 7:21 PM
It just might make some senrse if Madison moves into the old Blooming Grove Station. The New Station 13 is on the far east side however I don’t know if it covers the old blooming grove area according to the ISO standard of having an Engine with in 1.5 miles of “built upon areas”. Either way it would be interesting to see what Madison does now with that extra area to cover.The new station 14 is tentatively supposed to be built further south west of where the new station 13 is as the south east end of town could use some better coverage. The funny thing is that currently the east end of town only has one Truck assigned and that is one the North east end while one Truck is located downtown in Central Madison and the remaining three Trucks are all west of downtown on the west side of town.
#7 by Bill Post on September 6, 2015 - 6:57 PM
Yes that is interesting and Madison just may have considering adding a 15th station to the roster as new Station 13 and soon to be built station 14 were planned long before blooming grove was planning to disband,
#8 by Drew Smith on September 6, 2015 - 6:48 PM
The city of Madison is set to annex all of the nine square miles of Blooming Grove township no later than 2027. This past June 30 the BGFD closed shop and Madison FD began serving that township. Blooming Grove consists of several areas along Madison’s east side in the I-94/I-39 corridor.
http://www.bloominggrovefire.com/
#9 by Bill Post on September 6, 2015 - 5:53 PM
Josh, thanks for printing the shot of Madison ,Engine 4. Did you make it to any of the other stations.
One of the unique and interesting things about the Madison Wisconsin Fire Department is that the fire department is actually growing in size and has been for quite a while. Three totally new fire stations witn new fire companies have been put in service since 2005. A 4th new station and a new training center is also in the planning stages. That doesn’t even include the fact that Madison has also been rebuilding and remodeling some of their older stations which by Chicago standards really aren’t that old. Station 1 (the main downtown Station) is being rebuilt and Station 2 on the west side was remodeled not that long ago. Engines 11,12 and 13 were all put in service since 2005 and Station 13 was just opened slightly over a year ago in June 2014. Last winter Madison put their first Tower Ladder in service at Truck 8 on the northeast side. Since 2004 two new full time ambulances have been put in service and in 2010 a 5th Truck company was also put in service.
Currently Madison runs with 13 stations, 11 Engine companies, 5 Ladder/Quints, 8 fulltime ambulance and one part time for special events like football games, a Squad unit and a Urban Search and Rescue Squad plus 2 Hazmat Units and a Lake Rescue Unit.
Two of the Stations run without Engine companies but with 100 foot Ladder/Quint companies. All of the Ladder companies are Technically speaking Quints however 4 of them run with 100 foot Aerial Ladders and one of them runs with a 105 foot Tower Ladder, so all of their Aerials ae full size. All of the Engines and Trucks run with Pierce Quantum chassis vehicles and the Engine and Trucks normally run with 4 men assigned. I believe that the Squad at Station 4 might be a cross manned or what might be called a “jump company” but I am not 100% sure of that. As the town has been steadily growing and expanding a 14th station is being planned for the south east side of town and Station 13 is on the far east side of town. There aren’t that many fire departments in the midwest that are actually growing but the Madison Wisconsin fire department is. The old station 8 was a privately owned fire museum the last that I had heard.
#10 by Wayne on September 5, 2015 - 10:39 AM
This would be a cool recurring entry. It’s interesting occasionally seeing the world outside the Chicagoland area. Also the pictures accompanying this post are pretty cool, good work Josh!