Archive for January, 2016

Forest Park firefighters provide free winter coats for area children

Excerpts from the ForestparkReview.com:

Operation Warm was about more than providing coats to Forest Park children who need them to brave the winter. It was also about the warm hearts of the firefighters and their families, who welcomed residents to their station last Sunday morning. They provided a veritable feast of sweets and drinks, but, more importantly, they showered the kids with attention.

The program was the brainchild of Phil Chiappetta, president of the Forest Park Firefighters Association but it was definitely a team effort. For the second year in a row, Chiappetta and other firefighters used the proceeds from their 5K race to purchase coats for local children. Last year, the fire department distributed the coats at the Community Center but Chiappetta thought it would be more personal to host the event at the firehouse.

“Each coat is made by union workers at Operation Warm in Atlanta,” Chiappetta explained. “They cost $35 apiece and we’re giving out 67 this year.”

There were 24 families selected to receive coats this year.

thanks Dan

Tags: , , , ,

Firefighters collect water for residents of Flint, MI

Excerpts from the RBlandmark.com:

In the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the North Riverside Fire Department has donated 75 cases of bottled water, amounting to 2,652 bottles, as part of a drive conducted by the Buffalo Grove Police Department.

On Jan. 30, the water was to be delivered to the Flint police and fire departments for distribution to residents there. Flint’s drinking water has been tainted by extremely high levels of lead following a 2014 switch in their water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River, a move made in the name of cost-cutting but without proper controls to ensure that lead in the pipes didn’t end up in the water.

The crisis is the subject of investigations by both the Michigan Attorney general and the U.S. Department of Justice.

thanks Dan

Articles about other area collections HERE and HERE

Tags: , , , ,

Chicago Still & Box Alarm, 1-31-16

This from Eric Haak:

The following are images of a still and box alarm fire that occurred at 6664 South Hartwell at approximately 8:45 am on Sunday, January 31st.  For those not familiar with Hartwell, it is right at the split between the Dan Ryan and the Skyway.  I was at 71st and Vincennes and arrived just after the first companies to give you an idea of how far in these images were taken.  I went to the front of the building first and there wasn’t much to shoot as you can see by the image of Engine 47 who was first up.  Most of the fire was in the back porches.  The engine seen in the alley is 84.
Chicago firefighters after battling a rear porches fire

Eric Haak photo

Chicago FD Engine 47

Eric Haak photo

Chicago firefighters after battling a rear porches fire

Eric Haak photo

Chicago firefighters after battling a rear porches fire

Eric Haak photo

Chicago firefighters after battling a rear porches fire

Eric Haak photo

firefighter overhauls after house fire

Eric Haak photo

Chicago firefighters after battling a rear porches fire

Eric Haak photo

Chicago firefighters after battling a rear porches fire

Eric Haak photo

Tags: , , , , , ,

Historic fire Hubbard Street fire with multiple LODD, 1-28-61

This from Eric Haak:

I thought I would pass along these images of the Hubbard Street fire.  There are many images known of this incident, but a few of these may not have been well circulated.  The first image is a common one of the front of the building before the collapse.  I believe this image was taken facing north from under the railroad bridge.  Image 2 shows the position of Snorkel 1 in the alley.  Images 3 and 4 are of the ruins and I believe they were taken facing south from the Grand Avenue bridge.
An interesting side note is image 5 which is blown up from image 3.  It shows an Ahrens-Fox engine being used to supply the high pressure rig.  If I am wrong about any of these descriptions, please let me know as I have always wanted to understand these images and where they were taken.  I own the original negatives for all four of these images and do not know who the original photographer was.
Hubbard Street fire in Chicago

Historic Hubbard Street fire in Chicago that killed nine firefighters, 1-28-61. Eric Haak collection

Eric Haak collection

Eric Haak collection

Ruins of the Hubbard Street fire

Ruins of the Hubbard Street fire. Eric Haak collection

Ruins of the Hubbard Street fire. Eric Haak collection

Ruins of the Hubbard Street fire. Eric Haak collection

Chicago FD Ahrens Fox engine and high-pressure wagon at the scene of the Hubbard Street fire

Chicago FD Ahrens Fox engine and high-pressure wagon at the scene of the Hubbard Street fire. Eric Haak collection

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

American Lung Association Fight for Air Climb

Excerpts from theChicagoTribune.com:

North Riverside Fire Department Firefighter Richard Gray will march up 31 flights of stairs in the Oakbrook Terrace Tower on Feb. 14 as part of the American Lung Assn.’s Fight for Air Climb fundraiser. For the sixth year in a row, the 48-year-old is participating in the annual event to benefit lung disease research, patient services, and advocacy efforts.

The cause resonates personally for Gray, whose 72-year-old father, a retired firefighter, received a lung transplant in 2010. “He’s doing fantastic,” Gray said. However, Gray lost both his mother-in-law and an uncle to lung disease.

He’ll strap on 60 pounds of firefighting gear and climb the 680 steps in the office building as part of a team of firefighters from his department participating in the event. Fire departments in the Chicagoland area take part every year in the Fight for Air Climb at the Oakbrook Terrace Tower as well as the climb at the Presidential Towers in Chicago’s West Loop, set for March 6. The fundraiser sparks friendly competition among teammates as well as between Chicagoland fire departments, Gray said.

Lung cancer is the number one cancer killer in the county, taking the lives of an estimated 158,040 Americans in 2015, according to the American Lung Assn. Along with patient education and advocacy, proceeds from the Fight for Air Climb fund additional studies on lung disease.

The Fight for Air Climb is a nationwide event, held in skyscrapers, stadiums and other buildings throughout the U.S. The nationwide fundraising goal is $9 million this year. Both the Oakbrook Terrace Tower climb and the Presidential Towers climb raise funds toward that total, with respective goals of $210,000 and $500,000.

Participants must commit to raising $100, though most raise a lot more. Asking 15 people for a penny for each of the 680 stairs in the Oakbrook Terrace Tower, or $6.80, is an easy way to exceed the individual fundraising commitment, event organizers point out.

thanks Dan

Tags: , , ,

New fire chief in Aurora (more)

Excerpts from theChicagoTribune.com:

Aurora Fire Marshal Gary Krienitz will take office as the city’s new fire chief Feb. 20,  after the city council unanimously approved his appointment as chief, to succeed John Lehman when he retires Feb. 19.

Krienitz, 43, will become the 17th fire chief of the Aurora Fire Department. In accepting the appointment, Krienitz told the City Council this week that he wanted to acknowledge the 16 fire chiefs who served the Aurora Fire Department before him.

Serving in the Aurora Fire Department for 19 years, Krienitz began as a paramedic before being promoted to lieutenant and then captain. In April 2015, he was appointed as Aurora’s fire marshal.

Tags: , ,

IL Supreme Court abolishes Public Duty Rule

Excerpts from CookCountyRecord.com:

For decades, Illinois cities, villages, fire protection districts, and others providing police, fire protection, and ambulance services have enjoyed general immunity from lawsuits brought by plaintiffs who may accuse paramedics, firefighters, and police officers of failing to provide the level of protection or response individuals may believe they should have.

On Jan. 22, however, a majority of justices on the Illinois Supreme Court decided the time had come to undo the judicial rule underlying that immunity, finding in a 4-3 decision that the so-called “public duty rule” should be discarded.

Essentially, justices Thomas L. Kilbride, Anne M. Burke, Charles E. Freeman, and Mary Jane Theis banded together to abolish the public duty rule, while Chief Justice Rita B. Garman, Robert R. Thomas, and Lloyd A. Karmeier joined in a dissent to the majority position.

However, the issuance from the state Supreme Court included three separate opinions: a lead opinion, authored by Kilbride, to which Burke concurred; a second, concurring opinion from Freeman and Theis; and a scathing dissent, authored by Thomas.

“We conclude that the underlying purposes of the public duty rule are better served by application of conventional tort principles and the immunity protection afforded by statutes than by a rule that precludes a finding of a duty on the basis of the defendant’s status as a public entity,” Kilbride wrote in the lead opinion. “Accordingly, we hereby abolish the public duty rule and its special duty exception. Therefore, in cases where the legislature has not provided immunity for certain governmental activities, traditional tort principles apply.”

The case arose out of Will County, where the East Joliet Fire Protection District and other local emergency response services and dispatch agencies were sued by the family of a woman who died in her home when paramedics were unable to render aid quickly enough to her call for help with breathing problems.

According to court documents, Coretta Coleman called 911 in June 2008 from her home in an unincorporated Joliet neighborhood and asked for help, as she was experiencing respiratory problems. Her 911 call was promptly transferred, following standard protocols at that time, from the Will County 911 center to an operator at the Orland Central Dispatch, who would then dispatch an ambulance to the home. When the Orland dispatcher attempted to speak with Coleman, however, the court documents said Corretta did not respond to his questions. He then placed Coleman’s call into a “line for ambulance dispatch” for an “unknown medical emergency.”

Paramedics then went to her house, but received no response to knocks on the door and shouts of “Fire Department!” and saw nothing when they looked in through windows. After speaking with neighbors, they said they could not force entry, unless police were present. The first ambulance then left the scene, prompting a number of neighbors to call 911 to report the departure.

A second ambulance was dispatched to the scene, and, as those EMS personnel pondered whether to force entry, Coleman’s husband purportedly returned home and let them in, 41 minutes after Coleman’s initial 911 call. Coleman was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Coleman’s husband then sued, alleging willful and wanton misconduct and negligence against the various defendants. The case was filed in Cook County Circuit Court, but transferred to Will County.

There, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the various EMS agencies were protected by the public duty rule. That finding was upheld by an appellate court.

Under the public duty rule, which dates to the 19th Century, local municipalities are presumed to “owe no duty to individual members of the general public to provide adequate government services, such as police and fire protection.” Generally, this rule has long immunized local governments from certain kinds of personal injury lawsuits.

In this case, the Coleman family challenged the rule itself, saying it allows governments to be treated differently than its citizens in injury litigation.

While each set of two justices differed in their reasons for believing so, a majority of Illinois Supreme Court justices agreed the public duty rule needed to go, saying the state constitution’s rejection of the concept of “sovereign immunity” meant immunity laws enacted by Illinois lawmakers should hold sway in deciding the conditions under which plaintiffs can sue municipalities and their associated EMS agencies. Should lawmakers wish to specifically immunize EMS agencies and municipal governments against such suits, they were free to do so, the justices said.

“Our constitutional provision abolishing sovereign immunity and the passage of various statutes providing for certain immunities with regard to official conduct of local governmental entities constitutes a comprehensive scheme for balancing the private and public interests at stake in assessing municipal tort liability,” wrote Freeman and Theis in their special concurring opinion. “Scrupulous application of the immunity statutes enacted by the General Assembly is the best way to achieve and maintain that balance.”

Dissenting justices, however, said the two-plus-two majority erred deeply in rejecting a principle the state Supreme Court had twice found did not conflict with either the state constitution or the state’s tort immunity laws. Dissenting justices, led by Thomas, blasted the majority for abandoning long-established legal precedent upholding the public duty rule without any new, “compelling legal rationale” to do so.

Thomas wrote he understood justices may “strong disagree” with past court decisions and “therefore wish that they had been on the court when” those cases were decided.

“But that ship has sailed,” he said. Under the doctrine of stare decisis, precedent should rule.

“This court has been emphatic that ‘stare decisis … ‘expresses the policy of the courts to stand by precedents and to not disturb settled points’ and therefore we ‘will not depart from precedent ‘merely because the court is of the opinion that it might decide otherwise were the question a new one,’” Thomas wrote. “Yet that is precisely what the concurring justices are doing here.”

He said emergency responders encounter situations in which they must respond “in the midst of unfolding emergency situations when every decision they make is fraught with uncertainty and their own safety may be at risk” and they must be free to respond free from the risk of lawsuit from those questioning their actions “in hindsight.”

“Local public entities often provide needed services for their communities where the risk of potential liability to individuals would discourage local public entities from providing those services,” Thomas said.

The case attracted the attention of public policy groups and associations statewide, as a number of them, including the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association, the Illinois Association of Fire Protection Districts, Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel, Illinois Municipal League and the Illinois Public Employer Labor Relations Association, among others, submitted briefs on the questions in the case.

Attorney Roman R. Okrei, a former Will County judge, of Lockport, argued for the Coleman family before the state Supreme Court.

Attorneys Stephen H. DiNolfo, of the firm of Ottosen, Britz, Kelly, Cooper & Gilbert, of Naperville; Kimbley A. Kearney, of Clausen Miller P.C., of Chicago; and Kevin J. Clancy, of Lowis & Gellen, of Chicago, argued on behalf of the defendants, including the East Joliet FPD, Will County and Orland Fire Protection District.

thanks Dan

Tags: , , , ,

Historic Chicago fire scene with rescue, 11-11-72

This from Eric Haak:

Just thought I would share these rare images of Truck 60 making a rescue on November 11, 1972.  These images were taken by Sylvester Szymczak who was a professional photographer that lived in the neighborhood.  He took some very good photos of the Central Manufacturing District fire as well, probably since he lived so close.  I bought a collection of prints taken by him and recognized the buildings in this rescue as being about two blocks from my current home.  A couple years later I came across a Truck 60 log book and in it, found the entry for this fire as shown in the last image.  From what I have been able to research, the rescued victim survived.  The ambulance pictured is Ambulance 12.
historic Chicago fire scene photo

Sylvester Szymczak photo

historic Chicago fire scene photo

Sylvester Szymczak photo

historic fire scene image of a victim rescue

Sylvester Szymczak photo

historic fire scene image of a victim rescue

Sylvester Szymczak photo

historic fire scene image of a victim rescue

Sylvester Szymczak photo

historic fire scene image of a victim rescue

Sylvester Szymczak photo

historic fire scene image of a victim rescue

Sylvester Szymczak photo

Vintage log book from Chicago FD Truck 60

Vintage log book from Chicago FD Truck 60 for 11-11-72

Tags: , , , ,

Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District news

From the Barrington and Countryside FPD website:

The Barrington Countryside Fire Protection District (BCFPD) Board of Trustees has established a team of experienced officers to lead an orderly transition of fire department operations before Fire Chief/Administrator Jeffrey A. Swanson’s three-year employment agreement ends in July 2016, Fire District President Thomas C. Long, M.D., announced.

The resolution approved at the Board’s December 21st meeting establishes a Transition Team of Deputy Chief James Kreher, Deputy Chief Donald J. Wenschhof, Assistant Chief Nick Asta, and Assistant Chief Scott Motisi to work closely with Chief Swanson over the next several months.  It also outlines specific department functions each member will take the lead in overseeing:

  • Deputy Chief Wenschhof – Operations.
  • Deputy Chief Kreher – Administration.
  • Assistant Chief Asta – Vehicles and equipment.
  • Assistant Chief Motisi – Training.

“My fellow trustees and I have been extremely impressed by the professionalism and dedication shown by the officers who comprise the Transition Team,” Dr. Long said.  “This represents an opportunity to leverage their experience for the benefit of our residents while we begin the process of finding our next fire chief.”

Chief Swanson was hired by the Board of Trustees in 2013 on a three-year employment contract to establish a new fire department that provides higher levels of service to district residents.  The BCFPD began independent operations in January 2014, after years of purchasing fire and emergency medical services from a neighboring community.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District chief resigns

Excerpts from theDailyHerald.com:

Fox River & Countryside Fire/Rescue District trustees were poised to bring on two new board members Thursday to help the district deal with some of the biggest changes its leadership has ever contemplated.

Trustees though accepted the resignation of Carl DeLeo, the district’s chief of operations and de facto chief. It was actually the third time DeLeo quit, according to Ken Shepro, the attorney for the fire district.

Trustees are expected to announced an interim chief possibly as soon as Friday … [and] a group of dozens of district residents put trustees on notice this week that they didn’t like DeLeo’s plans to convert the full-time staff into part-timers in an effort to save money and at least stall the need to ask residents for a tax increase.

The district has been running on a shoestring budget for many months. The district had only about $48,000 in reserves coming into the fiscal year. That total was bolstered by the sale of some rental property. But the one-time boost won’t be enough to sustain operations in the long term. Finances are so perilous that trustees have even contemplated what would happen if the district was forced to dissolve.

Three trustees interviewed replacements for former President Jim Gaffney and Terry Jeglum, who previously resigned. The interviews occurred in closed session. It appeared there were no more than three people interested in the trustee positions.

thanks Dan

Tags: , , ,