Vintage article on the history of CFD SS-1

This from Steve Redick:

Here is an article on John “Red” Windle, a real fireman’s fireman. My dad worked with him on SS1. This article talks about the new Snorkel Squad

historic news article about Chicago FD's Snorkel Squad

Warren Redick collection

Tags: CFD Lt John "Red" Windle, Chicago Fire Department history, history of Chicago Snorkel Squad

This entry was posted on March 2, 2016, 7:00 AM and is filed under Fire Department History. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 Comments

#1 by 9 man squad on October 6, 2016 - 9:27 PM

What year was this published
#2 by Bill Post on March 2, 2016 - 7:16 PM

This was a very interesting article about Snorkel Squad 1in it’s early days. I read the article very carefully and the writer had put in some misinformation which he apparently didn’t confirm when he had submitted the article. The misinformation was that “Another Snorkel Squad at 324 s Des Plaines covers the south side”. It should have read that the other Snorkel Squad (SS 2) was at 1150 E 55th street (Engine 60’s quarters) where it covered the south side.
Snorkel Company 2 had been located at 324 S Des Plaines at the time and it basically covered the Loop the near south side and the near west side from there. Snorkel 2 was relocated to Engine 28’s new house on October 28th 1964. So that article must have been written some time between September 4, 1963 and October 28, 1964.
Before Engine 28’s house was opened Snorkel companies 2 and 4 were located only a few blocks apart. While Snorkel 2 was located at Engine 5’s house Snorkel 4 had been located at Engine 25’s new house at 541 W Taylor the current “Survive Alive” house at the Fire Academy since mid 1961.
#3 by David on March 2, 2016 - 3:19 PM

Another great article really worth reading, thanks for sharing this! Love all the stories, Windle and the other men must have been real killers to deal with all that stuff and especially the amount of working fires which was common back then. By the way do the Squads still carry the aluminized or asbestos suits now or this was just the 60s affair??!