This from Max Weingardt:
Higland Park code 4 at 734 Central Ave 6/6/19
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Max Weingardt photo
Working fire in Highland Park, 6-6-19
#1 by Fred M on June 15, 2019 - 4:52 PM
Does HP have any kind of ISO rating? With this kind of coverage I would suspect the rating is lousy….or should be. Then again, residents get what they pay for and if this has been ok with them, then enjoy !!!
#2 by Bill Post on June 15, 2019 - 2:47 PM
Things have gotten worse in Highland Park as far as truck coverage. When Highwood had a department, they ran a quint. With Highland Park you are playing Russian Roulette because not only is their truck usually out of service, but the nearest mutual aid truck is from Deerfield to the west (see the photo above). I understand that Truck 20 is a jump company with Ambulance 20, so if the ambulance is busy then the truck isn’t available. Glencoe, to the south doesn’t have a truck and they are staffed by a public safety department which is manned by police officers who double as firefighters (talk about a cheap town). To the north is Lake Forest with a tower ladder. That’s not to mention Engines 32 and 34 in Highland Park who are stuck with only two if their ambulances are out. If you have a fire with only have two men on an engine, what are you going to do, run inside with a fire extinguisher?
#3 by MABAS 21 on June 15, 2019 - 2:14 PM
Thanks for the information Mike. It’s a shame. Same story as everywhere else, the politicians will rather play Russian Roulette and take chances on skeleton staffing when they have money to fund it and rather spend it elsewhere.
#4 by Mike on June 15, 2019 - 12:08 PM
MABAS 21 HP has always been understaffed. They used to run a 1 man squad years ago and had 4 firehouses. Now with them covering highwood they’re even busier and still never added staffing. The city has the opinion that with the hospital being in town that the ambulance can make up the other spots on the engine. Issue is they run 5500 runs a year so the Ambulances are never home. Plus no staffed truck and then when you’re only running 2 guys what do you do with new guys? This village has money like other affluent towns in lake county and they choose to have piss poor staffing.
#5 by MABAS 21 on June 15, 2019 - 9:53 AM
Wow! It’s amazing that as large and affluent of a suburb that HP is, that they run with such poor staffing! Does the Village administration not like or prioritize the fire department there? I do not know too much about their call volume, but one would think that they would staff all 3 suppression apparatus with 3 and run 3 ambos at minimum.
#6 by Bill Post on June 15, 2019 - 3:30 AM
BH Dispatch the pumper/squad is at Station 33 and both Engine 34 and Ambulance 34 run out of station 34. Sometime before 2016, Station 34 was running with the squad as an experiment that didn’t last long. They also temporarily ran the truck out of Station 34, but that didn’t last long either. A few years ago I heard they were making plans for a new Station 32 next to or near the present one. Highland Park only runs with two on Engines 32 and 34 while the Squad 33 runs with three men. The truck is usually out of service unless it is due on a mutual aid run when the squad jumps to the truck and the squad goes out of service. I also heard that if they are lucky enough to have more on duty at Station 33 then they run with two men on the truck, but that’s not very common. Maybe someone here has more recent information then I do.
#7 by BH Dispatch on June 14, 2019 - 10:53 PM
Question….
Haven’t been up to HP in quite some time. Station 34 now houses an engine and the squad? Still an ambo there also?