New home for Elk Grove Village tower ladder

Bill Freidrich found former Elk Grove FD Tower 7 which is now Lena FPD Tower 3951

Bill Freidrich photo

Tags: Bill Friedrich, Lena Fire Protection District Tower 51, new home for Elk Grove Village FD Tower 7

This entry was posted on August 18, 2019, 11:00 AM and is filed under Fire Department News, Fire Truck photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

7 Comments

#1 by Mike on August 21, 2019 - 9:33 PM

Well the firemeng you bring up a valid point but it has already happened. Maybe Rich S. Can add to this if I mis speak but April 2000 Lieutenant LC Merrill was killed while responding to an alarm in truck 24. Truck 24 was a 1975 seagrave with no seatbelts and LT Merrill was ejected when the door opened when truck 24 was broadsided by someone who ran a stop
Sign. This incident forced the city to make an emergency purchase of the E-one ladders and to start ordering more modern equipment. At that time the apparatus on the street were mostly open cab apparatus.
#2 by thefiremang on August 21, 2019 - 4:39 PM

Don’t get me wrong, but yes Pierce had a problem. BUT alot of the problem was within the CFD fleet dept and firehouses. Pierce specifically states in the appearance and maintenance manual about washing the apparatus and under carriage due to the road salt being used in the Midwest. If that was done some of them would have little corrosion issues. THEN when the rig is checked daily and the rust was seen on the aerial the company officer should fill out a report and send to Fleet to take care of the rust to stabilize it. Once the rust got out of hand then the company officer and his crew should refuse to work on that aerial, fill out a health and safety form to the union and CFD brass. Secondly I heard CFD does not test the aerials every year like they should. Especially when the CFD drives the aerial tips thru windows and casements. Also those E-One rigs showed its age of front line and reserve status. Overused its life time of an aerial in my opinion even the Seagrave aerials. Where does CFD stand on the safety of their men and the people they serve, while using junk rigs and band aids. I can go on and on about what should have been and the problems that the city imposes on the CFD.
After this big order with E-One the city will milk those rigs for another 30 years wasting more money to fix them to keep junk on the streets. To me it’s a sad affair how the city handles apparatus for CFD. Until someone gets badly injured or killed on some of those rigs. Yeah the city will pay off on a lawsuit, but will probably continue business as usual. This is not to be taken as a pissing contest because its not. This is 40 years of fire experience and purchasing fire apparatus and being involved in apparatus maintenance. Look what happened in Boston to my friend Lt.Kelly of Ladder 26 on an E-One aerial. Inept people in fleet working on old junk rigs.
#3 by Mike C on August 21, 2019 - 1:24 PM

Marty,

You are correct! The corrosion on the Chicago rigs was pretty severe 10 years ago or more. I see some Pierce rigs with a long lifespan partially due to very diligent maintenance and/or low hours. I’ve seen 5 year old Pierce aerials with rusty torque boxes. Pierce = no good!
#4 by Marty Coyne on August 21, 2019 - 8:55 AM

thefiremang, LOL. Chicago has 30+ year old E-One TL’s running as spares. Until the recent new E-One’s they were front line in some cases. The Pierce aerials from the early 2000’s are a disaster including severe rust on the mains.
#5 by Clark on August 21, 2019 - 5:12 AM

I bet Elk Grove gets another mini pumper in place of this one. Apparently Risk A lot Save A lot is strictly a financial motto there.
#6 by thefiremang on August 20, 2019 - 1:06 PM

That’s because its a Pierce. No more no less
#7 by harry on August 18, 2019 - 1:26 PM

almost 20 years old and still going