Excerpts from the City of Evanston:
We’re excited to announce that Northwestern University has provided an $800,000 donation to fund the purchase of a new fire engine! The university’s donation will cover the entire cost of a 2022 Pierce Enforcer pumper and the equipment to outfit the vehicle, including hose, tools, a cardiac monitor, self-contained breathing apparatus, and radios. On December 13, the Evanston City Council approved the purchase of the vehicle which is expected to be delivered in late 2022.In 2009, the University donated $550,000 to the city for the purchase of a new pumper which is still in service.
#1 by Phil Stenholm on December 21, 2021 - 5:50 PM
MIKE L: I may have mentioned this before, but the reason the 1983 Spartan / Welch 1250 / 500 was placed in service at Station # 2 instead of at Station # 1 even though Engine 22 already had a fairly new 1979 Pirsch Model 88-C 1250 / 750 was because the Spartan was purchased all or in part with some kind of neighborhood grant from the federal government that required it be placed in service at Station # 2, and then it had to remain there. It could not be moved to another fire station.
So when the Spartan arrived, the 1979 Pirsch that had been running as Engine 22 for four years was moved to Station # 1 and became the new Engine 21, replacing the 1968 Pirsch 1250 / 300. The 1968 Pirsch was in reserve for only a year or two, and then it was dismantled so that its pump could be installed in the 1987 Pierce Dash.
Also, the 1979 Pirsch was purchased by the Evanston Fire Department as a “spec” rig, meaning Pirsch built it as a “vanilla” pumper without specifications from an an order or contract. They would do that sometimes when they didn’t have a lot of contracted jobs going on the assembly line.
Following the ISO downgrade in 1977, Evanston desperately needed to upgrade its aggregate GPM on front-line apparatus ASAP, and replacing a 1000 GPM pumper at Station # 2 (the 1970 Pirsch) with a 1250 GPM “spec” pumper (the 1979 Pirsch ) helped fix that.
The bad ISO rating that required more front-line aggregate GPM is also why the EFD opted to purchase the Seagrave 1250 GPM / 100-foot RMA quint to be the new Truck 21. Then once the EFD got their ISO rating restored, the plan was for the quint to replace both Truck 21 and Engine 23 as a four-man Truck 23 that would also allow the third ambulance to be staffed full-time at Station # 3 and provide six firefighters (four on T23 and two on A23) that could operate the quint as both a pumper and as a truck at a fire. However, the quint turned out be a poorly-designed “white elephant,” so that never happened.
#2 by Phil Stenholm on December 21, 2021 - 5:06 PM
MIKE L: When I left in December 1987, the Pierce engine had just gone into service as the new Engine 23 a few months earlier. The former Engine 23 (1974 Howe / International) became the EFD’s primary reserve engine at that time, and if they needed to use the 1970 Pirsch, all three firefighters had to ride in the cab.
Replacing Engine 23 was a somewhat sudden high-priority at that time, because Engine 23 needed to have foam on-board for when it responded to the helipad at the waterworks at Lincoln & Sheridan to stand-by when a medical helicopter landed there with a patient or (more often) an organ needed for a transplant at Evanston Hospital. They had just started landing medical helicopters there in 1984 or ’85, and the landings were becoming more & more frequent.
So that 1987 Pierce was a real rush job. They needed it ASAP, and they cut costs as much as possible. The only thing special about it was the foam tank (no EFD pumper had ever had one before). They even salvaged the 1250-GPM pump (which was supposedly still in very good condition) from the 1968 Pirsch (old Engine 21) and Pierce installed the Pirsch pump in the new pumper. As such, the rig was not expected to be in front-line service for more than just a few years.
#3 by Collin on December 21, 2021 - 3:14 PM
Chicagoland Fire Photos – You are correct this will replace Engine 24. They will also be getting a new ambulance next year that will replace Ambulance 21 and see the current A21 (2016) go to A23 (2011). Evanston’s replacement schedule for fire suppression rigs seems to be about 20 years frontline and as many as they can get in reserve to E21s 2007 rig should be in service for several more years before it is replaced.
#4 by Mike L on December 21, 2021 - 2:34 PM
Great info as always, Phil. It had to go OOS in 1988 as the NFPA standard for fully enclosed cabs took effect and riding on tailboards was no longer acceptable practice. Skokie kept their conventional cab squad in service as a reserve but the tailboard firefighters had to follow in a chase car if it was being used. Evanston had no such provision but it was a moot point as the new engines came in 87, 88 & 89 to replace Eng 23, 24 & 25. I don’t think the Mack MB stayed around as a spare. Only the Hendrickson’s until Eng 22’s Spartan/Welch and Eng 21’s Cincinnati cab Pirsch were replaced. Eng 23’s 1987 Pierce Dash was the last canopy cab ordered before all the engines had fully enclosed cabs by the early 90’s.
#5 by Localguy on December 21, 2021 - 1:21 PM
I know The University of Illinois pays the Urbana fire dept for services. Also a little bit to the Champaign fire dept. But the hospitals don’t pay anything. Carle has a lot of property in the city of Urbana. I know UFD responds to a Carle property everyday. And to OSF quite often also.
#6 by Mike on December 21, 2021 - 12:20 PM
Mike H. It would be nice if all tax exempt places paid some sort of tax for services used. Or if there was a law that allowed entities to charge for services to tax exempt properties.
#7 by Phil Stenholm on December 21, 2021 - 11:42 AM
On November 18, 1968, Northwestern University donated the $29,602 needed to pay for a new Pirsch 1000 / 300 TCP that Evanston purchased to replace one of the 1952 pumpers.
The donation was a “thank you” from Northwestern after the Evanston City Council agreed to re-zone the square-block bounded by Emerson Street on the south, Maple Avenue on the west, Foster Street on the north, and the CTA tracks on the east, from single-family housing to high-rise / multi-family. This allowed N.U. to build the 10-story Engelhart residence hall for graduate students at 1915 Maple Ave. (It was the second-tallest building in Evanston after it was completed in 1971).
It’s too bad N.U. didn’t need more property re-zoned, since the EFD needed a couple more new fire engines in 1974.
It was presumed at the time that the new pumper would go into service at Fire Station #3 as the new Engine 23, since Engine 23 was first-due to the Northwestern University campus, with Engine 23’s 1958 Seagrave moving to Station #5 to replace Engine 25’s 1952 Pirsch.
However, when the new Pirsch pumper arrived in May 1970, it was placed in service at Station # 2, with the former Engine 22 (1952 Pirsch 1000 / 100 TCP ex-S21 that had been rebuilt as a TCP in 1966) moving to Station # 5.
One of the members of the City Council suggested at the time that the new Pirsch pumper should be painted either purple or white with purple stripes, with a “Willie the Wildcat” sticker on the doors, but that didn’t happen. (It probably didn’t help that Northwestern’s football team really sucked, averaging only three wins per season 1964-69).
The 1970 Pirsch pumper donated by Northwestern ran as Engine 22 for only nine years (1970-79), and then was placed into reserve as the EFD’s primary spare pumper.
Although it was placed into reserve after only nine years of front-line service, it ran as Engine 21, Engine 23, Engine 24, and Engine 25 at various times during the years 1980-84 when the other pumpers were out of service for extended periods of time getting new body-work.
It probably could have been retained as a reserve engine longer than it was, but It had a three-man cab and no jump seat, so it really wasn’t suitable to be even a reserve engine by 1988. It was sold at auction in 1989.
#8 by Chicagoland fire photos on December 21, 2021 - 10:24 AM
I think this will be engine 24 they have the department’s oldest engine (2003). so it only seems logical that they would be next up for replacement I would also expect to see ambo 23 (2005) replaced soon along with engine 21(2007) but then again I might not be right I’m not an expert on how the northside Depts work.
#9 by Mike hellmuth on December 21, 2021 - 8:46 AM
It would be nice if more tax exempt universities would follow Northwesterns
generous donation……..
#10 by Mike L on December 21, 2021 - 8:35 AM
It is nice to see the university stepping up over the past few years to help fund the fire department that provides them service. For those not aware, Northwestern pays zero in taxes to the City of Evanston and only recently began helping to pay for things like fire apparatus and other donations.