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New home for Mount Prospect fire engine

This from Danny Nelms:

Former Mount Prospect engine now in West Allis, WI – from FB unknown photographer

photographer unknown

Tags: chicagoareafire.com, Mount Prospect FIre Department, new home for former Mount Prospect fire engine, West Allis FD Engine 62, West Allis Fire Department

This entry was posted on June 4, 2022, 7:00 AM and is filed under Fire Department History, Fire Truck photos. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Comments

• #1 by Bill Post on June 12, 2022 - 7:38 PM

  

  Mike C , you mentioned that West Allis has 2 Aerialscopes, Is one front line and one a spare rig. Whats the deal on that? I doubt that they would have put a second Truck company in service. Is one new rig and one a used one?

  One major difference between the Milwaukee and the Madison fire departments it that the Madison Fire department has actually been growing and enlarging while the Milwaukee fire department has been shrinking. I know that the Madison fire department had been in a serious expansion program over the last 12 to 15 years and that not only have they built several new stations but they actually added fire companies which included Truck 7 as well as 3 to 4 new Engine companies. Apparently Madison seems to have annexed some land and have been is surge of growth.

  When it comes to Milwaukee I remember that in the early 2000s they had been running with 16 Truck companies and now they cut that in half and they are down to only 8 Trucks. Either way you look at it that is a big cut back. And they also eliminated 8 Engine companies and they closed 7 fire stations. So they actually cut16 fire suppression companies. Thats alot of fire companies.
  Have they cut the stucture fire responses? Do they still send out 2 Trucks on a stucture fire? In the areas where they eliminated the Trucks do they now send automatic aide from the suburbs or do you now have to wait at least twice as long to get Truck companies on the scene?

  Crabby Milton I know you are from Milwaukee. I remember that in the 1970s Milwaukee was actually running with more men on their fire companies then most of Chicago was (which was before the strike of 1980 of course).

  At the time most of Chicago companies were running with only 4 men when all of Milwaukees Engines and Truck ran with 5 men and if I’m correct on a structure fire in Milwaukee they would dispatch 3 Engines and 2 Trucks while in Chicago you would only get 2 Engines and 1 Truck,plus in most of the 4 man Areas you would get a Flying manpower Squad which was only 18 men while in Milwaukee you would get 25 men on the scene in a much shorter period of time. Even after the strike in Chicago ( in1980) when the 5th man was restored on the Engines and Trucks they didn’t start dispatching a 2nd Truck on still alarms until a few years later.

  Crabby or Mike C how have they changed the responses or do you just have to wait longer for the Trucks? If it is a working fire what do they send as the RIT company? I remember that around 2006 they had replaced Truck 13 with Rescue 2 at the Engine 24 on Fiebrantz and that the Rescue was supposed to be a Jump company with Truck 13 however they ended up taking Truck 13 out of service. So does Rescue 2 respond in place of the Truck or do they just send the Truck from a further distance? So that was 16 years ago and now 7 more Trucks “got the axe” pun intended.

  One of the things that I found interesting about the Milwaukee EMS system is that the Medic ambulances would only remove patients if they were ALS while for BLS patients one of 3 private Ambulance companies would be dispatched.
  I assume that they are still keeping the Medics for the ALS cases?
  Does Milwaukee run with any ALS companie regularly or are they just BLS?
  With Milwaukee it seems that replacing apparatus is just one problem because keeping companies in service seems9 to be a larger problem.

  What’ you take on it?

• #2 by Mike C on June 11, 2022 - 9:23 AM

  

  I’ve also heard some chatter that Milwaukee has contemplated on transitioning to a different apparatus builder but as far as I know, it hasn’t happened. I heard a rumor a few months ago Seagrave was going to build a few rigs for Milwaukee, but I don’t think that is in fact true.

  I know the Madison mechanics hate Pierce and even keep a large inventory of some of the most common parts but upper management within the fire department isn’t willing to transition to a different apparatus builder.

• #3 by crabbymilton on June 10, 2022 - 7:13 AM

  

  All great points Bill. We have to remember that West Allis doesn’t turn over their fleet nearly as often as Milwaukee. Who knows how much they paid or what kind of deal they got but the impression I got is that West Allis knew they were going to pay more going with SEAGRAVE but after the fact they obviously don’t regret it. As for Milwaukee, there were some rumblings that they were pondering SEAGRAVE but I think that was just off the top of their head. MFD has had a long term deal with PIERCE and they likely will get rid of them before they get to age 20. At some point though, you can’t rule out MFD going generic and just buy from whomever is the lowest bid. Time will tell.

• #4 by Bill Post on June 10, 2022 - 1:26 AM

  

  Well now that is a real indictment of Pierce considering that Wisconsin is Pierce’s home state. Of course Wisconsin is also home to Seagrave as well.
  That really does say alot for Seagrave considering that they bought 2 Aerialscopes. Look we all have known for years that the Aerialscope is one of the strongest Aerial Platforms in the business and of course Seagrave is known for it’s quality however Seagrave had seemed to price itself out of the market in many instances so I wonder if Seagrave might have come down in price a bit so they could have made the sale to West Allis?
  I wonder how Milwaukee and Madison are doing with their Pierce’s, considering both towns are exclusively Pierce towns (so far).?

• #5 by crabbymilton on June 6, 2022 - 7:29 AM

  

  I was wondering why I was seeing that QUANTUM around the area. Must have been a great deal. West Allis’s story is the epitome of why PIERCE lost many customers to SEAGRAVE and others. Kind of embarrassing when conducting a tour of the station and someone notices rust on the ladder and the frames turning into cornflakes.

• #6 by Mike C on June 4, 2022 - 7:30 AM

  

  West Allis has had this engine for a few years. West Allis no longer purchases Pierce as they were corroding and falling apart within a short timespan. Their formal Pierce ladder wasn’t very old, yet it was a biodegradable mess. West Allis now has two Aerialscopes.

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