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10 Comments

• #1 by Harry on May 27, 2023 - 7:16 PM

  

  Speaking of the federal q siren I thought Schaumburg did not run the q on the newer rigs the new engine or truck 51 has one

• #2 by Mike on May 27, 2023 - 10:24 AM

  

  Bill I don’t think Libertyville or mundelien have part timers. I know countryside does but I think Libertyville is all full time now and mundelien have full time and a few contract employees still.

• #3 by Bill on May 25, 2023 - 9:03 PM

  

  Libertyville has poc personal who respond back to cover the tower, squad, tenderp

• #4 by Mike on May 24, 2023 - 5:20 PM

  

  Bill Libertyville on good days runs 4 from station 1 and that means 2-3 on the ambulance or just 2 and 2 ambulance and suppression companies. There are no dedicated companies.

• #5 by Bill Post on May 24, 2023 - 4:20 PM

  

  Thanks for the information. It is good to know that the Sutphen at Quint 42 is still in service as the Quint can assume Truck company duties if it is 2nd due or if Libertyvilles Truck isn’t available. It is surprising to hear that they have been having reliability problems with the Sutphen.
  The thing that I find disturbing is that while there may not be that many structure fires is that if there is one that all of the towns ambulances need to go out of service in order to have adquate manpower on the Engines or the Quint to function properly at the fire. And in the case of Libertyville (Mike mentions) what good is the Tower Ladder if the Ambulance is out most of time.
  Mike, so does that 3 man jump crew in Libertyville cover both the Engine and the Tower Ladder as well the Ambulance at Station 1 or is the Engine lucky enough to have its own crew?
  Yes the most interesting news is that Mundelein has done a study suggesting a third fire station and so the real question is are they actually going to spend that money to do it as it would also mean that they would have to hire at least 12 more people assuming that they were to run the station with a Quint and an Ambulance. as new companies. Just because a study was done that suggested a third station which includes where it should be located , doesn’t necessarily mean that they are actually going to do it.

  I don’t know if anyone knows this or not but the Lincolnshire Riverwoods Fire Department also did a Fire Station Location Study and the Study which was done by the Illnois Fire Chiefs Association and it was found that only in 67% of its jurisdiction (based on the locations of it current 3 fire stations) is the fire department within a 4 minute drive of all points within it’s jurisdiction.

  That is significant because the 4 minute drive time is National Fire Protection Associations standard for the first due Engine or Basic life support EMS company in their by now well known standard 1710 which requires compliance 90% of the time.

  In the study that was done it was found that all 3 of their Stations should be relocated to better cover the area. The people doing the study realized that it was not practical at the time to relocate all 3 firestations so there primary recommendation was to relocated Station 52 which is located on the far southeast end of the district at 855 Saunders road (near Deerfield Road) in Riverwoods to Milwaukee avenue just south of Deerfield Road , which would increase the areas that are within a 4 minute drive time to 78% as opposed to the current 67%.
  This recommendation has been out since 2018 and nothing has been done about it as of yet.

• #6 by Mark on May 24, 2023 - 6:12 AM

  

  Tyler is correct about the staffing, and that the quint is in service, I know it was recently out for maintenance. It hasn’t been the most reliable vehicle since it was purchased. The ladder at Mecum was sold to Quad 2 as a backup and was used at the College of Lake County for classes too. I believe MFD has a new engine on order from Pierce and is looking to purchase a new ladder due to all of the development going on in town as well as a third station for the new area that was recently annexed.

• #7 by Mike on May 23, 2023 - 5:07 PM

  

  Bill most days they’re at 9 per shift 2 and 2 at each house and the battalion makes 9. Years ago when they decided to get rid of their tower ladder they approached Libertyville about responding auto aid with tower 461. The issue is most days Libertyville only has a jump company of 3 at station 1 and the ambulance is usually out, so that means the tower isn’t available. The other funny thing about that night was there is an 8 story building right across the street from village hall and the elected officials and fire chief still thought it was a good idea to get rid of the tower ladder because they only used the master stream on it 6 times the previous year.

  Lake county has this thing with staffing and culture where they think either running jump companies or 2 man companies is fine because they have the mindset that they’re not going to have fires, and that they are mostly just an ambulance service, and if they have a fire they can just rely on mutual aid to come and substitute or subsidize their lack of staffing. Also look at the east side of the county with lake forest, highland park, deerfield and Lincolnshire. All affluent areas with terrible staffing, all are either jump companies or 2 man companies.

  This ladder truck was bought by the quad 2 departments to be used as a spare and most times it was sitting in grayslake either unused or as the spare when their ladder was down. Unfortunately they let uncertified and unqualified people work on this and it became unreliable along with the lack of training people kept damaging the wiring harness on the waterway when they would unpin it and not change the harness over. But again as you see it’s lake county so it shouldn’t be surprising at all.

• #8 by Tyler Tobolt on May 23, 2023 - 2:10 PM

  

  Bill,

  Mundelein sends Battalion 43, Chief officers, Engine 431, Engine 432 or Quint 432, Ambulance 431 or 432 and automatic aid they get: Countryside chief/engine, Libertyville Engine, Lincolnshire chief/squad, Lake Zurich Ambulance and sometimes Grayslake engine on their reported fire.

  Quint 432 is still in service, however I believe it’s crossed staffed with Engine 432. I’m not exactly sure how their manpower is.

• #9 by Bill Post on May 23, 2023 - 12:48 PM

  

  Is it correct that Mundelein in no longer running with a Quint or an Aerial Ladder Truck? I could be wrong as I don’t make it up to Mundelein but my understanding has been that they also had taken the Sutphen Mid Mounted Quint out of service at Station 2 as well?
  I know that their manning per company has been pretty weak for a long time and that they like too many other Lake County fire departments run with jump companies which includes the Ambulances. How many people are they running at the Stations per shift now. I am under the impression that they normally run with 2 men on the Engines and on the Ambulances and if the Engine is first due the Ambulance will follow the Engine to the scene but when they arrive the Ambo crew becomes part of the Engine crew. Is that the way they run at both Stations ro do they run with larger crews at Station 1?
  I would imagine that on structure fire Munderlein would get automatic aide from some of the neighboring fire departments such as Libertyville , Countryside and probably Grayslake. I wonder if Libertyville or Countryside automatically dispatches their Truck companies to Mundelein on a structure call because two Engines is just not enough apparatus and especially if they have to take their ambulances out of service just to have a full crew for the Engine companies. I hope that they running with more than 4 people out of Station 1 because if they only run with 4 people (not including the Battalion Chief) that would give Mundelein only 8 people on duty if you don’t count the Chief.

• #10 by Martin on May 21, 2023 - 11:31 AM

  

  Interesting to see it at Mecum.

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