Excerpts from the dailyherald.com:
The body of a man was recovered by authorities after a house exploded in the 23500 block of North Overhill Road near Lake Zurich at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday evening.
The body of an adult male was recovered from the rubble later in the investigation. An autopsy is schedule for later today to make a positive identification. The 77-year-old man who lived in the home was unaccounted for.
The house was leveled by the explosion.
The cause of the explosion remains under investigation and there were no other reported injuries.
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
Jimmy Bolf photo
#1 by Bill Post on June 7, 2024 - 3:11 AM
On this well produced video that I have seen of the fire and explosion it only showed Rolling Meadows Truck (Quint 15) Aerial being used for an elevated stream so Buffalo Grove might not have been dispatched. The Rolling Meadows Truck came from about 12 miles away which is a pretty long distance for a Truck company.. Due to the fire being in an area without Hydrants Wauconda which normally dispatches a Tower Ladder to Lake Zurich ended up sending a Water Tender instead.
Wung Sung Kim gets credit for this interesting video of the explosion and the aftermath.
https://youtu.be/qpo1AjMjee4?si=cGZnXvV3XM_-KWan
#2 by Bill Post on June 6, 2024 - 10:31 PM
I found that this explosion and fire was in a non hydranted unincorporated part of Lake Zurich so that they needed to first attack the fire from the first arriving Engines on board booster tanks and they needed to wait for “out town” tankers to arrive to establish a tanker shuttle in order to draw from a somewhat steady water source. That’s in addition to having to wait for Buffalo Groves Truck company to arrive on the scene for an over head master stream. I am not sure if Buffalo Grove Quint 27 or Tower Ladder 25 was dispatched as the Truck company but Quint 27 is only about 6 miles from the scene while Tower Ladder 25 is about 9 miles away so it made more sense to dispatch Quint 27 on mutual aide instead of Tower Ladder 25.
It is ironic that Lake Zurich sold their Tower Ladder to Desplaines for their Tower Ladder 63 and in recent years Des Plaines has taken Tower Ladder 63 out of service as well.
#3 by Bill Post on June 6, 2024 - 5:16 PM
I was wondering whether is fire was is the part of the Village that is lucky enough to have fire hydrants or was it in the Dry (non hydranted) area.
Mike I understand exactly what you are talking about as the last the I had heard all 4 of the Lake Zurich Fire Protection Districts Stations were jump company / Ambulance Stations were all 4 Ambulances were jump companies with their Engine companies and with the exception of Station 1 which had the shift commander assigned each station didn’t normally have more than 3 people assigned to it so when ever an Ambulance was dispatched the Engine would have to go out of service. On a structure fire the Truck company would always be mutual aide as they got rid of their Truck company some time ago. Also on a structure fire they would usually dispatch a mutual aide (out of town ambulance) as well or they would reduce their water pumping capacity because they would be forced to take an Engine company out of service.
The one good thing that I had heard is that now Engine 1 is a Pumper/Squad so they don’t need to take Engine 1 out of service if they need a Squad however unless the town has gotten lucky the normal on duty compliment of fire fighters for all 4 Stations combined is 13 people including the Battalion Chief.
#4 by Mike on June 6, 2024 - 9:57 AM
Dennis because that’s how they’re trained. It isn’t right but that’s how they’re trained. When you have people training and making decisions with no experience, just paper, this is what you get. They are probably both the RIT team and RIT ambulance.
#5 by Dennis on June 6, 2024 - 9:53 AM
Why is the ambulance crew standing with their cot and EMS supplies plus fully geared up with Airpacks on? Are they the RIT ambulance and if so, why have gear on and Airpacks that will hinder the patient care once in the ambulance?