This from Mike Summa:
Hello there,I took my family to a fire show in the early 1990s in Chicago Ridge. I snapped this picture of Oak Lawn’s then-new Ward LaFrance engine, turned into a squad truck. Thought that I’d like to share.Thank you,Mike S.
Oak Lawn Squad 1. Mike Summa photo
#1 by Paul Weston on March 1, 2016 - 5:15 PM
Was that the old Engine 29?
(Had the Engine 51 look from Emergency!)
#2 by Crabby Milton on February 24, 2016 - 8:35 AM
I thought it meant originally built not the time it was converted. I stand corrected.
#3 by Mike Mc on February 24, 2016 - 8:30 AM
Crabby: The squad was a converted spare WLF engine. The original engine was from about 1970 but it was refurbished into a “new” squad.
Oak Lawn once proposed the idea of a multi-department flying squad. Oak Lawn would provide the rig, one FF and the officer. Adjoining towns/FPDs (probably Evergreen Park, Roberts Park, Chicago Ridge, and Burbank) would provide one FF each. The flying squad would respond on all reported structure fires. Needless to say, no one else liked the idea.
#4 by Mike Mc on February 23, 2016 - 8:30 AM
Thanks for posting the photo! The old squad was the pride and joy of the department. A three member company and it would get a fourth member from the engine when it went out of town for fires or special duty. In it’s glory years they had a large “box alarm” district that took them out of Oak Lawn quite a lot. That may have been a factor in it’s downfall. They kept reducing the response district until it did not go out of the town. I assume it was a major factor in Oak Lawn having been a Class 1 department in the old days.
#5 by Crabby Milton on February 23, 2016 - 8:19 AM
WARD LaFRANCE was long defunct in the early 1990’s so it wasn’t new. Nice picture though.
#6 by Rich on February 23, 2016 - 7:37 AM
I remember this squad just before they got the pierce. One of the first departments to have a full time squad. Now look at what using!!!