Posts Tagged Chicago Turret Wagon 6-7-1

Chicago Fire Department Turret Wagon 6-7-1

There has been much conversation since the 5-11 Alarm with 2 Specials at 3757 S. Ashland Avenue on January 22, 2013 about the deployment and status of Turret Wagon 6-7-1, also known as ‘Big Mo’. We recently received the following CFD Operations Order 11-003 that was issued August 16, 2011.

Chicago Fire Department Operations Order 11-003

Tags: , , , ,

Chicago 5-11 Alarm + 2 Specials 1-22-13 (pt12)

Media articles covering the 5-11 Alarm fire with 2 Specials at 3757 S. Ashland Avenue on January 22nd.

The first from Fox32 talking about Turret Wagon 6-7-1 “Little Mo”:

The massive warehouse fire in Bridgeport started up again Thursday, prompting firefighters to break out a piece of equipment that hasn’t been on the streets in decades.

The Chicago Fire Department’s deluge units are the stuff of legend, featured in classic videos. They’re mostly out of service nowadays, except for one: Little Mo.

“It is the last of the big pieces of apparatus we have left, there used to be Big John, there used to be Big Mo, and now we have Little Mo,” CFD Commander Dan Swift explains.

Firefighters decided to break out Little Mo Thursday morning, after the massive Bridgeport warehouse fire started to burn again.

Little Mo is an old mac truck from the late 1960s, equipped with two turret water guns and room for up to ten hoses. It pumps up to 5,000 gallons of water a minute, compared to just 1,500 gallons a minute from an engine truck.

“It’s one of a kind,” Swift says of Little Mo. ” It’s the last one around, but obviously it’s still useful, we can bring it out here today and still make good use of it.”

So far, firefighters have poured more than a million gallons of water on that smoldering warehouse. That’s enough to fill a pool as big as a football field ten feet deep.

The entire article with video is HERE.

The Chicago Tribune has an article touching on the fire’s origin:

Investigators today determined the blaze that gutted a nearly 100-year-old Bridgeport warehouse began when someone started a fire — but while police are investigating, the determination does not mean the fire was an arson.

The Office of Fire Investigations conclusion came as crews began demolishing the warehouse at 3757 S. Ashland Ave., gutted by the largest fire to hit the city in seven years.

“The Office of Fire Investigation has determined the cause of the 5-11 Fire on Ashland to be open flame ignition of available combustibles,’’ said Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.

“In layman’s terms, that means something that was burning such as a flame or match got near something that would burn,’’ Langford said.

Langford said the building had no gas or electric service and no one was known to be living there. But the night of the blaze, Fire Commissioner Jose Santiago told reporters that in the past, firefighters had been called to the warehouse for small fires caused when squatters lit fires to stay warm.

Tuesday night, a Fire Department battalion chief spotted smoke from the blaze as he drove past around 9 p.m. A third of the department’s on-duty personnel were called to fight the fire, fed by century-old support timbers. Crews have remained there since, dousing flames from the smouldering debris.

Records show the owner of the building is 3737 Ashland LLC, which is controlled by North Development. North Development’s president, Calvin Boender, is in federal prison for bribing former 29th Ward Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers.

City officials had sued the owners of the warehouse in 2011 for leaving the vacant building open and dangerous, seeking to demolish it. But the owners registered it as a vacant building and corrected code violations.

The complete Chicago Tribune article is HERE.

thanks Chris

Tags: , , ,

Chicago 5-11 Alarm + 2 Specials 1-22-13 (pt10)

More images form the ruins taken by Tim Olk on Thursday, January 24th.

ruins of huge fire scene in Chicago

Turret Wagon 6-7-1 flowing thousands of gallons of water onto the destroyed structure. TIm Olk photo

graffiti and ice on staircase

Ice covers the stairs in the graffiti filled vacant building next door to the fire scene as hose lines wind their way to the roof. Tim Olk photo

firefighters at winter fire scene

Firefighters on the neighboring roof direct a line into the ruins. Tim Olk photo

Tim Olk has another gallery with more of these images.

Tags: , , , , ,

Chicago 5-11 Alarm + 2 Specials (pt9)

It’s the fire that just keeps on giving … photo ops that is.

Here are some images from Dennis McGuire, Jr. from today (Thursday).

 

Chicago fire units at the scene of a massive sarehouse fire

Tower Ladder 5 with a spare, Engine 104 and 6-7-6. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

ice covered ruins of building fire

Tower 5’s basket seen through the ruins. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

Chicago Tower Ladder at fire sene

Tower Ladder 5 using a spare piece. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

ruins of a massive warehouse fire

The scene from the Sector 2/3 corner. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

Chicago fire engine pumping at scene

Engine 39 supplying 6-7-1. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

CFD Turret Wagon Deluge Wagon

Turret Wagon 6-7-6 at the ruins. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

CFD Turret Wagon Deluge Wagon

Turret Wagon 6-7-6 at the ruins. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

CFD Turret Wagon Deluge Wagon

Turret Wagon 6-7-1 at the ruins. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

CFD Turret Wagon Deluge Wagon

Turret Wagon 6-7-1 at the ruins. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

CFD Turret Wagon Deluge Wagon

Turret Wagon 6-7-1 at the ruins. Dennis McGuire, Jr. photo

Tags: , , , , , , , ,