We mentioned previously that the Countryside FPD in Lake County recenlty received a new IHC/US Tanker HERE and HERE, and that the disposition of their old 1988 Pierce Dash tanker was unclear.
Dennis McGuire, Jr. found the following article in Libertyville edition of the TRIBLOCAL that can be seen HERE with photos. The article answers the question.
Countryside gives Libertyville Fire Department used tanker for free
theBy Amy Alderman, TribLocal reporter
Countryside Fire Protection District in Vernon Hills is giving Libertyville Fire Department a 1988 tanker known as a water tender, which carries 2,500 gallons of water.
Through the third mutual aid agreement between the departments in five years, Libertyville agreed to continue to assist Countryside at emergency calls in exchange for the used truck.“We never had a water tender in Libertyville,” Fire Chief Rich Carani said. “But the Libertyville fire protection district covers Mettawa and Green Oaks— a lot of areas that still don’t have fire hydrants, mostly on the northern border and southeastern border. So the need for a tender is there, but we couldn’t justify the need for a new one.”
Libertyville has used neighboring districts’ water tenders six to ten times a year on average, Carani said. However, the neighboring districts assist each other at an average of 300 fire alarms, car accidents rescues and structure fires a year, he added.
Although the old water tender will be given to Libertyville for free, maintenance is expected to cost the village about $1,000 a year, Carani said.
Following the recent purchase of a new $250,000 water tender, Countryside Fire Chief Jeff Steingart said he didn’t even stop to think about looking up the value of the old water tender in order to sell it.
“We probably would have sold it, but we saw this agreement as having more value,” Steingart said.
The two department chiefs began discussing the exchange about a year ago, when Countryside started looking for a new water tender.
“We had a conversation about sharing resources,” Steingart said. “They have it for first responses, and we have it as a back up water tender.”
This kind of partnership isn’t new to either district.
“Basically over the last several years — many years, actually — Libertyville, with all their neighbors, has reciprocated back and forth with responding to calls at certain buildings and areas,” Carani said.
In 2005, Libertyville bought a squad truck, which is also used by Countryside through a mutual aid agreement. Both departments agreed to respond to every structure fire in each district through the second mutual aid agreement in 2007.
Steingart pointed to last week’s barn fire in Wauconda as an example of pooling local resources. Thirty fire protection districts responded to the call of flames traveling to three barns due to high winds, and 14 water tenders were pooled to put out the fire. No people or animals were injured.
“These mutual aid agreements get us the resources we need, while kind of being boundary free so the closest fire station responds,” Steingart said.
Editor’s note: When the tanker is lettered for Libertyville, we hope to get it photographed and added to the website in the station where it is assigned.
