Posts Tagged MABAS Division 4

Countryside training with new rigs

Nov 11

Posted by bgshap in Apparatus on-scene, Fire Department News, Reader submission | 1 Comment

The Countryside Fire Department in MABAS Division 4 has been hosting several days of training for their firefighters and neighboring departments as well. Countryside has two of their new units working at the training site. These are the IHC/US Tanker 2,000-gallon tanker (tender) and the IHC/Rosenbauer Timberwolf interface engine. Dan McInerney forwarded several images from Wednesday’s work.

Dan writes the following description about the training:

It’s in a two story house on a five acre plot. The house was built in 1948. It is masonary construction with lathe and plaster over true dimensional lumber. All three Countryside (CTYD) shifts will participate Wed, Thu, and Fri. The CTYD POCs will train Thursday night. Other depts: Lake Zurich, Wauconda, and Lincolnshire – Riverwoods, are sending an engine each day with their on-duty crews. Water is being “tendered” in and drafted out of a portable tank by the wildland engine for the primary attack hoselines, and off the tender as a secondary/backup water source. Evolutions are consisting of hose advancement and fire attack. Due to the construction of the house, the fire evolutions are pretty good and so far the upstairs rooms have withstood a tremendous amount of abuse. They sure don’t build them like this anymore! Also, as an interesting side note, there is a house on an island in the middle of Countryside Lake that we will eventually burn down, but not train in. It is only accessible by boat!

Countryside FPD IHC Rosenbauer interface engine

Engine 415 is a 2010, IHC 4400, Rosenbauer, Timberwolf, interface engine with a 1,250-gpm pump and 750 gallons of water. Dan McInerney photo

Countryside FPD Rosenbauer Timberwolf US Tanker tender

This photo shows Tender 411 and Engine 415 at the portable tank in preparation of supplying several hand lines for companies working at the fire. With the rear pump design of the engine, the drafting is done from the rear. Dan McInerney photo

Countryside Rosenbauer Timberwolf engine

A rear view of the new Rosenbauer engine show the pump and operator's panel which are located at the rear of the unit. Dan McInerney photo

Tanker 411 dumps it's tank, via a side dump valve, into the portable tank to enable drafting operations from the engine. Dan McInerney photo

Countryside's Engine 411, a 2001 Pierce Dash 2000/1000/30 was also at the training site. Dan McInerney photo

Tags: Countryside, Dan McInerney, Dash, fol-da-tank, IHC 4400, MABAS Division 4, Pierce, porta-tank, portable tank, rear pump, Rosenbauer, Timberwolf, US Tanker

Lake Zurich 3-Alarm Fire on 11-4-10

Nov 6

Posted by bgshap in Apparatus on-scene, Fire, Fire Department News | Comments off

Another extra alarm fire this week occurred on the border where Lake Zurich’s Fire Protection District meets with Barrington’s Fire Protection District. The house at 24506 W. Scott Road, with a Barrington mailing address, sustained major damage. If the house was on the other side of the street it would evidently have been in Barrington’s district.

Just after 11PM the resident reported a fire on the second floor of the house. First arriving companies reported fire showing and thick black smoke venting from the attic. The house is located right along the roadway which is a very long, narrow, dead end street. Second due companies were ordered to back in and lay a large diameter supply line out to Route 59 for tanker ops. After Engine 3214 setup, Barrington’s tanker backed in to supply additional water until the tanker shuttle could be initiated. Companies laid over 2,100 feet of 5-inch large diameter hose (LDH) from the house to Route 59 where Lake Zurich Engine 3211 setup to draft from a portable tank. Within minutes of arriving, a 2nd Alarm MABAS Box was requested. Until crews were available to move the LDH out of the road, firefighters had to walk almost a half mile to the scene. Once the road was open, additional rigs including Palatine’s quint, Deerfield’s squad, a Countryside ambulance for rehab, and one of the MESS Support rigs were able to advance to the scene. A short time later, a MABAS Polaris ATV assigned to MABAS Division 4, was brought to the scene to shuttle additional companies from staging to the scene.

Lake Zurich Fire Department Pierce Saber 3-alarm fire 11-4-10

Lake Zurich Engine 3214, a 1997 Pierce Saber, was the first engine to arrive at the fire. This company pulled a line and had 1,000 gallons of water to work with until the Barrington tanker could back up the street providing an additional 3,000 gallons. Larry Shapiro photo

Barrington Fire Department tanker Lake Zurich 3rd alarm fire 11-4-10

Barrington Tanker 3668 is a 1981/1990 3D/US Tank, 3,000-gallon tanker on an IHC F3674 chassis. This was used to nurse Lake Zurich Engine 3214 until the tanker ops could be initiated from Route 59. Larry Shapiro photo

Lake Zurich Fire Department Pierce Saber 3rd alarm fire 11-4-10

Lake Zurich Engine 3212 is one of four Pierce Saber pumpers in the fleet. After laying out all 750-feet of LDH, it is positioned out of the way to make room for tenders to fill the portable tanks. Larry Shapiro photo

Surrounded by mansions on this isolated block, this farmhouse sits right on the roadway. As fire vents out of the second floor, Grayslake firefighters bring a ground ladder around to the 'C' side of the structure. Larry Shapiro photo

Lake Zurich house fire 11-4-10 Deerfield Fire Department squad

Deerfield's squad moved up to the scene and filled air bottles. They were able to deploy thier Wil-Burt light tower to illuminate the street and an area setup for rehab. This shot shows just how narrow the road was with the LDH deployed. Larry Shapiro photo

Fox River Grove American LaFrance engine

Fox River Grove Engine 641 is a 2004, American LaFrance on an Eagle chassis. Positioned as one of the first arriving mutual aid companies, it was well poised to illuminate the tanker ops with a telescoping light tower. Larry Shapiro photo

One of the MABAS Polaris ATV units which is housed in Lake County was brought to the scene and was utilized to ferry companies from the staging area to the scene when they were needed. Here the Lake Forest company, which arrived on the 3rd alarm, is moving up to the scene to relieve another company. Larry Shapiro photo

Grayslake Fire Department Seagrave engine

Grayslake's new Seagrave engine sits in staging on Route 59. Larry Shapiro photo

A large gallery of images from this fire can be viewed HERE.

Tags: 3rd alarm, American LaFrance, American LaFrance Eagle, ATV, Barrington, Fire, Fox River Grove, Grayslake, Lake Zurich, Larry Shapiro, MABAS Division 4, Pierce, Polaris, porta-tank, Saber, Seagrave, tanker box, tanker shuttle, tender box

Gurnee is on the site

Nov 3

Posted by bgshap in Fire Department News, New Listing, Patch | Comments off

Fire departments in Lake County, MABAS Division 4, continue to be added to the site. The Gurnee Fire Department is now the latest to be posted. They have two stations covering 33 square miles which includes the Six Flags Great America amusement park and Gurnee Mills, an enormous outlet mall. The Gurnee suppression fleet is made up entirely of E-ONE apparatus and currently all four of their ambulances are Type I models from Road Rescue on IHC 4700 or IHC 4300 series’ chassis. A new Type I ambulance is presently on order from Wheeled Coach.

Gurnee also houses some specialty MABAS assets. They store an interesting 1991 Mack/Volvo roll-off chassis which is used to transport metal storage containers which contain equipment and supplies for MABAS Divisions 4&5. One container is for the Technical Rescue Team (TRT) with tools and lumber and the other is for the Wildland Task Force which carries, among other things, an ATV.

Gurnee Fire Department headquarters Station 1 on Old Grand Avenue. Larry Shapiro photo

An interesting note about the E-ONE apparatus is the wide range of chassis and cab styles that are represented.

Gurnee Fire Department E-ONE Cyclone II engine

This engine features the newest version of the Cyclone II which is a tilt-cab.

Gurnee Fire Department EONE Cyclone engine

This 1995 engine uses the early Cyclone chassis with a fixed cab.

Gurnee also has two engines with a Cyclone tilt-cab with a previous grille design. The tower ladder is built on a Hurricane chassis which has a fixed cab.

Gurnee Fire Department E-ONE Hurricane 95' tower ladder

In 1998 when Gurnee received their new E-ONE tower ladder, they arranged to have the unit photographed with one of the main town attractions. At that time, Gurnee Mills was billed as the largest outlet mall in the country. Planet Hollywood was one of the anchor restaurants at the mall. Larry Shapiro collection

Gurnee Squad 1352 was ordered with a four-door Sentry cab and a vista roof. The Sentry is distinguishable by the straight, non-contoured door line of the driver's door. The vista roof was a raised roof that E-ONE offered without full height rear doors. This photo was taken inside Six Flags Great America when the squad was delivered. The graphics are no longer representative of how the squad looks today. Larry Shapiro collection

Tags: Cyclone, Cyclone II, E-ONE, fixed cab, Gurnee, Gurnee Mills, Hurricane, IHC, Lake County, MABAS Division 4, patch, Road Rescue, Sentry, Shapiro, Six Flags Great America, tilt-cab, tower ladder

Beach Park Fire Department is on the site

Oct 27

Posted by bgshap in Fire Department News, New Fire Station, New Listing | Comments off

Beach Park Fire Protection District decal

Another Lake County, MABAS Division 4 department has been added to the site. Formerly known as the Bonnie Brook Fire Protection District, The Beach Park Fire Department covers roughly 14 square miles in northeast Lake County which includes unincorporated areas of the county as well as Beach Park. They do not though currently provide coverage for the entire town of Beach Park as the Winthrop Harbor Fire Department has responsibility for a portion of the town.

According to the Beach Park Village Link Newsletter in the winter of 2003:

The New Beach Park Fire Department

In the last months of 2002, there were plenty of positive changes in the fire protection services for our village. Formerly known as the “Bonnie Brook Fire Protection District”, the name was officially changed to the “Beach Park Fire Department” (BPFD) last November to better define the department’s capabilities and service areas.

Beach Park has a mixture of apparatus in the fleet including Alexis, Pierce, Seagrave, Medtec, and Osage. The newest rig is Engine 1222 which is a 2008 Seagrave Maurauder II engine. Currently, Beach Park Engine 1212, a 2002 HME/Alexis engine is undergoing work at Alexis Fire Apparatus.

Beach Park Fire Protection District Seagrave Maurauder II engine

Beach Park Fire Protection District Pierce Saber engine

Bonnie Brook Fire Protection District Pierce Saber pumper

Engine 1211 prior to the creation of the Beach Park FD was lettered for the Bonnie Brook FPD. Larry Shapiro photo

Bonnie Brook Fire Protection District Pierce Saber engine

Bonnie Brook FPD Engine 1211 shortly after being delivered by Pierce in 1993. Larry Shapiro collection

In recent Beach Park FD news, they have opened a second station at 13110 W. Major Avenue in Beach Park. This interesting station originated as an existing house with an attached garage. The garage was modified as a lobby and office area and a two-bay addition was then added for the apparatus. At the present time, this station has a crew of two or three which are a jump company, staffing either the engine or ambulance based on the nature of a request for service.