Posts Tagged Niles Fire Chief Steve Borkowski

Niles Fire Department news

Excerpts from the journal-topics.com:

Niles Police Chief Dennis McEnerney and Fire Chief Steve Borkowski are both retiring in June.

At a special Niles Village Board meeting on June 13, Mayor Andrew Przybylo appointed former Broadview Police Chief Luis Tigera and current Niles Fire District Chief Marty Feld as the village’s next police and fire chiefs.

Village trustees awarded Borkowski and McEnerney severance agreements … which include three years of continued village health insurance in exchange for making themselves available as consultants to assist the new chiefs in their transitions.

Feld joined the Niles Fire Dept. in September 1986 as a firefighter paramedic, working his way up to lieutenant in 1996, and district chief in 2004. He recently ran the department for two months while Borkowsky was on temporary leave with a medical issue. During that time, Firehouse No. 3 was being renovated and firefighters were working out of trailers at the public works garage.

McEnerney joined the Niles force as an auxiliary officer in 1976 while holding another civilian position with the village. He became a sworn patrol officer in December 1978, working his way up to deputy chief in charge of the investigations division before being named acting interim chief and then chief.

Borkowski has 35 years on the job, joining the department as a firefighter paramedic in 1981. He worked his way up the ranks, was named interim chief, and then chief after former Fire Chief Barry Mueller retired in 2010.

The mayor praised Borkowski’s work representing Niles on the board of RED Center and working to lay the groundwork to see an eventual joint Niles-Morton Grove fire station.

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Two Code 4 alarms for bedroom fire in Niles, 11/30/15

Excerpts from the Journal-Topics.com:

The Nile Fire Department was called out twice to extinguish fire in the same second floor bedroom of a Niles home near Golf Mill Shopping Center on Monday (11/30/15).

Firefighters responded to the first blaze just before 9 a.m. in the second floor bedroom of the home in the 9200 block of Callero Drive. Around noon after firefighters and investigators had cleared the scene, they were dispatched again to find flames reignited near the same point of origin.

Firefighters at the scene did not have an immediate suspected cause for either fire. A district chief said they had completed overhaul of the structure to extinguish any lingering embers. Firefighters were seen on the roof doing overhaul after the second fire. The Journal was told it was possible the first fire might have survived in the walls or other areas not visible, but said he could not be totally sure.

Niles Fire Chief Steve Borkowski said smoke was reported coming from an unidentified home on the streets behind the Bradford Exchange just before 9 a.m., across Milwaukee Avenue from Golf Mill. Firefighters found a small amount of steam and smoke on the first floor. They forced open a door and discovered fire in a second floor bedroom, quickly extinguishing flames by 9:19 a.m. Borkowski said no one was in the home at the time of that fire and no one was injured.

Borkowski estimated damages at $50,000 after the first fire. He said damage was contained to the second floor bedroom, but smoke, water damage, and soot spread throughout the rest of the structure. He was not immediately available for comment after the second blaze.

Nearly 40 firefighters from Niles, Glenview, Des Plaines, Park Ridge, and the North Maine Fire Protection Dist. responded to the first Code 4 alarm.

A chief on the scene of the second fire said the homeowner was at home when flames reignited, but was not injured.

 

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