The website currently has 128 fire departments posted in addition to the Chicago Fire Department. Most of these departments are represented with their current station photos and images of every vehicle assigned to each station. It has always been the intent of the contributors to add historic photos for each department to supplement the current images. We broke ground today on this monumental task with the addition of an historic gallery linked to the Sauk Village Fire Department (MABAS Division 27). This gallery currently consists of 18 images supplied by Bill Friedrich which depict the Sauk Village Fire Department vehicles dating back to 1969. The images show that the fire department was red, then changed to white, and now they are black over red. Bill is going to begin scanning slides and negatives to add other departments as well.

Sauk Village used to run this 1979 Dodge/Palomar Type II ambulance. Bill Friedrich photo

The historic galleries will hopefully grow with the addition of images from other sources including the regular contributors. We would like to receive submissions from anyone who has history to share. These galleries can contain static posed shots, action shots, patches, old stations, fire scenes, and whatever else we can assemble to document the history of the departments. We encourage readers to submit what you have in your collection to bolster these galleries for the enjoyment of everyone.

Sauk Village ran this 1968 Darley engine for many years. It was eventually repainted to match the newer color scheme which featured a big blue stripe running down the middle of a white rig. Bill Friedrich photo

Tags: Bill Friedrich, chicagoareafire.com, fire department history, historic fire photos, MABAS Division 27, old fire engines, Sauk Village Fire Department