Another Division 4 department has been added to the site. The Lake Bluff Fire Department is another volunteer department covering the roughly 4 square miles of Lake Bluff along Lake Michigan between Lake Forest and North Chicago. This is mostly a Pierce department with four Pierce units plus a brush rig built by Danko.
There are several interesting points with regard to the apparatus here. First of all, each of the suppression rigs bears a unique name on the front of the cab. Lake Bluff has always gone to the local third grade class for help with a name when a new piece of equipment is ordered. The current names are ‘The Volunteer’, ‘The Defender’, ‘Guardian’, and ‘Centennial Pride’.
Built-in, color-coded, cross-lays are located amidship. Larry Shapiro photo
Rescue 520 has a rear pump along with rescue squad type storage and a full complement of hydraulic tools. Larry Shapiro photo
Lake Bluff has an interesting rescue/pumper. Rescue 520 is a Pierce Saber with a squad body that features a rear 1500-GPM pump, built-in cross-lays, and has a roof-mounted, Will-Burt Night Scan, light tower. As a matter of fact, all three of Lake Bluff’s engines also have a Night Scan.
At one time, all of the Lake Bluff engines were built by Pierce on Ford C-Series chassis. When they purchased their last Ford unit in 1990, they were informed by Pierce that this unit would be the last Ford-C-8000 that Pierce would build on.
