Excerpts from the Dailyherald.com:
A year after Patrick Tanner graduated from Warren High School in 1983, he was back at school, as an 18-year-old, on-call Gurnee firefighter battling a December blaze that destroyed his alma mater.
A little more than 40 years later, Tanner will retire Jan. 10 as the fire chief at the West Chicago Fire Protection District (WEGO), a position held since November 2014. He spent 19 years as a full-time firefighter with the Highland Park Fire Department, passing his first test at 19 years old. He moved up the ladder as paramedic, lieutenant, deputy chief, and in 2010 was promoted to fire chief, where he served until joining West Chicago as fire chief.
In 2020, Tanner was the founding chief of the K9/Drone Search and Rescue Strike Team, which uses canine officers and drones to search for lost or missing people. Dispatched out of Northbrook, the Search and Rescue Strike Team has members in nine fire departments from Glenview to Tinley Park.In another collaboration, the West Chicago Fire Protection District is part of the West Suburban Fire/Rescue Alliance, joining departments from Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, Glenside (Glendale Heights, Glen Ellyn Countryside), Hanover Park, Roselle, Wheaton, and Winfield in serving more than 300,000 DuPage County residents.Tanner also helped coordinate logistics for Illinois’ relief response around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.Deputy Chief Jeffery Keefe, who has been with the district since June 2002 ,will be sworn in as the new fire chief.
