HISTORIC FIRES
historic fire scene photos from many years ago
This is the radio traffic from a 3-11 alarm with a disaster plan 3 at 6531 Lowe in Chicago (2/25/79). This occurred while my dad was chief in the 12th battalion … first thing in the morning. The chief he normally relieved, Bill Foran was acting in the big buggy and had not yet been relieved so he was responding as the division marshal. The captain of truck 20, who had some classic radio replies was Richard Fitzpatrick. The voice of the englewood office was Harry Haddon back in his heyday. This building had super long hallways, masks were barely in use at this time and the people were hanging out all over the place. This was a real dandy. Steve Redick
I thought I would share these vintage images from a 3-11 alarm on May 14, 2000. The fire was at 71st and Wabash in Chicago and the images were scanned from original negatives that I own. The images were taken by a Sun-Times photographer but I do not have a name. They were in very poor shape and I had to spend a lot of time editing out the scratches, however you can see that I did not get to all of them yet. Eric Haak
Some shots from a 4-11 at Hastings and Wolcott in Chicago. It was a barrel works as I recall and the embers from this drifted a block away and burned out some rooms on the top floor of an occupied apartment building. I forget it’s exact location. We ran down there just as the companies arrived. It may have been a box or maybe they just grabbed units from the 4-11. Truck 1 was used here with their brand new E-One rig with the pre-piped waterway. This was November 1989.
Steve Redick
This was an interesting fire. December 1989, a 2-11 at 1705 N Talman. I happened on this in the early stages. Occupants still in the exposure building were just exiting out the back under heavy fire conditions. They lost water for some reason and the back end of the two dwellings really took off. I helped the engineer of 35 make another hydrant down the block after things went sour. After all was said and done I smelled something burning and discovered my knit hat was burning as was my hair from a flying ember!
Steve Redick
From Steve Redick: