Buffs Operate CD Fire and Rescue Service
—All photos coutesy Motorola Inc.
“IT’S A WORKING UNIT” says Fire Commissioner Robert J. Quinn, when describing the Chicago Civil Defense Fire and Rescue Service, of 455 North Walcott Avenue. Quinn put the accent on “working.” The record certainly bears this out. The Civil Defense Fire and Rescue Service went into action on January 1, 1958. In its first year it responded to 203 extra-alarm fire calls and 199 specialduty calls for an average of more than one a day.
The Chicago Fire and Rescue got its birth with a conference between Quinn and Charles “Jim” Johnson, a most ardent fire buff. Quinn knew that the city’s civil defense organization owned six heavy-duty rescue trucks that were standing idle in various city garages. With the blessing of Mayor Richard Daley, he asked Johnson whether he and other fire buffs would be interested in forming an organization that could take over the unused vehicles. Johnson took it from there and formed a squad that now numbers 80 men.
The unit meets twice a week—three hours each Tuesday evening for classroom training and five hours on Saturdays for drill and equipment maintenance. The fire department provides skilled instructors to train the members in rescue operations, while the Red Cross provides
first-aid training. Each man is required to pass stiff examinations on all skills involved. This training has paid off in that the Fire and Rescue Service is able to stand by at extra-alarm fires to perform all types of nonhazardous tasks for the fire department as well as take on special-duty calls.
Winches part of equipment
At several fires during 1958, the Fire and Rescue Service used the heavy winches on its trucks to pull buildings apart to aid firemen in extinguishing the blaze. In a warehouse fire it used the winches to pull out bales of combustible material. At an Evanston fire, the winches were employed to drag a hook and ladder out of axle-deep mud. The men practice with the winches, reports Johnson, and have become highly efficient in their use. For training they have received permission to aid wrecking crews in the process of tearing down old buildings on proposed expressways routes.
Frequently the Fire and Rescue Service is called on to operate emergency lights and portable generators for the fire department. At one 5-11 fire, the power was shut off in the entire area. The civil defense portable generators were used to keep the refrigerator in a nearby clinic operating, and to preserve supplies of vital drugs. In another, more dramatic instance, the handy portable generators were used to power an iron lung for a paralysis victim. The unit also furnished around-the-clock communications and lighting service for over two weeks as a link between the fire alarm office and cable repairmen in a street cave-in in the downtown area.
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FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE
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These tasks point up the variety of equipment carried and maintained by the Fire and Rescue Service. Each truck is fully equipped with 371 different tools including chain saws, first-aid equipment, two-way mobile and portable radios on the city fire frequency and power speakers which can be used as public address systems as well as to amplify the voice power of the two-way units. Besides the six heavy-duty trucks, the service also has a fully equipped station wagon used by Johnson.
The rescue service trucks are deployed about the city. A driver is assigned each truck for each eight-hour shift. Every time a 2-11, or better, is sounded, Johnson is notified by the fire alarm office. He calls the driver of the truck nearest the call and starts a chain of telephone calls so that a large number of men are notified within a few minutes. Each man is required to complete his part of the chain even if he is unable to respond to the call. Most members have radio receivers on the fire department frequency. “The men are free agents,” says Johnson, “and so do not have to respond to calls.” He says that if a call comes in at 3:00 a.m., one cannot really blame the men if they do not wish to respond. But he pointed out that those who miss too many calls are not kept on the service. He says, “We could find a thousand men who are looking for passes to cross fire lines. Getting men to regularly attend practice and calls is a different thing.” In 1958 an average of 9.4 men turned out for each fire alarm. At one 3:30-a.m. and 12-below-zero blaze, 20 men turned out. Since the 80 members of the service are scattered throughout the city, this turnout is very good, says Johnson.
Volunteer Service
The service is entirely voluntary and the only compensations received by the men are the sincere respect and appreciation from the people of Chicago, the honor of working with the fire department and the inner satisfaction of knowing that they are rendering a great service to the city. In 1958 a total of 2,693 men responded to alarms, and the average time spent on each alarm was two hours and 48 minutes and three hours and 48 minutes on special-duty calls.
The special duty tasks are many and varied. Soon after its formation the service was called to canvass an entire neighborhood. All citizens had to be notified that a service station in the area had mistakenly sold gasoline for fuel oil. Its use in space heaters could have been dangerous. By ringing door bells and broadcasting over the p.a. speakers, the Civil Defense Service was able to collect more than 90 per cent of the gasoline sold.
The unit has served at all of Chicago’s big fires since the squad’s formation. At the Our Lady of Angels School fire, trucks were at the scene very shortly after the first companies. Immediately, all the firstaid training the civil defense men had received was put to good use as they aided the children victimized in the tragedy. The unit later drove to the Seneca, Ill., Civil Defense Medical Warehouse, a 140-mile round trip and brought back 36 large cartons of bandages.
Commissioner Quinn points out that even though Johnson, his officers and men, are performing a tremendous service to the City of Chicago, right now their great worth is the fact that training is transforming this unit into a hard-core, highly efficient group whose value would be incalculable during a disaster, such as immediate attack, tornado or fire.
In its first report to the city council transmitted by Quinn, Johnson says, “The purpose of the Chicago Civil Defense Fire and Rescue Service is to have a professionally trained group to cope with all emergencies and disasters in the event that our present fire services would become their duties.” overtaxed This in they the performance certainly have of become.
