Fire Prevention week is observed nationally in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire which began on October 8, 1871. That fire killed more than 250 people and left 100,000 homeless.
At the same time as the Chicago Fire, there was a fire that began in the Peshtigo Forest around Green Bay, Wisconsin. That fire claimed over 1,200 lives. It scorched between 1.2 and 1.5 million acres. While that fire does not receive as much attention as the Chicago Fire, The National Weather Service lists it as the deadliest fire in history.
The National motto for this year is “Smoke alarms: Make them work for you!”
The City of Naperville bought the Joe Naper Pumper in 1874, just three years after the Chicago Fire. It’s on display at Naper Settlement. There are also many pictures and displays which will help you understand how far the skill of fighting fires has come in the past 150 years in Naperville.
I remember when the Fire Department celebrated the 100th anniversary in 1974. Naperville was still a city of less than 20,000 people. The fire station and the police station shared a building on Jefferson Avenue. That location is now occupied by Lou Malnati’s and Chicos.
The Fire Department had a combination of fulltime fire fighters and paid on- call firefighters. All of them were expected to respond if they were needed to put out a fire. There were no cell phones back then. The City would sound a siren to call the firemen to duty. They used to test that siren every day at 6PM. (For some children it also served as a call to come home for dinner.)
The firefighters’ phones (land lines) were connected to a special phone at the fire station. When someone picked up that phone, the phones at the homes of the firefighters would ring incessantly to call them to duty. They had little blue flashing lights in their cars to tell citizens to move aside to let them pass as they headed to the fire station to man the fire trucks.
Back then, the firefighters rode on the back of the fire truck without any protection from weather elements or from cars that followed too closely.
Naperville did not provide ambulance service in 1974, but Lt. Donald Faulhaber and other members of the Fire Department worked hard to convince the City to purchase an ambulance and hire firefighters who were trained to be Paramedics. The ambulance went into service in 1976. The Paramedic program was new to the State of Illinois and Naperville was one of the first towns to offer that service. (Don later became the Assistant Chief for the NFD.)
The State of Illinois also began a certification program to ensure that Firefighters were properly trained in the art of firefighting. New firefighters would be sent to the University of Illinois Fire School for training. Today the Training Division trains new Naperville firefighters and ensures that all firefighters maintain their certifications.
Naperville Fire Department has also addressed the danger posed by Hazardous Materials. They established a place for disposal of those materials. They also train for taking care of accidents or fires involving those materials.
The citizens of Naperville can be proud of the men and women who serve as Naperville firefighters. While they are celebrating their 150th anniversary, they are always looking for better ways to serve you, too.
