Chicago Fire Department

[karl4700]

Engine Co. 99

[karl4700]

Engine Co. 97

[karl4700]

Engine Co. 129

[karl4700]

Haz/Mat 5-1-2

[karl4700]

Truck Co. 13

[karl4700]

Truck Co. 17

[karl4700]

Truck Co. 20

[karl4700]

Truck CO. 30

[karl4700]

Truck Co. 40

[karl4700]

Squad Co. 5

[karl4700]

Squad Co. 5A

[KDWMAEMT]

The current FAJ says that the 3rd bid opening lists E\-One as the lowest bidder for the ladder contract. Does this mean that they are finally going to award the bid to E\-One? Rumor has it they wanted to contract E\-One for the ladders the whole time which was the main reason behind rejecting the 2 previous sets of bids. Any truth to that rumor?

[firepost]

[quote name='KDWMAEMT' post='304349' date='May 10 2009, 23:04 ']The current FAJ says that the 3rd bid opening lists E\-One as the lowest bidder for the ladder contract. Does this mean that they are finally going to award the bid to E\-One? Rumor has it they wanted to contract E\-One for the ladders the whole time which was the main reason behind rejecting the 2 previous sets of bids. Any truth to that rumor?[/quote]

I personally don't know if there was any truth to "that" rumor, however, about a year ago when the first set of bids were requested the rumor at the time was that Crimson was being favored for the new contract as the way "those" specs were initially written had seemed to have favored "Crimson and not Pierce Aerial Ladders who had had the previous multi year contract which had run from about 2001/2002 until 2007/08. That is a very good question as I myself can't help but wonder why the bids on the new ladders were rejected twice and why three sets of bids had to be solicited in the first place.

In the late 1980's there was somewhat of a scandal here in Chicago with E/One as it had come out that there had been a kick back scheme with the local E/One representative involved as well as the Fire Commissioner (at the time) so after 1988 the CFD stopped ordering E/One rigs until early 2000 when we had given E/One an order for 9 rear mounted Aerial Ladders which were our last order for "single rear axle" Aerial Ladder Trucks. Several of those E/One Trucks are featured on this thread such as Trucks 13,30 and 40.

[atlanticfiretrucks]

Would the Bronto concept work in a city like Chicago???

[Guest]

I know for a fact that Seagrave didn't bid on the Aerials!

[GA_Dave]

On my recent visit, I shot shop #G482 filling in for Squad 1A. Can anyone tell me which Squad Company this Spartan/E-One ran as when it was new? I shot Squad 5's Spartan/E-One back in 1995 and I wanted to know if I have just shot the same rig again. <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/shrug.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

[firepost]

[quote name='www.atlanticfiretrucks.com' post='304390' date='May 11 2009, 11:33 ']Would the Bronto concept work in a city like Chicago???[/quote]

Yes Atlantic of course the Bronto Concept would work in a City like Chicago. Firstly the articulated Aerial Platform (better known as the Snorkel) was developed for the fire service here in Chicago in 1958.Another reason why the Bronto Sky Lift would work well here amongst other reasons is that until a couple of years ago the Chicago Fire Department was one of a very few Fire Departments in the United States that had run with what is known as a "High Ladder". By definition a High Ladder would generally speaking be an Aerial Ladder or an Aerial Platform that would be higher then a conventional Aerial Ladder or Platform which would make virtually any Aerial Ladder that is higher then 110 feet a "High Ladder". From about 1960 until the mid 1970's Chicago ran with two 144 foot Mack/Magirus "High Ladders" and from the mid 70's until the early 80's we had run with a 135 foot Morita Lift Aerial which featured a small Elevator that had run up the side of the Aerial. From 1983 until about 2005/06 Chicago had run with Two and later One 135 foot Emergency One Aerial Ladders. The Last one was a 1988 135 foot E/One Aerial Ladder which we had titled Aerial Tower 1 which really was Truck 1 however it was replaced with a 105 foot "Heavy Duty" prepiped Pierce Aerial Ladder a couple of years ago. Since the American marketed Bronto Skylifts come in 3 sizes (100 feet,114 feet and 135 feet) it would make alot of sense for the Chicago Fire Department to purchase a 135 foot model as then we could get back into the "High Ladder Club" which the Chicago Fire Department was in for about 45 years.

[karl4700]

[quote name='GA_Dave' post='304489' date='May 11 2009, 17:56 ']On my recent visit, I shot shop #G482 filling in for Squad 1A. Can anyone tell me which Squad Company this Spartan/E-One ran as when it was new? I shot Squad 5's Spartan/E-One back in 1995 and I wanted to know if I have just shot the same rig again. <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/shrug.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />[/quote]



Squad 5's Spartan E\-One was detroyed in a crash several years ago, so it was for sure not that rig. So by process of elimination, it was 1 or 2's old squad......Still running strong!

[GA_Dave]

Squad 5's Spartan E-ONE was detroyed in a crash several years ago, so it was for sure not that rig. So by process of elimination, it was 1 or 2's old squad......Still running strong!

Thanks!

[karl4700]

I think Bill F may have the sheet on the shop numbers to see which it belonged to.