An old farmhouse on North Avenue burned in March. Firefighters were on the scene daily, but they were not scurrying to save the building. Instead, they repeatedly set fires and put them out as part of their training.
“It’s not too often someone gives us a house to use for practice,” says Don Markowski, one of three training instructors for the Glenside Fire Protection District in Glendale Heights. “We got over 800 man-hours of training out of that building.”
The farmhouse, which was scheduled for demolition, was donated to the district by a manufacturing company.
The firefighters went through a series of scenarios at the house. They sealed the windows and filled the rooms with simulated smoke to rehearse search and rescue procedures. Then they started fires, first small ones, then large ones. They practiced ventilation techniques and strategies for entering the burning building, then extinguished the flames. After several weeks, the house was reduced to a pile of rubble.
“It was a good cooperative effort,” says Ralph Blust, assistant chief. The donor “saved money by us destroying it for them, and we got to use it.”
The firefighters work shifts of 24 hours on duty and 48 hours off. Each morning Monday through Saturday, the shifts spend three hours in training. Some sessions consist of classroom study and practical experience.
Markowski, 32, a firefighter and emergency medical technician, is a strong advocate of the system. “Education is the way of fire service,” he says. “Within this district, we don’t get a lot of fires. The way to keep our skills sharp is to train. If we relied on only the times we had fires, we’d have rusty skills.”
Two subjects are covered each week: one on fires, the other on emergency rescues. The subjects are selected a month in advance by a training committee of firefighters and officers. All three shifts cover the same material.
“It seems as though whenever we have a class on a particular subject-be it a cardiac problem or a vehicular extraction-we get a call pertaining to the lesson,” Markowski says. “The daily training keeps us refreshed.”
Markowski has been a firefighter for the district for 12 years and an instructor for eight. He has taken courses in fire prevention, management, instruction, hazardous materials and emergency medicine.
“I like teaching because it helps me to improve as a firefighter,” he says. “In my classes, I like to do a lot of group discussion. That way we all learn from each other.”
To keep his classes interesting, he shows videos or makes up games. If he gives a map quiz, for example, he may tell the firefighters that whoever has the worst score has to wash the dishes that day. For a class on sprinkler systems, the group might visit different systems in buildings within the district.
“I try to find a lighter side,” he says. “Too many times, everything in our business is doom and gloom.”
“All of our firefighters are special,” says Chief Ronald Dukes. “They are good-working men. They live together for 24 hours, and all get along very well.”
Markowski grew up in Mt. Prospect and graduated from Hersey High School in 1978. During his junior and senior years, he was in a prevocational training program at the Mt. Prospect Fire Department.
“I learned a lot of the same stuff I teach today, about hoses and fire cause and origin,” he says. Other subjects he teaches are new, such as hazardous materials and blood-transmitted diseases.
After graduation from high school, he took fire-science courses at Harper College in Palatine and worked as a carpet installer. He was hired by the Elk Grove Township Fire Department in 1979 and worked there for 2 1/2 years before coming to the Glenside department. Markowski and his wife, Diane, live in Bartlett. They have two children, ages 3 and 6.
The district, headquartered at 1608 Bloomingdale Rd., was established in 1969. It serves an area of about 12 square miles with a population of about 26,000. most living in Glendale Heights and a nearby unincorporated area.
Until 1974, the firefighters were volunteers who were paid on call. Dukes, who was then the village’s public works director, was one of the original volunteers. He became the volunteer fire chief in 1974 and later that year the first full-time chief.
Today, the district employs 14 full-time firefighters and six contractual paramedics and has 20 people who are paid on call. All firefighters, whether full-time or paid on call, are certified as emergency medical technicians.
In 1992, the district answered 2,680 calls, of which 960 were ambulance calls, Dukes says.
