Atop a cabinet in River Forest Fire Chief Russ Nummer’s office is a leather helmet bearing the number 1. It was worn a century ago by John Matthews, the town’s second fire chief, who served for two decades.
On a nearby shelf rests a white metal helmet with the number 13 emblazoned in red across the front. Nummer received it about six years ago from Dieter Hofmann in exchange for one of his old helmets. Hofmann is a captain with the Hamburg Fire Department in Germany, and his family hosted one of Nummer’s children through a school exchange program.
Across the office, a wood-framed resolution from the City of Chicago conveys its appreciation for River Forest’s assistance in battling the Stockyards fire on May 19, 1934.
One need not look too hard to find evidence of the camaraderie and cooperative spirit shared by those in the fire service. So it’s not unusual that River Forest firefighters and their counterparts in Oak Park have been looking out for one another for generations.
There has been “a long, long history of both formalized and informal assistance to Oak Park,” said Nummer, a 29-year veteran of the River Forest Fire Department and chief since January 2002.
About 10 years ago, for instance, River Forest firefighters volunteered to staff Oak Park stations during the funeral for an Oak Park firefighter.
Over the last few years, however, the departments have broken new ground in a collaborative effort.
The initiatives include the shared purchase of a ladder truck, formation of a dispatch center and use of a public-education trailer that they take to schools, libraries and other community sites.
Saving money
Oak Park Fire Chief Gerald Beeson estimated the cooperation saves the village $1.1 million a year in personnel costs alone.
When he arrived in December 1993 as chief, the department had 86 1/2 positions; today there are 72.
A vital element that has enabled the reduced staffing is an automatic mutual-aid agreement in place for the last six years with River Forest and Forest Park.
For calls from North Boulevard north to North Avenue, River Forest automatically responds in support of Oak Park; for calls from South Boulevard south to Roosevelt Road, Forest Park responds
The agreement is reciprocal, with Oak Park returning the favor to those communities, which effectively means all the departments have ready access to support beyond their borders.
“What we’re doing right now is working really well,” said Beeson, who noted with pride that Oak Park in 2001 became only the fourth community in the nation to be accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International and the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services.
The versatile `quint’
For the last 18 months, Oak Park and River Forest have had a “quint,” a multipurpose truck that combines five firefighting components into one vehicle; it carries hoses and has ground ladders, a water tank, a pump and an aerial device.
Because of its versatility, the quint can fight fires and perform rescues in a variety of settings, including those on upper floors.
The two communities split the cost–about $535,000–and share the maintenance expenses, with Oak Park performing the maintenance.
The logos of the communities are on the rig–a move that reassures some and unsettles others.
“There’s always fear and apprehension when there’s a change,” said Mark Puknaitis, Oak Park’s deputy chief of support services.
Through the grapevine, he heard concerns about whether the increased collaboration with River Forest means Oak Park might be shutting one of its three stations. There is no such plan, said Puknaitis, who oversees the department’s training, emergency medical services and fire-prevention divisions.
Ins and outs of dispatch center
The West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center is another prominent example of the departments’ cooperation.
The state-of-the-art center, which is a separate taxing body, is “leaps and bounds” beyond the departments’ previous technological layouts and has improved conditions for dispatchers, Nummer said.
It has more room, better ventilation, windows–the old dispatch centers were in “dark and dreary” basements, said Ron Gross, center supervisor–and a more technologically advanced system. It also has infrastructure to expand its coverage to eight communities overall.
The center, which is connected to River Forest Village Hall, began operations May 2, 2002, with dispatchers from Oak Park and River Forest joining forces. It is overseen by both villages’ police and fire chiefs.
Because departments were short-staffed with only seven dispatchers each, seven were hired, said Gross, formerly communications coordinator assistant and acting communications coordinator with the Oak Park Department.
Minimum staffing now is three dispatchers on the midnight shift and four the rest of the day, he said.
The arrangement “ensures that one agency or individual isn’t going to be overwhelmed, and it ensures a better coverage of the emergency,” Nummer said.
“There were times when there was only one dispatcher [in River Forest] on the midnight shift. Usually that’s enough, but sooner or later it’s going to catch up with you and you’re just going to be overwhelmed.”
The change to a consolidated dispatch center has included some bumps, as dispatchers adapt to a new setting.
For instance, River Forest’s dispatchers, who sometimes would be the only ones on duty, are adjusting to passing on some tasks to colleagues.
“Some people are resistant to change,” Gross said. “It took some getting used to.”
The move also meant a shift in how officers interact with dispatchers.
“Everyone was used to being able to walk in and talk to the dispatcher,” Gross said.
“Now we’re a little more isolated–in Oak Park’s case, in particular. We’re physically not there anymore. [Oak Park] officers can’t just drop in and walk in a report. They need to fax it instead.”
Providing more services
All emergency calls from Oak Park and River Forest are routed through the center. Since February, dispatchers have had emergency-medical dispatching certification, which means they are able to provide more service to callers.
In the past, they would gather information about an emergency and dispatch police or firefighters to the scene but would not be able to provide medical instruction.
Today, with the increased staffing, they are able to walk a caller through the procedure for mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or chest compressions, for example. They also give directions on other crises, such as how to control bleeding and respond to a choking incident.
They would not have been able to attain the certification to provide those services if the towns had kept their separate dispatching services, Gross said.
“Because we’re asking these questions doesn’t mean help is being delayed,” he emphasized. “Now we can give the [arriving emergency personnel] more information.”
As Beeson described it: “Prior to this, it was, `Thank you for the information and we’re sending someone’ and [we’d] hang up. The [caller] was left for three or four minutes without a person to be with on the phone.”
There is a benefit even in those instances when someone dies, Gross said.
“We’re not going to necessarily save everybody,” he said, “but the biggest thing is the family members can feel like they did something, they didn’t just stand by and do nothing. It has a psychological and emotional effect as well–just knowing they did everything they could instead of standing there and feeling like they’re hopeless.”
Educational road trips
Another shared resource has been a public education trailer, which makes road trips to schools, libraries and other community outlets.
The villages are in the process of getting a new trailer that will be accessible to the disabled and more user-friendly for the elderly, Beeson said.
“We’re going to make a stronger effort in public education to those two groups,” he said. “Those two are the most susceptible” to fire and other crises.
The new trailer will be shared with the other towns in Oak Park and River Forest’s Mutual Aid Box Alarm System District: Forest Park, Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney and North Riverside.
It is expected to arrive by the end of the year; a federal grant will cover 70 percent of the $40,000 cost. The remainder will come from the seven towns in the alarm system district, Nummer said. The towns have annual dues that go into a fund, and the money will be drawn from there.
The current trailer will be sold, or donated to a smaller community, Beeson said.
Learning curve
While much of the Oak Park-River Forest bonding is on full display, day by day a less-visible byproduct of the cooperation is the chemistry that the departments develop while at emergency scenes, Puknaitis said.
The key is to “start small and work your way up,” he said.
He pointed to the increasing knowledge the departments have regarding the apparatus the other department brings to a scene, as well as the sequence in which they use that apparatus.
“There’s a lot of potential from this point on,” Puknaitis said.
“Training is one area. It’s not only what we can do for each other, as departments, but more so what we can do for the communities we serve.”
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Getting in touch
Here’s how to reach Oak Park and River Forest Fire Departments:
– For more information on the Oak Park Fire Department and for non-emergencies, call708-445-3300orvisitwww.oak-park.us/F ire(underscore)Department/Fire(underscore)Department.html.
– For more information on the River Forest Fire Department and for non-emergencies, call 708-366-8500 or visit www.river-forest.us/fire.htm.
– To reach the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center, call 708-771-9110.
– For both departments, call 911 in an emergency.
