In the Spotlight: The Downers Grove Fire Department and its recent field-based training opportunity

By Valerie Hardy

According to the National Fire Protection Association’s website, the annual Fire Prevention Week is scheduled for the second week in October “in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire, which began on October 8, 1871.”

The weeklong observance aims to educate community members of all ages about ways to stay safe from fire. While citizens’ attention to fire safety is heightened in the fall because of Fire Prevention Week, Downers Grove firefighters are committed to it every day, all year long.

The Fire Department provides 24-hour fire suppression, rescue, and emergency medical services in addition to fire prevention, inspection, and investigation services.

Not just during Fire Prevention Week but throughout the year, the Fire Department also “delivers award-winning and nationally recognized fire and life safety education” to students in the community, the Department’s webpage noted.

The Downers Grove Fire Department’s excellence is also evident in its top Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating. “The ISO assigned a public protection classification (PPC) on a scale from 1 to 10. We are a 1, the best you can be, which results in, among other things, lower insurance rates for our residents and businesses,” explained Downers Grove Mayor Bob Barnett.

Though not used as part of the criteria for determining the Fire Department’s ISO rating explicitly, a factor contributing to the Department’s excellence is the extensive training its personnel undergo.

For example, in March, firefighters participated in a multi-day hands-on training at three American Foursquare structures on the 49th block of Main Street that were earmarked to be demolished in May.

The buildings used for the training most recently functioned as commercial spaces before being vacated and sold to Downers Grove-based Barriere Construction, a third-generation, family-owned custom builder-developer.

Adam Barry, a Downers Grove resident and the president of Barriere Construction, said the structures were assessed to be largely unrehabilitatable, which contributed to the plan to construct on that property a 21-unit active adult rental community with street-level retail and restaurant space.

So how did the Main Street buildings slated for demolition become the backdrop for the Fire Department trainings (and Police Department trainings, as they used the structures for professional education purposes as well)?

Twenty-year Downers Grove resident Tom Schroder played matchmaker, connecting the Village and Barry. Schroder owns an American Foursquare home in town, and he belongs to a Downers Grove-based American Foursquare group dedicated to documenting historic ownership of such homes, touring the homes and drafting their floor plans, and – when possible – working to preserve these architectural gems.

Schroder toured the three American Foursquare buildings that Barriere Construction had marked for demolition, and he said that while he hoped they could be “saved,” he saw the “severe structural damage to each of them” and recognized that the necessary repairs would be cost-prohibitive.

“I approached Adam [Barry] to see if he’d be willing to allow the Village to use the three buildings for training purposes before they were taken down,” Schroder said. “It seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up, to get one more valuable use out of these buildings to provide a real-life training backdrop for our valued and topnotch-trained fire department and police department staff.”

It was an easy yes for Barry, who believes “there’s nothing better than doing in-the-field training.”

Barry observed some of the Fire Department training from his office, which is located directly across the street from the buildings used for the training. He noticed how the training included the use of a smoke machine to simulate the conditions of an actual fire, and how the firefighters were up on the roof, practicing cutting holes in it.

“The risk they put themselves in to get that training done, it was unbelievable,” Barry said. He added that he hopes he can support similar first responder training initiatives with other buildings of his in the future.

Barry’s donation of training space was greeted with gratitude. Downers Grove Village Manager Dave Fieldman said, “The Village always appreciates when property owners provide the Police and Fire Departments the opportunity to train in local buildings before they are demolished.”

The trainings in March were so beneficial that the Village asked Barriere Construction to extend the time available to them for training purposes.

“Creating fire suppression and emergency rescue scenarios suitable for training can be difficult,” Fieldman said, “and there’s just no substitute for field simulations in actual buildings…especially when these training events can be conducted over several days in order to accommodate the varied shifts of our Police Officers and FireFighter Paramedics.”

Mayor Barnett recognized the importance of taking advantage of the unique opportunity for hands-on training across multiple adjacent buildings as well. He said that Downers Grove prioritizes training its first responders – in the classroom, on apparatuses, and in the field. He added, “We train them, train them, and train them some more, so when pressed for service, they’re ready.”

Fire Prevention Week will conclude on Oct. 13 with the annual Silent Parade, which serves to pay tribute to all who have lost their lives to fire.

The parade, which will feature fire department vehicles from Downers Grove and nearby municipalities, all with their lights flashing but no sirens sounding, will begin in Hinsdale at 7 p.m. and travel through Downers Grove at the intersection of Maple Avenue and Main Street at approximately 7:15 p.m.