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Fire Department > History and Training

Answering the call... circa 1941 Pictured: Our first Fire Engine along with our Volunteer Firefighters

The Northlake Fire Protection District was formed and incorporated in 1941. The fire station was erected and dedicated in 1953. The two story brick building at 118 E. Parkview Drive was originally built to house four units of apparatus, a meeting room, Chief's office, recreation room, hose drying tower, and apartments for the telephone operators. Telephone operators manned the station 24 hours a day.

Throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s the Fire District experienced expansion and growth. Full-time firefighters were hired providing around the clock fire protection. The District enabled firemen to become Emergency Medical Technicians through training at Loyola Medical Center. Emergency medical services was established in 1974 with the purchase of our first ambulance.

The taxpayers of Northlake elected the first Board of Trustees in 1985 to oversee the Fire Protection District. The Trustees are elected to six-year terms. In the late 1980's the District's insurance rating went to a class 6 which resulted in a savings of thousands of dollars in insurance premium dollars to the taxpayers of the Northlake Fire Protection District.

The 1990's saw an enhancement of services developing within the Fire District. The District was part of the establishment of the 6th and 7th Division Hazardous Materials Co-op. The fire station began housing a Haz-Mat response vehicle. More than 100 firefighters in the division went through a rigorous training program to prepare themselves to handle hazard materials incidents.

Also in the 1990's the Fire District began to provide Paramedic Service to the community. There was a restructuring of the communications system that took two years to complete; radio dispatchers were removed from the fire station and a state-of-the-art centralized communications center was established, Norcomm. This center is located in Elmhurst and serves approximately 20 towns. This change not only provides the community with excellent dispatch service, but also allowed the use of 911 as an emergency number and saved our taxpayers well over a million dollar in the past eight years.

Massive renovations and remodeling of the fire station was undertaken between

Updated Station

1993 to 1998; the outside was completely repainted, new windows were installed, roof replaced, 80% of heating and cooling systems replaced, office areas and training rooms were remodeled, and a non-skid surface floor was applied on the truck room floors. In the spring of 1998 a face-lift to the front facade of the building was completed, new windows were replaced in the administrative offices, and a lighted sign was added to the front of the building.

The Northlake Fire Protection District became a member of the M.A.B.A.S. XX Division, which has 18 member Departments. The purpose of M.A.B.A.S. (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System); is to provide automatic aid to Departments as needed and in the event of an extra alarm.

In 1996 the Northlake Fire Protection District became one of only two fire districts that purchased a high-tech fire tool, the "Thermal Imager"; the most significant advancement in firefighting technology in this century. It is a revolution in vision-restoration. The Thermal Imager is a helmet mounted, hands-free, battery powered tactical fire tool that enables the firefighter to see through unfamiliar surroundings and obstacles, even under complete darkness or the heaviest of smoke conditions.

The years 1997 through 2003 brought many improvements to the District. With the help of State Grants and the Emergency Equipment Tax Referendum, the District replaced two fire engines and the ambulance, each of which was over twenty years old. In addition, two updated thermal imagers and body armor were purchased. Also, the aging 30-minute self-contained breathing apparatuses were updated with new models allowing extended time for the firefighter's protection.

Training is a very important part of everyday life for the District. Training is completed at all levels, within the Department, Inter-Departmental, MABAS Division XX, Haz-mat, Inter-Governmental (Homeland Security) and POC. The Training Gallery shows our firefighters in action.

Late in 2004, a new era of Emergency Medical Services started within the District.  Seeing the need for a higher level of care in our changing world climate, some of our full-time firefighters volunteered to go to school to become licensed paramedics.  The firefighters, including Donald Benjamin and Brenda Farlow, attended Loyola University Medical Center Paramedic Program.  FF Benjamin and Farlow graduated and obtained their National Registry Paramedic License.  This license allows them to practice in all 50 states, and is considered the harder of the two certification tests for licensure.  In addition, the District has now changed its hiring practices, requiring that all firefighters hired in the future will be paramedics.  Late in 2005, the Front-line Fire Engine became Advance Life Support Capabe. The Engine, when staffed with a firefighter/paramedic, will be able to support the ambulance with a higher level of care.

In 2005-2006, new cardiac defibrillators were purchased for the ambulance and engine.  2006 brought a new paperless system for ambulance run reports.  Both the front-line engine and ambulance are now equipped with these computers and the software.  Late in 2006, updated AED's were purchased for all the vehicles.

On November 6-12, 2006, 32 firefighters from surrounding fire departments and throughout the state were involved in Hazardous Materials Technician and Counter-Terrorism Training.  This training is sponsored by University of Illinois Fire Service Institute, Homeland Security and the Northlake Fire Protection District Regional Training Site.  The course provides firefighters knowledge of classification, identification and verification of known and unknown chemicals and also decontamination procedures. The cost of the training of each student is $800.00.  Northlake Fire Protection District is recognized as a statewide regional training site for the University of Illinois Fire Service Institute.