From Phil Stenholm:
Another installment in our ongoing series on the History of the Evanston Fire Department.
The Ballad of the Lucille McQuade
On January 12, 1915, a fire broke out at the Nally livery stable, located next to the Greenwood Inn (formerly known as the “French Houseâ€) at the corner of Greenwood and Hinman. At the time, the Greenwood Inn was one of only two hotels in Evanston, the other being the famous Avenue House on Davis and Chicago Streets. The fire started on the second floor of the stable while guests were dining in the hotel. Bessie Gallagher ignored police orders and ran into the burning building to save her belongings before being rescued by firefighters. She was later arrested for disorderly conduct and failure to obey an officer. Though the livery stable suffered $3,000 in damage, no one was injured, and the quick response of the Evanston Fire Department saved the hotel from destruction.
Two weeks later, on the early morning of January 28, 1915, the EFD responded to a fire at Mrs. I.C. Danwood’s boarding house on Sherman Avenue. Boarder C.C. Firman broke both ankles jumping from a second-floor window to escape the flames before firefighters arrived. When the EFD arrived, the fire had already blown through the roof. Although all the boarders were safely evacuated without injury, the fire department faced a major setback when a fire hydrant stem broke off during hose connection. They eventually connected to a different hydrant further away, but the delay caused the total loss of the house and its contents, amounting to $7,000. However, the EFD managed to protect surrounding buildings using defensive tactics, including an elevated master stream from the HDA’s aerial ladder and a high-pressure stream from the Eastman "deluger."
On April 20, 1915, voters in Wilmette approved a $20,000 bond issue to purchase a motorized fire engine and build a combined police and fire station on the west side of Railroad Avenue, south of Lake Avenue. By year's end, Wilmette received an American-LaFrance Type 75, a triple-combination pumper capable of 750 GPM. It served as the department’s first-due engine for over 25 years. The station operated for 50 years before being decommissioned.
At 2 PM on Sunday, May 15, 1915, an explosion occurred in the film-developing room of the Will E. Horton camera shop in the Simpson Building on Davis Street. All three EFD engine companies responded, but the shop was completely gutted, and the adjacent C.H. Morgan grocery store suffered heavy smoke damage. Total damages amounted to $8,500.
At noon on Saturday, July 3, 1915, Engine Company 2 and Motor Engine Company 1 responded to a fire on the roof of Mrs. Margaret Patterson’s home at 529 Lee Street. The blaze was sparked by a misfired Fourth of July bottle rocket. Flames spread quickly to neighboring houses, but firefighters managed to contain the fire before it spread further. The Patterson residence and nearby homes sustained significant roof and second-floor damage. Fireman William Wilbern of Engine Company 2 suffered minor injuries when the roof collapsed on him during firefighting operations in the attic.
EFD Chief Albert Hofstetter attended the International Association of Fire Engineers Convention in Cincinnati in September 1915. He reported that although some departments still used horse-drawn steamers and ladder trucks, none were displayed at the convention. He noted that automobile firefighting equipment had significantly improved since Evanston purchased its Robinson Jumbo in 1911, predicting that horse-drawn rigs would soon be replaced across the country.
Hofstetter also mentioned a new fully automated aerial ladder demonstrated at the convention. Built by Ahrens-Fox on a Couple Gear chassis and equipped with a Dahill Air Hoist system and an 85-foot wooden ladder from Pirsch, this model could be raised by a single person in just 11 seconds. In contrast, Evanston’s 1907 American-LaFrance 85-foot HDA required two men to operate its spring-loaded windlass.
On Saturday night, January 8, 1916, Rosenberg’s Department Store at 820 Davis Street was gutted by fire. As in the Heck Hall fire two years earlier, two Chicago FD engine companies assisted. This time, both Engine Companies 102 and 110 were equipped with modern gasoline-powered pumpers. Engine 102 had a brand-new Seagrave, and Engine 110 had a 1912 Webb previously assigned to Engine 102. With EFD Motor Engine No. 1 (the Robinson “Jumboâ€) also on scene, officials had a rare chance to compare the performance of the three auto pumpers under real conditions.
Over 2,000 spectators gathered at Fountain Square as Evanston and Chicago firefighters battled the blaze deep into Sunday morning. All three pumpers ran out of fuel after the EFD’s 120-gallon reserve was exhausted, but more gas was eventually found at a nearby garage. EFD Captain Ed Johnson (Motor Engine Co. 1) was seriously injured but recovered. The fire caused $58,700 in damage, marking the second-highest fire loss in Evanston history up to that point.
The American-LaFrance horse-drawn 85-foot windlass-operated aerial ladder truck (HDA), purchased by Evanston in 1907 for $6,700, served only nine years before being destroyed in a collision with an Evanston Street Railway Company streetcar at Grove and Sherman in the early evening of September 18, 1916. Two firefighters, Dan McKimmons and Orville Wheeler, were thrown to the ground when the rig tipped over and were seriously injured.
The ESRC claimed the crash was unavoidable and refused liability, prompting the city to sue the company’s insurer to cover the cost of a new HDA. Unfortunately, the city had not insured the HDA, so winning the lawsuit was the only way to fund a replacement without an emergency appropriation or voter-approved bond.
While waiting for the case to resolve, the City Council decided to sell two of the four horses assigned to the demolished HDA and lease a newer hook-and-ladder truck (without an aerial ladder) from American LaFrance for $60 per month. The two-horse H&L, previously used in Peru, Indiana, was in excellent condition and served as EFD Truck No. 1 for about six months while it was advertised for sale.
In March 1917, American LaFrance sold the ex-Peru rig to the Toronto Fire Department. The EFD then leased an 1891 LaFrance/Hayes 55-foot aerial ladder truck, known as the “Lucille M. McQuade,†which had been in service for 25 years in Chattanooga. The Chattanooga FD had recently purchased an automobile 75-foot TDA and traded in the old HDA as part of the deal. This vintage HDA was unusual because the tillerman rode below the aerial ladder.
To accommodate the new HDA, the EFD needed another horse, so the venerable 1873 Babcock double-50-gallon chemical engine was taken out of front-line service, and its horse was reassigned to the HDA. Eventually, the Lucille McQuade was returned to American LaFrance, and the three horses used to pull it were retired when a new automobile city service ladder truck arrived from Seagrave in November 1917. This marked the completion of the $30,000 bond issue passed by Evanston voters in April 1917, which fully motorized the EFD.
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