By Fran Spielman
The Chicago Sun-Times
Copyright 2007 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
CHICAGO — Chicago buildings targeted for demolition would get a new lease on life -- as a training ground for firefighters -- under a plan in the works that underscores the need for a new fire academy.
For more than a decade, City Hall has been talking about replacing the cramped and antiquated fire academy at 558 W. De Koven, possibly on a training campus that includes a new police academy. The fire academy was built in 1961.
A consultant’s $410,000 blueprint for change in the Chicago Fire Department recommended a new fire academy in 1999 to bolster training capacity. Former Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter vowed to make it happen, using Homeland Security funds, before moving on to become chief emergency officer.
Now that the City Council’s Buildings Committee has authorized firefighters to train in public and private buildings that are slated to be torn down, the need for a new academy is front-and-center once again.
“It’s cramped. . . . We’re very, very limited as to what we can do down there. We take the candidates to Champaign, which is the state fire academy. It’s a two-hour trip. If we had the facilities here . . . it would save money and time. We’d get a lot more training done,” said Bob Hoff, assistant deputy fire commissioner of operations.
Richard Edgeworth, director of training for the Chicago Fire Department, said the existing fire academy is “outdated,” to say the least.
“We run candidates through there on a continual basis. ... Companies cannot come down and chop on roofs and do things of that nature because it’s not there,” he said.
‘We get to know faces’
Combining would-be police officers and firefighters on a training campus makes sense -- and not simply to save money, Edgeworth said. There has been talk of doing just that near the 911 center on the Near West Side.
“We do a lot of exercises where we work together -- especially nowadays with terrorism, [weapons of mass destruction]. We’re always on the scene together. If we have a training facility separate for each, but also connected, it brings us together. We get to know faces. We get to know procedures. That’s key when you’re at any kind of an incident,” he said.
In the meantime, the training ground will be soon-to-be-demolished Chicago buildings, thanks to the ordinance championed by Ald. Ginger Rugai (19th), whose Southwest Side ward is home to scores of Chicago firefighters.
To appease colleagues concerned about angering or frightening local residents, Rugai agreed to seek approval from the local alderman before training begins.
On orders from Mayor Daley, Hoff said the first two floors of buildings would be “buttoned up” once training is done to keep “vagrants,” drug addicts and prostitutes out. He also made it clear that there won’t be any fires set during training.
“We have smoke machines, like they use in the movies. That would probably be the extent of the smoke,” he said.