Community protests relocation of South Side tower ladder truck

Tower Ladder 34 has been used to pluck people from a burning apartment building. It once came to the aid of a worker with frost-bitten fingers stuck high up on a cellphone tower.

But the tower truck’s days are numbered — at least at its current location with Engine Co. 72, 7982 S. South Chicago Ave. The ladder truck, which is equipped with a basket and can extend up 10 stories, is being moved to a new location as part of a wider plan to “consolidate and improve overall fire coverage on the South Side,” according to the fire department.

Two dozen or so current and former South Side firefighters — as well as some community activists — gathered in front of the firehouse Thursday to protest the truck’s removal.

“This doesn’t make any sense. You’re going to have people at greater risk. When you take away the best piece of equipment you’ve got, you elevate the risk for the citizens — simple as that,” said James Winbush, a retired Chicago Fire Department captain.

Winbush described the removal of the tower ladder as “ridiculous.”

Not only is the ladder truck well-suited to rescuing trapped residents from multistory buildings, it gives firefighters the ability to shoot water on fires from above.

“It’s one of the key weapons we have right now, especially the way fires are burning — quicker and hotter. They just seem to race through these buildings,” said Chicago Fire Lt. Mike Balnis, who is assigned to Engine Co. 72. The firehouse is close to where the Avalon Park, South Shore and South Chicago neighborhoods come together.

Larry Langford, a spokesman for the fire department, said the equipment move comes as the city prepares to open a new firehouse on the South Side — “the largest ever built in Chicago.”

“It will go in service the first week of March this year and is located at 119th and Morgan,” Langford said in a statement. “This firehouse has been planned for years as a way to consolidate and improve overall fire coverage on the South Side of the city, especially the industrial area. Several changes are being made in the distribution of fire apparatus.”

A 100-foot aerial ladder truck — which doesn’t come with a bucket or the ability to spray water down on a fire from the top of the ladder — is replacing the tower truck in the near future, Langford said.

“The neighborhood now covered by Tower Ladder 34 will still be covered by a tower ladder as will ever other area of the city,” Langford said. “The redistribution of apparatus with the firehouse will allow improved coverage and removal of service gaps that have been noted in the past, which were part of the reason a new super firehouse was designed, built and stands now about to go into operation.”