FOLLOWING THE MULTI-MILLION-DOLLAR FIRE AT THE EMPRESS CASINO in Joliet, Illinois, five days ago, some answers are starting to surface about what was going on with the water supply.
STNG photo
Deputy Chief Ray Randich released some information following a multi-department critique Monday. They stated that this is only the second time in history that Joliet FD has called for mutual-aid assistance. The first was a 1992 fire at the former home of the Rustcraft Greeting Card Co. on Richards Street that burned for three days.
One of the real successes of the operation was the extensive tanker shuttle that was set up with 20 trucks shuttling from a separate main loop about 2 miles away. They moved approx. 1.5 million gallons.
“As many people have wondered, we considered trying to access the Des Plaines River and draft water out of the river itself, but with the wooded areas there wasn’t a good spot for the tankers to access it,” Randich said. He also added that there was a dry hydrant next to the barge piped into the river, “But we didn’t feel that would nearly give us the amount we needed.”
(see the Sun-Times News report HERE.)
The Associated Press is reporting today:
The city building inspector of suburban Joliet says the sprinkler system of the Empress Casino’s pavilion was disconnected when a fire destroyed the building.
David Mackley said Tuesday the sprinklers had been shut off just before Friday’s blaze because work was being done on them.
Mackley says the fire doors also weren’t working. He says it isn’t unusual for both items to be temporarily out of commission when a building is undergoing a renovation like the $50 million project at the Empress.
Mackley says workers had a fire watch in place and fire extinguishers, but the fire spread too quickly.
Firegeezer finds it interesting that the building inspector feels that shutting down fire protection devices is not unusual. All of the news reports stated that each of these buildings, including the one where the fire started, had patrons in them at the time it began.
You can read our reports from the fire HERE and HERE.
The Joliet Fire Department has long had inner turmoils also, going through six fire chiefs in the past ten years. In 1998 FC Larry Walsh was forced out after an investigation surfaced involving his son’s business dealing with the city. Walsh’s successor was Joseph Drick who lasted 6 years before he was indicted on a financial scam that ended up with both him and his wife being sent to prison in 2004.
The next three years saw two more fire chiefs come and go. While neither was caught up in anything criminal, they both bailed out of the job in short order. Then next chief, Rich Marose was appointed in 2007 but he left suddenly in June of last year following the disclosure of a police report of a “suspicious incident” involving Chief Morose and a woman in a parking lot at 1:45 am.
The current chief has now been on the job for nine months.
Joliet Fire Department WEBSITE.
