Another Great Tanker Operation From Chicagoland
A 2-ALARM COMMERCIAL FIRE IN BEACH PARK, ILLINOIS, Sunday was elevated to a 3rd when the town's limited hydrant flow was insufficient. The fire was dispatched at 6:06 am after it was discovered by a police patrol. The Chicago Tribune reported:
A Beach Park pet store was completely destroyed this morning after a blaze broke out in the basement and killed hamsters, gerbils, fish and reptiles, officials said.
photo by Larry Shapiro
Firefighters were alerted about 6 a.m. to the Happyland Pet Center located at 11432 W. Wadsworth Rd. and found heavy smoke, said Beach Park Fire Department Chief Paul Tierney.
The two-story building housed a pet store on the first level and residential apartments on the second level, Tierney said. No humans were injured.
Firefighters went into rescue mode and searched the upstairs of the structure when a flashover occurred. A water supply issue at the scene slowed down firefighting efforts and assisting companies were called in from 15 surrounding communities including Waukegan, Zion and Newport, Tierney said. About 75 firefighters were called to the scene.
Larry Shapiro photo
"The fire had been burning for quite some time before we were called," said Tierney. He added the fire originated in a concrete bunker-type basement that had only one entrance.
As mentioned earlier, a tanker shuttle was set up from the special-call for water supply and fire photographer Larry Shapiro was on the scene documenting all the fire operations and equipment dispatch.
Check out that lineup of Fold-a-tanks! (Shapiro photo)
You can view Larry's 206-image photo gallery of the fire (and tankers in action) HERE.
Larry also took a breather to compile this raw video:
Firegeezer points out that this is not so much a fire story, but rather a tanker story – my passion.
Tanker dumps photos by Larry Shapiro
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Tanker staging line (Shapiro)
Da' Guys (Shapiro)
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