The weather is changing and the days are getting shorter which means more things you need to do before winter is upon us. Now is the time to have your wood burning fireplace or stove cleaned and checked before you begin loading it with wood for your first fire “of the season.” Chimney fires happen most often at night, after you’ve gone to bed and after you think your fire has long been out. Get it checked today!

We’ve sold our old fire district headquarters building downtown on Des Plaines Street and the new owners have begun their interior demolition. Keep your eye on this exciting project as they move forward to converting the use and becoming another strong partner in the downtown shopping area. The proceeds from this sale will be put into supporting our new training facility as well as designated for future capital projects.

Our annual Fire Prevention Week Open House is scheduled for Saturday, October 8th from 11am – 2pm at fire station 2 on 135th Street, east of Rt. 59. Last year we had over 1,000 attendees to watch live demonstrations, view static exhibits, have a hot dog or two, hopefully win a door prize and enjoy tours of some of our facilities. We have more planned for this year and look forward to seeing you!

Through donations and money from our pancake breakfasts and turkey raffle we were able to give 4, $500 Chief John D. Eichelberger Scholarships to deserving college-bound high school seniors this past spring. We look forward to continuing this program in years to come.

Our next quarterly “Chat With The Chiefs” is scheduled for October 26th at 7pm here at our headquarters facility. This is an opportunity for our residents to hear brief presentations from Chief John Konopek from the Plainfield Police Department, Chief Mike Veseling from the Oswego Fire Protection District and myself, as well as ask any questions concerning our various operations. We look forward to meeting you then.

You may have seen that Edward Elmhurst Hospital in Plainfield will soon be accepting advanced life support (ALS) patients and as soon as all of the details are worked out, some of our emergency ambulance transports may be able to bring patients to this hometown facility. We’ll keep you posted on that progress and you can see our article later in this newsletter about this situation and as always,

Be careful out there…

David S. Riddle, Chief