Park District Provides House for Fire Department Training

The Des Plaines Fire Department has completed its fire training and safety exercises at the vacant house at 1946 White Street, on the Arndt Park property owned by the Des Plaines Park District. The training offered firefighters an opportunity to train under realistic conditions and practice firefighting and other emergency techniques that are used to save lives and property.

The Des Plaines Park District acquired Arndt Park and five parcels of land over a sixteen-year period, beginning in May of 1961 through December of 1977. The final parcel, the house, was purchased in May of 2008 and has been rental property for the District until this year. “Arndt Park is a one of our most popular and busiest parks, especially on the weekends,” said Don Miletic, Assistant Executive Director. “Families come to grill and picnic, we host parties, classes and meetings in the field house, soccer groups come out to play games in the fields, and the diamonds are occupied with teams all summer and fall.”

When the most recent tenant moved-out, the Park District agreed to give the Des Plaines Fire Department access to the house for training exercises before the scheduled demolition. “We were excited to work with our fire safety officials, to provide them with a realistic training environment,” said Miletic.

The Fire Department has conducted multiple types of training at the house including non-destructive training: safe evacuation maneuvers and search and rescue drills using training smoke; and destructive drills on Friday, November 8 that included breaching the roof, walls and ceilings, and knocking out windows. The firefighters also practiced accessing the roof peak using a variety of climbing methods, as well as performing controlled slides to flat surfaces. They practiced hose-deployment drills: pulling the hoses from the engines to and into structures, and practiced coordinating fire attack operations among engines and ladder trucks.

According to Des Plaines Fire Chief Alan Wax, “The opportunity to use actual structures for training purposes is invaluable to our personnel in maintaining their skills and developing new ones, which will be beneficial during emergency operations. We are most appreciative to the Park District and its Board of Directors for their willingness to allow us to train on this structure before its demolition. We also thank the staff of the Park District for their support and cooperation during our preparations and actual training throughout the past few weeks. This has been another great example of two separate Des Plaines governmental organizations collaborating for the benefit of all.”

The house will be torn down the week of November 18. The land will be cleared, graded, and reseeded to make more green space in the park. “At this time, green space will replace the house’s footprint until future planning and community input is obtained to enhance the Park for additional recreational purposes,” said Miletic. To see photos of the Arndt Park amenities, or for more information about neighborhood parks, visit www.DPParks.org or call 847-391-5700.