The Maywood Fire Department is constantly striving to maintain and improve its capacity to protect life and property in Maywood. Although the Department engages in numerous safety initiatives annually, three are highlighted below. The first involves the Department's participation in a Mutual Aid Response system. The second is a series of initiatives recently undertaken to maintain the service capabilities of Department Personnel as well as the Village's infrastructure. The third is the Department's participation in the Safe Haven program, as required by Illinois law.
Mutual Aid Response
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 demonstrated the need for improvements in the communications and coordination of first-responders. One of the ways the Maywood Fire Department better serves and protects the residents of Maywood is through its membership in MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System), which is a mutual aid organization established to improve fire service communications, management and coordination between fire departments during emergencies, natural disasters and man-made catastrophes. MABAS was formed in the late 1960s and is well-established throughout northern Illinois, with over 550 member fire departments organized within 46 divisions.
Maywood is serviced by Division 20, which is comprised of 17 surrounding towns. MABAS has divided Maywood into three sections: Box 100 includes everything north of the railroad tracks, Box 200 runs from the railroad tracks south to Madison Street and Box 300 consists of everything south of Madison to Roosevelt Road.
Whenever the Department receives a call or a report of a structure fire, all on-duty personnel respond to that call. As soon as the vehicles pull out of the station, the shift commander sends out a signal (tones) over the radio to alert all towns in Division 20. Depending on where in Maywood the fire occurs determines which fire department will automatically respond with pre-determined equipment and manpower. As the fire or alarm escalates, more pre-determined towns will respond with equipment and manpower. The deployment of manpower and equipment by other communities is handled by NorCom, a dispatch center located in Northlake.
All communities located in Division 20 are contracted with Norcom to respond to all fire dispatches. This same response system is also implemented for emergency medical situations.
Division 20 has specialty co-op teams, including fire investigation, hazardous materials, TRT-(Technical Rescue Team), safety officer and RIT–(Rapid Intervention Team). These teams are made up of members of various fire departments who provide expert training, equipment and resources to local communities at a lower cost than would be possible for each community were to pursue the training alone. The MABAS system is a statewide system allowing all departments in the state unlimited resources for emergency response.
Maintaining Service Capabilities
All Department members participate in numerous training seminars, classes and continuing education throughout the year. This training is done to assure that all members are up to date and proficient in all firefighting and emergency medical skills.
All department members have completed NIMS (National Incident Management System) training.
The Maywood Fire Department tests all 734 fire hydrants within the Village of Maywood. In 2007, the department worked in conjunction with the pumping station and took a static and residual reading on every other hydrant to create a better working knowledge of the village water system.
Along with hydrants testing the Department also tests 312 lengths of fire hose. Each hose is 50 feet long; three lengths are connected together, caped off at one end then filled with water and pressurized to 250 psi for three minutes. If any leaks are detected the hose is taken out of service.
Through out the year, the department participated in numerous parades, block parties, festivals and village functions.
Providing Safe Haven
The Department is fully compliant with Illinois state statue requiring all fire stations, police stations and medical facilities to display a sign outside that indicates this location is a Safe Haven. The sign indicates that the location is prepared to accept any newborn infant relinquished by its parent (or parents) under the Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act.
Firefighter(s) Behavior Training Photos
Maywood Firefighters taking part in Fire Behavior Training. The observance, recognition and effects of Fire Behavior is critical knowledge; related to how Firefighters go about the daily business of protection both life and property against the threat and destruction related to fire!