As West Dundee makes plans to redevelop the former Spring Hill Mall, local fire and police agencies have been taking advantage of the empty property to conduct training exercises.
“Our department realized a unique opportunity to conduct training in a very large structure, which is rarely, if ever, available,” West Dundee Fire Chief Mike Spiro said. “This is a unique opportunity that may occur only once in a career, if at all.”
Fire departments from West and East Dundee, Rutland-Dundee and Carpentersville began using what had been the Sears anchor store last fall, Spiro said. When the old Macy’s store became available last winter and the rest of the mall in May, they were able to spread out, he said.
Their ability to use the space will be short-lived. The village of West Dundee has been buying up the property in chunks since last year, closing on the remaining bulk of the 40-year-old mall in April, with an eye toward demolition this fall or winter.
Unaffected by those plans are the Kohl’s store in Carpentersville — the mall’s sole remaining anchor — and the Cinemark movie complex.
Until the mall is torn down, all public safety departments associated with QuadCom or with MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) Division 2 and Hanover Township Emergency Services have been using it for training exercises.
“McHenry and Kane County sheriff’s departments have inquired about training in the structure,” Spiros said. “The Illinois Fire Service Institute has also visited the site for possible future large-scale exercises.”
The majority of the drills have involved multiple departments, in large part because of how large the space is, he said.
“This also reinforces teamwork within the departments since this is how we respond to real life incidents,” Spiro said.
It also gives the local departments knowledge of the similarities and differences in equipment and personnel and allows them to create common procedures to use at emergency scenes.
“This essentially transforms four fire departments into operating as one large department,” Spiro said.
Among the drills they’ve been practicing cover things like searching for victims in a large area, handling firefighter-in-distress calls and working with activated sprinkler systems. Fire vehicle drivers have honed their skills by training in the parking lot.
No actual fires have been set inside the empty buildings.
“We use theatrical smoke for simulations,” Spiro said. “We are able to reach zero visibility to simulate real conditions that firefighters will encounter.”
Future training will include roof operations; ventilation — cutting holes in commercial roofs to vent heat and smoke; fire attack scenarios with various size hose lines and water supply; mass casualty incidents; and active shooter/hostile event drills for both police and fire departments, he said.
Spiro said he believes the training contributed to the West Dundee Fire Department having its ISO (Insurance Services Office) public protection classification (PPC) rating increase from Class 3 to Class 2 in June.
“The ISO Class 2 rating directly results from the hard work, training and dedication of our firefighters and staff, along with the crucial support from our village board,” he said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
