Mike, I too felt that it was ridiculous for the Chicago Fire Department to be running with a ‘Snorkel Squad 3’ for over two years without a Snorkel assigned to it. Only in the last few months before it was taken out of service did they correctly re-designate Snorkel Squads 2 and 3 as Rescue 2 and 3. There was a reason for that, though. The simple answer would be to say that it was recommended by a consultant study known as the Maatman Report. This was only partially true, as ultimately the city didn’t want to spend the money necessary to keep fire companies in service and provide adequate staffing.

The City of Chicago had hired a consultant who was the head of the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Fire Science program, Gerald Maatman, and also led the National Loss Control Service Corporation. The city first hired him in 1963 to conduct a comprehensive study of the Chicago Fire Department, including station locations and the distribution of fire companies. The goal was partly to help raise the AIA fire insurance rating to Class 2, which the city achieved the following year. For your information, the AIA is now known as ISO, and it was originally called the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The 1963/64 Maatman study was actually quite thorough. It recommended building many new fire stations and relocating fire companies from the city center to areas with poor coverage.

While some companies were recommended for removal, others were suggested to move into new stations. The report didn’t recommend reducing manpower on existing companies, and in fact, a few were even advised to add a sixth firefighter. It recommended removing 16 engines from service out of 120 total and adding three new truck companies to the 60 already in operation. No Snorkels, Snorkel Squads, or squad companies were recommended for removal. Five years later, in 1968, another Maatman Report was commissioned, but this time the recommendations were much different from the first (1963) one.

To understand the shift, let's look at what had changed. In 1967, the Chicago Fire Department gave firefighters an extra day off, effectively reducing their working hours. However, the city refused to hire more personnel or increase firefighter positions to match the reduced hours. By 1967, two squad companies had been out of service for a few years—Squad 12 was removed in 1964 to create Truck 62, and Squad 7 was taken out of service in 1965 to form Snorkel Squad 3. In December 1966 and February 1967, Squads 1 and 2 became Salvage Squads 1 and 2, a minor change since they remained at the same location and apparatus. They just took on more salvage duties and responded citywide on 2-11 calls.

In April 1967, Squad 3 was involved in a serious accident, and the apparatus was declared a total loss. The company was disbanded on April 17th. Three months later, on June 16th, Squads 6 and 13 were taken out of service. On the same day, Squads 8 and 10 were downgraded to one-man companies that only responded to Still and Box Alarms with their driver. A little over a month later, Squad 10 was taken out of service, and Squad 5 became a one-man company as well.

By the end of the summer, only Salvage Squads 1 and 2, and Squads 4, 9, and 11 were fully manned. In early 1968, all remaining squads (except Salvage Squads 1 and 2, and Squads 4 and 9) were out of service. I’m not counting the Snorkel Squads 1, 2, and 3 that were still active in 1968, even though SS3 had been running without a Snorkel for over a year. Due to reduced hours, the manpower situation was so bad that by 1968, you never knew if an engine or truck would run with five or four men. This unpredictability was another reason the city rehired Gerald Maatman for a new study.

The 1968 Maatman Report recommended that about two-thirds of the engine and truck companies operate with only four men. It also suggested creating six Flying Manpower Squads with six firefighters each to respond to Still alarms and supplement the four-man units. The downtown, lakefront, and busy areas would continue to run with five-man crews, typically without the Flying Manpower Squads accompanying them.

There was more in the 1968 report. It recommended taking all three Snorkel Squads out of service, keeping only Salvage Squad 1 as the “downtown” unit. Maatman argued that the special equipment carried on the Snorkel Squads could be transferred to the new Flying Manpower Squads and the remaining Salvage Squad. He also suggested that some equipment could be assigned to engines and trucks. He was right—soon after, most engine companies were equipped with multi-versals that had previously only been on the Snorkel Squads.

The CFD also started assigning K-12 rotary saws to all truck companies. These saws had previously only been on the Snorkel Squads. The report also recommended removing one regular Snorkel Company, Snorkel 6, from service. Another suggestion was moving Snorkel 3 from Engine 84’s house to Engine 60, which wasn’t an issue after Snorkel Squad 2 was taken out of service. Snorkel 2 was meant to stay at Engine 28’s house, but they were to receive the new Mack MB 55-foot Snorkel that had arrived in 1967. Snorkel 4 was to move from Engine 25 (near the Loop) to Engine 67 (on the far west side), and Snorkel 7 was to be relocated from Engine 55’s house to Engine Company 110. Snorkel 5 would remain at Engine 43’s house on the northwest side. The idea was to position the five remaining Snorkels in or near high-fire areas. At the time, those areas on the south side extended roughly to 79th or 83rd Street, east to Jeffrey (2000 East), and west to Ashland (1600 West).

The consultant also recommended equipping every truck company with a ladder pipe. At the time, there were fewer than 25 ladder pipes in use. Having one on a truck allowed for an elevated stream to be deployed without waiting for a Snorkel to arrive.

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