Naperville Hearth Division celebrates 150 years of service
Within the western suburbs, one of many states largest hearth departments is marking a significant milestone—150 years of serving to others and serving the group.
NAPERVILLE, Unwell. – Within the western suburbs, one of many state’s largest hearth departments is marking a significant milestone—150 years of serving to others and serving the group.
First established as a settlement, Naperville has grown into some of the populous cities in Illinois. Through the years, the Naperville Hearth Division has advanced in tandem with town.
In 2024, the Naperville Hearth Division held a collection of celebratory occasions to commemorate its one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
As we strategy the New Yr, these festivities are actually winding down. Nonetheless, there’s one thing greater than a commemorative patch that will likely be carried into 2025. It is a normal of excellence—and it is on show.
“That is rather more than a job,” Chief Mark Puknaitis with the Naperville Hearth Division stated. “It truly is a calling.”
When an alarm sounds at any firehouse, women and men swimsuit up and roll out—placing their lives apart to answer catastrophe.
“The reality of the matter is, you see individuals on their worst days,” stated Puknaitis.
“You’re there to make selections. You are at all times pondering forward,” Lt. Jason Briones with the Naperville Hearth Division added.
By acts of bravery and selfless service to the group, firefighters share a singular bond. Nevertheless, day after day, and yr after yr of answering name after name, not each division can say they’ve reached their sesquicentennial, recognized extra merely as their one hundred and fiftieth anniversary.
“Can’t cross up the chance as a result of 150 years solely comes round as soon as,” stated Puknaitis.
Naperville Hearth Chief Mark Puknaitis takes pleasure within the division’s enduring need for excellence.
“Now right here we’re acknowledged as a division that individuals have a look at to emulate and replicate throughout the area and actually throughout the nation,” stated Puknaitis.
‘Nice service on a regular basis,’ which is imprinted on a few of the division’s rigs, is a persistent reminder.
“I’ve at all times advised all people that I’ve labored with and all people I’ve met that I might take my crew, and I felt like you could possibly put me in any metropolis in the US and we might run nice calls there,” stated Briones.
Lt. Briones has skilled lots of his friends. Through the years, he is been supplied alternatives to maintain transferring up within the ranks, however he prefers a front-row seat.
“You are up entrance in what we name the right-hand seat,” Briones stated. “I completely love going to the home, the accident, the fires. And now that I become older, I type of joke, you type of want the previous man there now, too.”
It’s a job that retains him coming again after 35 years and counting; 27 of these years have been working for the Naperville Hearth Division.
“Right this moment we have now a fireplace division that is made up of 10 hearth stations, over 185 individuals throughout three shifts, and over 200 individuals complete on the division,” stated Puknaitis.
Reaching this milestone didn’t occur in a single day, although.
To mark the momentous milestone and “to inform the story from the very starting,” Puknaitis added, the Naper Settlement launched an exhibition to spotlight the journey.
“Anniversaries present a very distinctive alternative to mirror, to look again,” Naper Settlement’s Chief Curator Christine McNulty stated.
McNulty, who’s the chief curator of the 12-acre, indoor-outdoor museum, pored over archives for months—bringing the division’s historical past into the highlight.
“One thing typically will simply spark what the overarching theme will likely be, and on this case, it was a newspaper article in 1999 once they celebrated the a hundred and twenty fifth anniversary, which Assistant Chief Mike Connors stated {that a} firefighter wants a robust again and a robust thoughts,” McNulty stated.
It quickly turned the title of the exhibit: ‘A Robust Again and a Robust Thoughts: 150 Years of the Naperville Hearth Division.’
It takes guests via the Naperville Hearth Division’s most necessary chapters.
“They’ve taken all of those items, and so they put them collectively in a single website to inform that nice story,” Puknaitis stated.
When it started, a bucket brigade responded to the city’s emergencies, however after a fireplace destroyed a number of buildings in 1874, one thing new was born.
“Naperville was a really small group, so there have been perhaps a dozen volunteers that was referred to as Hose Firm 1,” Puknaitis stated.
With that, the division was fashioned, and for some time, they managed simply effective—even with out wheels of their very own.
“That they had the power by a metropolis ordinance, via the constitution within the hearth division again then that they may cease a car and say, ‘I have to get to a fireplace.’ Now, if the individual stated, ‘I can not take you,’ they might be topic to a effective,” Puknaitis shared.
The ordinance is among the many artifacts you’ll discover on show on the Naper Settlement, the place pleasure, honor, and custom will be felt all through the exhibit.
“I believe it is fascinating to see how lengthy this fireplace division has been round and nonetheless working,” Jim Streu stated. “And we nonetheless have lots of the unique gear and the custom that we have stored.”
Streu, a firefighter/paramedic with the Naperville Hearth Division, has additionally stored with custom—one which’s 4 generations robust.
“My father was a fireman in Lombard. He was on Engine 45 for 34 years,” Streu defined.
In Des Plaines, Streu’s grandfather labored on Truck 81 for greater than three a long time.
“After which my great-grandfather was on Engine 39 in Chicago and was killed on the stockyards in 1943,” Streu stated.
The job doesn’t come with out dangers.
4 Naperville firefighters have misplaced their lives within the line of responsibility.
“Three of them occurred in a single incident in December of 1970,” McNulty stated. “The fourth was a gentleman by the identify of George Winckler. He was working within the coaching tower and suffered a cardiac arrest.”
They’re all honored within the museum’s particular exhibit.
Additionally featured is a helmet from retired firefighter Chuck Wehrli, who rushed to Floor Zero within the wake of 9/11.
“We actually wish to let the group understand how particular the fireplace division has been and is at this time,” stated Puknaitis.
Yesterday, at this time, and tomorrow, when there is a name, they have been and can proceed be on the opposite finish—prepared to reply.
“All calls are completely different. You realize, there’s nothing that is ever at all times precisely the identical,” Streu stated. “The perfect a part of it’s that on the finish of the day, we’re at all times simply serving to any person.”
“To attempt to make a distinction. That is what retains it going daily for me,” stated Briones.
“They hand us their infants. They hand us their our bodies and so they say, ‘assist me.’ Now we have a possibility to make that scenario higher, to alter that round,” Puknaitis stated. “It truly is an honor to have the ability to serve the group in that respect due to the belief that they’ve in us.”
There’s nonetheless time to see the one hundred and fiftieth Anniversary Showcase on the Naper Settlement.
The artifacts have been set to be packed away by New Yr’s Day, however the exhibit has been so well-received by guests—museum officers are extending its keep via Friday, April 11, 2025.
To study extra in regards to the exhibit, ‘A Robust Again and a Robust Thoughts: 150 Years of the Naperville Hearth Division,’ and to plan your go to, click on HERE.
