New Lenox Fire District history

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Excerpts from MySuburbanLife.com:

After nearly 70 years, the Krohn brothers still haven’t settled who was the first to join the New Lenox Fire Department. But on Wednesday, they came together at Fire Station 1—not just as brothers, but as a piece of local history.

In February 1939, the brothers were young students in Orland Park when they saw smoke in the distance. Shortly after, their mother arrived and told them their home had been destroyed. The family moved to Cedar Road in New Lenox, where they soon began volunteering at the fire station.

Back then, when a fire was reported, volunteers would rush to the station by siren. “I worked at Otto’s Garage,” Dale recalled. “I’d run to my bike and head to Church Street to set off the siren. Others would come with the gear.”

The brothers served for decades, each with their own unique stories. Gene volunteered from 1948 to 1975, Dale from 1950 to 1964, Wade from 1952 to 1964, and Glen started in 1960 and continues as a fire trustee today.

“When I joined, there was a rack of gear—every raincoat was size 48, every boot was size 12,” Gene said. “I could even fit slippers in those boots.”

Glen worked alongside Dale at Otto’s Garage, while Wade worked next door at the hardware store. Gene, meanwhile, worked the day shift at Caterpillar in Joliet, but kept the fire phone line at home for 20 years to handle emergency calls at night.

Each brother has countless stories from their time at the station—some dangerous, some funny. Glen remembered using a swimming pool to draw water during a house fire. Wade once let a barn burn because the truck kept sliding on icy roads.

Dale still remembers a fire so intense it melted the lights on the fire truck. And Gene owes his life to Ike Moore, known as “Mr. Five-By-Five,” who pulled him and another firefighter out of a burning farmhouse basement.

“We all followed the same theme: you help someone who needs help,” Gene said.

At the end of their meeting, Gene gave Glen a special gift—a red light that was originally mounted on New Lenox’s first fire truck, a 1941 Ford with a front-mounted pump. Glen presented it to Chief Steve Engledow, who said, “Looks like it still works. There’s a lot of history here.”

Thanks, Dan

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