<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=3LKpHe_1Gnu50x400" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=3LKpHe_1Gnu50x400" width="1200" height="900" ></figure>The Oak Park Fire Department hosted its annual open house on Saturday, Oct. 3, inviting the public to learn about fire safety and precautions by engaging with fire staff and visiting organization booths to build community and trust.Held at the main fire station at 100 S. Euclid Ave., the event gave the community a chance to see fire department operations up close–increasingly important as the local demand for emergency services continues to climb. Over the decades, meeting this growing public need has required the department to adapt to this shift. The Oak Park Fire Department has seen substantial changes in its operations over the last 20 years, according to Fire Chief Joseph Terry, who said the department’s call volume is “going up exponentially, so this year we’ll do about 10,000 calls, so it’s almost doubled from when I started.” Terry has been with the Oak Park Fire Department since 2007, and a fire chief since June 2025.Terry said the department is “seeing a lot more people requesting help for mental crises, for psychological evaluations, which really kind of spiked up during the pandemic. ”Terry noted that these incidents have risen as population density in Oak Park has increased. “Years ago, there were no high-rises on Lake Street,” Terry said.Terry also attributed the increase in call volume to a “good reason”: for youth, the stigma around mental health problems is going away. But older people also struggle with mental health. “We also see it in the older generations because it’s been untreated for so long,” Terry added, putting a spotlight on one of the organizations that held a table at the open house, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI is a free mental health service that gives people a living room to talk about their struggles and experiences. Terry called NAMI an “all-around great organization” to help with any mental health problem.Participants were invited to two key live demonstrations that took place on-site, packed with action as firefighters demonstrated how they would respond to an active emergency, while informing the public about the dangers of fires and preventative measures they can take. First, at 10:30 a.m., two firefighters acted out how they’d open a heavily locked door in an emergency. They pried open the door with a multipurpose tool called a halligan bar, a tool resembling a bar with a crowbar on one end and a wedge plus a pick on the other. Using this bar, in combination with an axe, heavily locked and barred doors can be opened effectively in fire emergencies.Firefighter Brendan McManus then showed a secondary method of entering a scene during an emergency through the window. McManus used the halligan bar to smash the window in and break the bolts securing the panes in order to ventilate and make an entry to the scene.After the demonstration, McManus defined the acronym VEIS: Ventilate, Enter, Isolate, and Search in more detail. VEIS is an alternative means of accessing and removing victims from a scene if other means, such as the front door, are too dangerous or hard to make entry.An hour later, an 11:30 a.m. demonstration showed the dramatic difference a sprinkler system made in a simulated fire. It started off with the non-sprinkler system demo, and the fire went ablaze extremely quickly. Next, the demonstration with the sprinkler commenced, and the fire was kept at bay much more easily compared to the non-sprinkler system fire. For participants and local families, the open house is meant to reinforce the trust between the community and emergency services. According to attendee and parent Eddie Green, the event allowed him to “build a relationship here.” He felt as if “we have a fire department that’s here for us.”Painting faces and interacting with families, Oak Park and River Forest High School senior Ahmayas Blanchard helped by volunteering during the open house. “It’s fun to just put yourself out there,” he said. Over the course of the three-hour event, Blanchard ran the face paint table while interacting with parents and children, operating one of the busiest tables at the event.Ultimately, events like these aim to demonstrate the strengths and trust of a community, which has become ever more important in towns like Oak Park as the continuous need for paramedics and public services continues. McManus said that seeing community bonds form “made us feel really good about our jobs.” </div></body>

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The Oak Park Fire Department hosted its annual open house on Saturday, Oct. 3, inviting the public to learn about fire safety and precautions by engaging with fire staff and visiting organization booths to build community and trust. Held at the main fire station at 100 S. Euclid Ave., the...

Village event highlights fire safety

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The Oak Park Fire Department hosted its annual open house on Saturday, Oct. 3, inviting the public to learn about fire safety and precautions by engaging w

Village event highlights fire safety

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