Firefighters had to bring their own water, Skokie Fire Chief Hoeflich says, recalling 40-year career - Finnoexpert

Firefighters had to bring their own water, Skokie Fire Chief Hoeflich says, recalling 40-year career - Finnoexpert

Water wasn’t always available at the scene of a fire when Jeffrey Hoeflich began his career as a firefighter in Woodstock, and neither was payment for his first shifts as an on-call volunteer. In rural Illinois in in the 1980’s, firefighters had to bring their own water to put out fires, and they often rode on tailboards, standing on the back of a firetruck, he said. Now after 39 years of service to the Skokie Fire Department, where he rose to f…