Chicago Daily Herald
ITASCA, Ill. — Itasca’s plan for fighting the blizzard was a good one: send a fire truck and ambulance to all emergencies, like always, but have a snowplow lead the two vehicles.
And that was working out just fine — until the department received two medical calls back-to-back and found itself with only one plow.
To make things worse, the second emergency was on the opposite side of Itasca in an unincorporated area.
“Normally Itasca plows don’t clear unincorporated streets,” Assistant Fire Chief John Radzinski said.
Thankfully Radzinski didn’t have to scramble. Instead, he activated an emergency network Itasca officials orchestrated earlier this week and called an Itasca plow driver.
Despite the normal jurisdiction rules, the driver stopped his work and led rescue workers to the site.
“A little bit of planning goes a long way,” said Radzinski.
He added that village workers, state workers and DuPage County workers have all been cooperating to keep the streets clear, with no one having an it’s-not-my-job attitude.
“I just saw an Itasca truck plowing Irving Park Road (a state road) and I’ve seen county trucks out checking conditions,” he said. “It seems like everybody is just helping.”
Copyright 2011 Paddock Publications, Inc.