New Lenox Fire District history

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 just grade schoolers in Orland Park when they saw smoke in the distance. Soon after, their mother arrived and told them their home was gone. The family moved to Cedar Road in New Lenox, where they quickly became involved with the fire department.

Back then, calls came over the phone, and volunteers were summoned by a siren. Dale used to work at Otto’s Garage and would ride his bike to Church Street to set off the alarm. Others would come to grab the equipment and head out.

Their firefighting careers began with barns and grass fires along the Rock Island Line. Gene served from 1948 to 1975, Dale from 1950 to 1964, and Wade from 1952 to 1964. Glen joined in 1960 and continues to serve today as a fire trustee.

“When I joined, there was a rack—every raincoat was size 48 and 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 at the hardware store next door. Gene had the “fire phone” in his home for 20 years, handling emergency calls during the night shift at Caterpillar in Joliet.

Each brother has countless stories from their time in the firehouse—some dangerous, others almost comical. Glen once used a swimming pool to draw water for a house fire. Wade remembered one time when they let a barn burn because the truck kept sliding on icy roads.

Dale still recalls a fire so intense it melted the lights on the fire truck. And Gene credits Ike Moore, known as “Mr. Five-By-Five,” for pulling him and another firefighter out of a burning farmhouse basement.

“We all followed the same idea: help someone who needed it,” Gene added.

As the meeting ended last week, Gene presented Glen with a special gift—a replica of the original red light from New Lenox’s first fire truck, a 1941 Ford with a pump on the front. Glen took it to Chief Steve Engledow, who gave it a test run.

“It still works,” Engledow said. “There’s a lot of history here.”

Thanks, Dan

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