Team effort

KANEVILLE – Dressed in firefighter gear on a chilly winter evening, surrounded by overturned school buses for a training exercise, Kaneville resident Jesse Sanchez revealed that, in a way, he was in a dream-come-true situation.

“People don’t believe me,” Sanchez said. “In third grade, I said I wanted to be a firefighter.”

He said it wasn’t necessarily something he thought ever would happen, but the former Chicago resident ended up moving to Kaneville, and the opportunity surfaced. Like many who stood dressed in firefighter garb during the training exercise, Sanchez said he was asked a question he didn’t think he ever would hear: Would you like to join a fire department?

Sanchez wasn’t going to say no.

“I’m like a little kid,” he said. “I still love the red lights.”

Those involved in the Kaneville Volunteer Fire Department described a welcoming atmosphere, in which those who live or spend significant time in the village might be asked to join. That doesn't mean an inexperienced resident gets to fight fires right away. Instead, newcomers spend months going through "the yellow folder." Brett Gobeli, a member of the department and the next-door neighbor of the fire department's station on Lovell Street in Kaneville, calls the folder "a checklist of everything they need to learn." There is no pay.

Living so close to the station, Gobeli, an administrator at Community Unit School District 300, now realizes it was inevitable he would be approached about joining the department. At the time, he said it wasn’t something he ever had considered.

“I just pulled over when I saw the sirens on. That’s as much as I had thought about it,” he said. But now, he said it’s a big part of his life. He is the department’s treasurer.

Tuesdays are training days, and a recent one was especially intense. In Gobeli’s role in District 300, he said the district’s transportation director mentioned some buses that were going to be sent to scrap. Gobeli said he would be happy to take them off his hands, as they could be useful in training.

Those at the training session were divided into two groups – one included more experienced department members and one included those who were relatively new. Participants worked on getting into the buses using various tools, training for a scenario they said they hoped to never encounter.

At the scene was Chief David Sigmund, a 30-year member of the department. He said he lives on the edge of Kaneville. He got his start when “somebody just asked me to come out and volunteer.”

“I came, and I never left,” Sigmund said.

He saluted the volunteers as people willing to put themselves into potentially difficult situations for no financial reward.

“They are here to help,” he said. “They are not here for the money.”

Elburn resident Harry Meyer was also at the training session, which, he mentioned, was at an open space provided by Meyer in the Sycamore area.

Meyer, who said he often drives a fire truck, said there are many medical calls, but, at times, there are accident scenes. Also, when road conditions become bad, there can be crashes, and some traffic incidents have been as bad as they can get – involving a fatality.

Meyer said he joined because he was a close friend of the chief, “and he kept bothering me,” he said with a laugh. He called Sigmund “an inspiration.”

“The chief has been volunteering since 1985,” Meyer said. “He doesn’t get one penny for his time.”

Another member, Chris Ball, said he used to live in Kaneville, but he now lives in Hinckley. He still participates in the department. He said he worked at an auto shop, and a lot of volunteer firefighters took their cars there.

“When they found out I lived in town, they kept nagging me to join,” he said, adding, “I knew the guys who did it, and I was like, well, just see what it’s all about. … I ended up really liking it.”

He said the training is valuable. He said while firefighters can play a role after their initial training, it still can take years to be able to do some parts of the job. He said the least experienced guy will handle the nozzle, but he also said he hasn’t been in a live fire that was not a training session.

Another member, Nate Bonifas, is a 24-year-old Sugar Grove resident who said he has studied to become a firefighter in a program at Waubonsee Community College. Even so, he had to work his way through the checklist. He said he goes in for training every week, and – to him – it is a serious endeavor. He would like to make a career out of firefighting. But, he said, that ambition isn’t required to help out in Kaneville.

“You can come in with no background,” he said.

The way Meyer sees it, it’s a good use of participants’ time.

“It’s like anything else,” he said. “Some, they might bowl or go to the movies. We come here.”