After 35 years, Jerry Conner still remembers traveling with fellow firefighters from Beecher to Plainfield in response to the 1990 tornado that claimed 29 lives and injured hundreds of people in Will County.

Conner was in his early 30s and a lieutenant at the time with the fire protection district in Beecher, a town that is more than 6 miles to the west of the Indiana border.

Conner recalled seeing fire departments from every area respond to the Aug. 28, 1990, tornado that ripped through Plainfield, Crest Hill and Joliet. Even the Chicago Fire Department responded, and it was “notorious for not leaving far away from the city,” he said.

“It was just totally surreal,” Conner said of the devastation caused by the tornado. “To just see it in person? It’s crazy. Trees are just stripped. Stripped of leaves and small branches.”

The tornado destroyed Plainfield High School, St. Mary Immaculate Catholic Church and hundreds of houses. It caused about $160 million in damage, according to the National Weather Service.

At the Beecher Fire Protection District last week, Conner showed The Herald-News a large album filled with pictures and articles from the time.

As Conner flipped through the book, he had a photo of a dumpster mangled on trees that were stripped bare by the tornado.

“That’s the dumpster that we saw as we got into town,” Conner said.

About 3 p.m. Aug. 28, 1990, Conner said he stopped by the Beecher fire station, and he saw it was getting dark out west. Some time after that, Conner said they heard radio traffic regarding an incident in the Plainfield-Joliet area.

After hearing more radio traffic, Conner said he saw it was becoming darker in Beecher.

“We didn’t get the tornado, but we got the storm front,” Conner said.

He said there were high winds and trees that were twisting. As the storm front passed through, the Beecher fire station got a call regarding a semitrailer that flipped on Route 1, about 2 miles north of the town.

Conner said firefighters responded to the scene and found the driver was not injured. While there, Conner said, they received a call requesting that any fire departments in Will County with rescue squad vehicles or ambulances head to Plainfield.

Conner said they took off and arrived at Plainfield about 4:30 p.m. or 4:45 p.m. that day.

“The first thing we saw was a car flipped over in the ditch across the street from a gas station, and it was like the beginning of it. And it just got progressively worse after that,” Conner said.

During their time in Plainfield, Conner said he and other Beecher firefighters were sent to Plainfield High School.

“I remember coming around the corner and seeing the destruction of the school,” Conner said.

While inside the building, Conner said, they went from room to room to see if anyone was there.

“The roof was gone. Everything was mangled in the classrooms. Everything had like a layer of dirt on it,” Conner said.

The tornado hit the school the day before classes were scheduled to start.

Later, the firefighters headed to the school’s collapsed gymnasium. Conner said he and others worked to clear out the area by loading up payloaders with debris to see if any custodians could be found.

Afterward, Conner said he and his team went to the Plainfield fire station for food and rest. Conner said the station received a call for a house fire not related to the tornado, and he volunteered to respond.

“From what I heard at the time, it was actually a police officer’s house. He was out doing his work with the tornado,” Conner said.

Conner said it was daylight when they left Plainfield for Beecher.

He said seeing the destruction of the tornado in person is “nothing like you see on TV.”

“It’s something that always stuck with me. It was the biggest scene I’ve ever been to, by far,” Conner said.

Conner said he was part of a great crew, and for him, it’s about the team, which he considered a “very important aspect of the fire service.”

Conner retired from his career with the Beecher Fire Protection District at the rank of deputy fire chief, and he’s moved to Cedar Lake, Indiana.

“Even all these years later, I can still remember that day and night what we did. Those memories will always remain,” Conner said.