Mike, I too felt that it was ridiculous for the Chicago Fire Department to have a 'Snorkel Squad 3' operating for over two years without an actual Snorkel assigned to it. It wasn’t until just a few months before it was finally retired that they correctly re-designated Snorkel Squads 2 and 3 as Rescue 2 and Rescue 3. There was a reason behind this confusion, though. The simple answer would be that it was based on a consultant study called the Maatman Report—but that’s only part of the story. Ultimately, the city simply didn’t want to spend the money needed to keep fire companies fully operational or maintain proper staffing levels.

The City of Chicago had hired Gerald Maatman, who was the head of the Fire Science program at the Illinois Institute of Technology and also led the National Loss Control Service Corporation. He was first brought in during 1963 to conduct a comprehensive review of the Chicago Fire Department, including station locations and the distribution of fire companies. This study helped the city improve its AIA fire insurance rating from Class 4 to Class 2, which it achieved the following year. For your information, AIA is now known as ISO, and it was originally called the National Board of Fire Underwriters. The 1963–64 Maatman Report was actually quite thorough. It recommended building new fire stations and relocating some central city companies to areas with poor coverage.

While the report did suggest some companies be taken out of service, it also recommended moving others into new stations. Importantly, it didn’t call for any reductions in manpower. In fact, it even suggested adding a sixth member to a few select companies. The report recommended removing 16 engines from service out of 120 total, and adding three new truck companies to the existing 60. No Snorkels, Snorkel Squads, or squad companies were recommended for removal. Five years later, in 1968, another Maatman Report was commissioned—but this time, the recommendations were much different from the first.

To understand why, let me explain what had changed. By 1967, the Chicago Fire Department had given firefighters an extra day off, effectively reducing their working hours. However, the city refused to hire more firefighters or increase positions to match the reduced workload. As a result, staffing became increasingly strained. Two squad companies had already been taken out of service by then—Squad 12 in 1964 to form Truck 62, and Squad 7 in 1965 to become Snorkel Squad 3. In December 1966 and February 1967, Squads 1 and 2 were reclassified as Salvage Squads 1 and 2. They stayed at the same stations and used the same apparatus but took on more salvage duties, responding citywide on 2-11 alarms. In April 1967, Squad 3 was involved in a serious accident, and the equipment was declared a total loss. The unit was disbanded on April 17th. Just three months later, in June 1967, Squads 6 and 13 were also taken out of service. On the same day, Squads 8 and 10 were downgraded to one-man companies that only responded on Still and Box Alarms with their driver. A month later, Squad 10 was removed from service, and Squad 5 became a one-man company as well.

By the end of the summer, only Salvage Squads 1 and 2, along with Squads 4, 9, and 11, remained fully manned. Then, in early 1968, all the remaining squads—except Salvage Squads 1 and 2, and Squads 4 and 9—were taken out of service. I’m not including Snorkel Squads 1, 2, and 3, which were still active in 1968, even though SS3 had been running without a Snorkel for over a year by then. Due to the reduced hours, the manpower situation had deteriorated so much that by 1968, it was unclear whether an engine or truck would run with five or only four firefighters. This instability was another key reason the city rehired Maatman for a second study.

The 1968 Maatman Report recommended that about two-thirds of engine and truck companies operate with only four firefighters. It also proposed the creation of six Flying Manpower Squads, each with six firefighters, to respond to Still alarms and support the smaller crews. The remaining engines and trucks located in downtown, near the lakefront, and in busy parts of the city would continue with five-man crews, typically without assistance from the Flying Manpower Squads.

There was more to the 1968 report. Maatman recommended that all three Snorkel Squads be taken out of service, leaving only Salvage Squad 1 as the “downtown” squad. He argued that the specialized equipment carried on the Snorkel Squads could instead be assigned to the Flying Manpower Squads and the remaining Salvage Squad. Some of the equipment could even be placed on regular engines and trucks. He was right—shortly after the report, the department began outfitting most engine companies with multi-versals that had previously been exclusive to the Snorkel Squads.

The CFD also started equipping every truck with a K-12 rotary saw, which had previously only been carried on the Snorkel Squads. In the same report, Maatman recommended taking one regular Snorkel Company (Snorkel 6) out of service. Another suggestion was to move Snorkel 3 from Engine 84’s station to Engine 60, which wasn’t an issue after Snorkel Squad 2 was removed. Snorkel 2 was meant to stay at Engine 28’s house, but it was supposed to receive the new Mack MB 55-foot Snorkel that had arrived in 1967. Snorkel 4 was to be relocated from Engine 25 (near the Loop) to Engine 67 (on the far west side), and Snorkel 7 was to move from Engine 55 to Engine 110. Snorkel 5 would remain at Engine 43 on the northwest side. The goal was to place the five remaining Snorkels in or near high-fire-frequency areas. At the time, those areas on the south side extended roughly as far south as 79th or 83rd Street, east to Jeffrey (2000 East), and west to Ashland (1600 West).

Additionally, the report recommended that ladder pipes be installed on every truck company. At the time, there were fewer than 25 ladder pipes in use. Having one on a truck allowed them to deploy an elevated stream without waiting for a Snorkel to arrive. This change made the department more flexible and efficient in responding to fires across the city.

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