Crime & Safety
Patch Portrait: Glenview Fire Chief Reflects on 24 Years of Service
This week's Patch Portraits also features New Trier's senior class president and Des Plaines' theatre renovator.
This week's Patch Portraits also highlight one woman's hopes of a and discusses life outside the bubble.
Glenview Fire Chief Wayne Globerger has seen a lot of changes since he started with the department in 1987.
“When I started we were still riding on the tail board of the rear of the engine, hanging on,” Globerger told Patch.
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While he’s fought his fair share of fires as he worked his way up the ranks, these days, Globerger said his responsibilities are mainly administrative. He became fire chief five years ago and today, assists on large or unusual calls.
serve approximately 68,000 people. Beyond the 45,000 in the village itself, the department also serves residents living in the Village of Golf and unincorporated Cook County.
Find out what's happening in Glenviewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Globerger said he thinks many residents would be surprised by the diversity that exists throughout the Glenview community.
“While on one hand we look like the sleepy little North Shore, upper class community we have a large portion of our town [that] is divided and we have a lot of section 8 type housing, we have a lot of lower income folks. ... And our calls reflect that we have a fair amount of violence, a fair amount of gang activity.”
One of the chief’s major efforts? Public education. Today, because of advances in technology and fire safety, much more of the Fire Department’s time is spent on education and public outreach than was the case years ago, Globerger said. “If I go to a fire I can punch up a map of the building in my car.”
Using trending research to identify the types of fire safety tips people need most, the Fire Department frequents community events around town to spread awareness and “get they message out there,” Globerger said.
“One of the big things we always hear is that people always see a fire truck at the grocery store, because the guys go to get groceries to cook their dinner…that’s a teaching opportunity, it’s an interaction, that’s a chance for somebody to ask a question.”
In 2005, the Chief was tasked with leading a group of 100 men during the recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. Following 9/11 and peoples’ experiences in the Gulf Coast, fire departments nationwide changed their thinking, Globerger shared.
“Before that the big reliance was that the government will help us…that didn’t happen down there, not initially anyway,” he said. “I learned, and a lot of others learned, that people have to be a little more prepared, so we came back and we changed our way of thinking.”
Glenview now has its own crisis management center and has better coordination with other local emergency services in case of a larger incident. Although the area is not going to see a hurricane anytime soon, major floods do occur, trains carrying hazardous chemicals make their way through town, and in his nearly two-and-a-half decades on the job, Globerger said he has seen three plane crashes.
