On April 18 at 2:41 p.m. Prospect Heights Fire District’s Tanker 9 was dispatched to assist the Barrington-Countryside Fire District at a massive mansion fire. The structure located at 24 Rolling Hills Drive was being consumed by fire. Besides Tanker 9, water tankers from 30 other fire departments assisted. Tanker 9 provided several loads of water shuttling between the fire site and a fill site for nearly four hours. The water from the tankers is dumped into large tanker, “portable ponds,” where a fire engine then siphons the water and pumps it to the hoses working to extinguish the fire.

Barrington Hills does not have a municipal water system with fire hydrants. Similar to much of Prospect Heights, its residents rely on private wells which are incapable of delivering flows necessary for fire suppression. In these cases water tanker trucks from fire departments are used to supply the water. Besides its own tanker, Prospect Heights relies on Long Grove, Palatine Rural, and Elk Grove Township fire districts when a significant fire breaks out. Should these tankers be insufficient other fire departments would be requested to send their tanker truck. One of these departments would be Barrington-Countryside.

More details of the fire including photos and video can be found at:

http://chicagoareafire.com/blog/2015/04/5-alarm-fire-with-multiple-special-alarms-in-barrington-hills-il-4-18-15/

http://chicagoareafire.com/blog/2015/04/5-alarm-fire-with-multiple-special-alarms-in-barrington-hills-4-18-15-more/

http://chicagoareafire.com/blog/2015/04/5-alarm-fire-with-multiple-special-alarms-in-barrington-hills-4-18-15-more-2/

http://www.shapirophotography.net/Fires%202015/BARNC%204-18.html

http://www.arlingtoncardinal.com/2015/04/video-luxury-mansion-destroyed-by-fire-on-rolling-hills-dr-barrington-hills/