Firefighters training at the old Lake County Forest Preserve headquarters in Libertyville Thursday morning had to return that afternoon to battle a full-scale blaze.
Multiple fire departments came to the 6,000-square-foot building to set fires and practice putting them out in the morning, according to Libertyville Fire Chief Rich Carani. Once training exercises were over, the building was unattended for some time before they discovered it was seriously on fire around 2 p.m., he said.
Because the headquarters at 2000 North Milwaukee Ave. is deep within the forest preserve and nowhere near a hydrant, firefighters from 15 departments had to haul huge containers of water by hand from tankers set up at the edge of the preserve.
The building was slated to be demolished in a controlled burn by multiple fire departments in another training exercise Saturday, Carani said. Firefighters were going to practice for different situations they might encounter, like when there is a person in a bedroom, for example.
The forest preserve stopped using the building in 2011. A construction company rebuilding the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Route 137 has used the building for the past two or three years, Carani said.
