Fire Chief Larry Amidei Retires After 40 Years Serving Hometowns

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — After four decades as a firefighter in his hometown, Larry Amidei will retire Friday as chief of the Highland Park Fire Department.

Amidei, 59, grew up in Highwood, where his father was a volunteer firefighter in the 1960s and early 1970s. He said he developed an interest in the fire service from hanging around the station in town, recalling it as a close-knit, mostly Italian community.

"Everything kind of focused around the church and the bacci club," Amidei said. "Probably when I was 9 or 10 years old, I would chase around the fire trucks on my bicycle whenever they went to calls."

Amidei attended Highland Park High School, graduating in 1980. While he was in high school, he worked at Sunset Foods, a job to which he attributes his appreciation for great service.

"They are very customer service oriented, and I always had that in my thinking, if you keep the customer happy, they're going to support you when you need it," he said.

The calls that stick with him the most, Amidei said, are the ones where people who have recovered from the brink of death come back to visit the fire crews who helped save them.

"Probably the best ones are ones where you've had what we would call 'full arrest.' There's no breathing, no pulse. And through our IV medications and defibrillation, [we] bring the person back. Those are the most memorable," he said.

People do not necessarily realize it when their recovery beats all the odds. The chief recalled a case of a mechanic for the park district who went into arrest at the golf course.

"He was out — not breathing and no pulse for 17 minutes — and we shocked him probably six times and gave him IV medication and put an airway in," Amidei said. "Finally got a pulse back after 17 minutes. He used to come every year and bring us some peanuts and little food gifts on the anniversary of the call and thank us, and that was very satisfying."

Customer service, the chief said, is the number one thing he stresses to members of his department.

"Take during COVID. You can't believe how many people and businesses in town were bringing us lunches and dinners just because we were out there transporting a lot of COVID patients. The appreciation from the public was unbelievable," he said.

"The outpouring from the public was just something I've never seen in all my years," Amidei added. "I think we had lunch and dinner for four or five months straight."

During the height of the first waves of the pandemic last year, the chief said his crews had to spend about 30 minutes cleaning ambulances and firefighters after every potential coronavirus exposure.

"We were lucky. Out of 50 firefighters, only two came down with COVID themselves," Amidei said."Knock on wood."

"It was a very stressful time, because there's a lot of unknowns," he added. "When I started in the early 80s, HIV and AIDS were just coming in, so that was a scary time too for paramedics, with all the unknowns. So now, I'm finishing my career on the next big pandemic."

Amidei started his career with Highwood part-time at age 19 right out of high school. After a few months, he was hooked.

"I just loved the action of going on calls, serving the public. Within three, four months I took every class I could go to, after that, to prepare myself to be full-time," he said.

Since Amidei's career in fire service started 40 years ago, the basics of the job remain the same, but the role of firefighters has expanded beyond ambulance and fire calls. Training now includes active shooter responses, technical rescues underground or at high angles, water rescues in frozen conditions, hazardous materials training and more.

The Highland Park Fire Department handled about 2,500 yearly calls when Amidei left the fire department in Highwood and began working in Highland Park in 1988.

Calls have more than doubled in the subsequent three decades. The department handled about 5,600 calls in 2019. That includes about 600 to 700 additional calls every year since Highland Park began handling fire service for Highwood through an intergovernmental agreement five years ago, the chief said.

Other major changes over Amidei's time at the department, where he worked his way up from firefighter/paramedic to lieutenant, battalion chief, deputy chief and chief, include the expansion of the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, or MABAS, the upgrade of the department's Insurance Safety Office, or ISO, rating and two new fire stations.

The mutual aid system now spans beyond the state and region, with defined procedures for different departments to help each other's communities when in need.

"Where the problem came about is: everybody was their own island, it was a sense of pride of taking care of things yourself and not asking for help," Amidei said. "Now, things are a lot different. People want to get as much help as they can, and want to give as much help as they can to other regions or towns."

Illinois is today a national leader when it comes to departments helping one another, Amidei said.

"When we get people that come from the East Coast and look at what we do, they say, 'Oh my god, your mutual aid system,'" he said. "'You are so much more sophisticated than we are out east. We just don't have all this."

Highland Park's ISO rating — a measure of the quality of the fire department that helps determine fire insurance rates for residents and businesses — has improved from 4 to 2, the second-highest rating, under Amidei's leadership.

Since the chief joined the department, two stations have closed and a new headquarters has opened, leading to the closure of the old Green Bay Road firehouse and the substation at the police department.

Recently, the City Council approved design plans for a new Ravinia neighborhood firehouse. Construction is due to begin in the spring and run until about March 2023. In the meantime, a temporary station will be erected in Brown Park.

Amidei also said the department is likely to soon hire the first female firefighter in its history.

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Mayor Nancy Rotering read a proclamation honoring Amidei for his career with the city.

"It's been a privilege to be on a team with you," Rotering said at Monday's City Council meeting. "And we greatly appreciate all that you've brought to the job and the community, greatly appreciate your service."

Rotering said an official ceremony marking Amidei's retirement, and the promotion of Joe Schrage to the role of interim chief, is planned for 3 p.m. Friday at the fire department headquarters at 1130 Central Avenue. The event will also be livestreamed on the city's social media feeds.

The chief said it had been a privilege to work with city staff and the firefighters and paramedics of the department.

"Being chief of my hometown has really been a pleasure," he said.

Amidei said he plans to take a vacation and spend time taking care of his grandkids and other family members before, perhaps, taking a part-time job in the safety field or teaching classes at a local public safety training academy.

But he doesn't see himself going to another town to become chief there.

"Not unless I get the itch, but I don't think it's going to happen," Amidei said. "But I will have to keep myself busy. I'm that type of person."