Adrenaline, Helping Others Fuels Firefighter Over 38 Years

Train derailments, frozen fire hoses and Hurricane Katrina cleanup were all in a day’s work for Ron Schinleber. 

The former deputy chief of operations with the , Schinleber retired after 38 years in the department last week.

“If something happened in town, Ron was always there,” said Fire Chief Mark Nolan, who served with Schinleber for 30 years. “I’m going to miss him a lot.” 

Schinleber started out with the fire department as a volunteer at age 24, when he returned home from four years in the Navy, including some time on an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. He was hired full-time in 1974 and worked his way up through the ranks to hold the positions of firefighter, engine driver, lieutenant, captain, district chief and, most recently, deputy chief of operations. In his last position, he oversaw the deployment and training of all of the fire department’s full-time and part-time staff and emergency response to major incidents.

“I’ve worked in all three fire stations, in all three shifts,” Schinleber said. “You felt good at the end of the day, because you knew you helped somebody.”

Family Has History of Service to the Community

A member of the , Schinleber can often be seen in historical costume on the during . He is a lifelong resident of the village, and his family has lived in Northbrook since the 1830s and 1840s.

Schinleber’s father worked in the for 37 years and was a founding member of the Historical Society, while his mother worked on the village’s secretarial staff during the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. His grandfather was village clerk from the early 1930s until 1973, the same year Schinleber joined the fire department as a volunteer. 

“I always wanted to help people,” he said. “It was ingrained in my family.”

When he joined the fire department volunteers, Schinleber said he knew right away that fighting fires was the career for him. 

“There was just a level of satisfaction with doing these things, and there was obviously the adrenaline rush of the actual fire,” he said. “It just gets into your soul, and you can’t shake it.” 

Major Incidents Include Train Derailments, Shopping Center Blaze 

During Schinleber’s career, he assisted at three separate train derailments, all of which took place on the rail bridge that runs over Shermer Road near Willow Road. Two trains derailed there in the 1970s and the 1980s, and the third incident happened just a few years ago, when a total of 18 cars fell off the track after a freight train derailed and hit a second train.

Schinleber also responded to countless fires during his long tenure, including one that broke out at the Dunbrook shopping center in the winter of 1979, on a day so cold that the fire hose froze to the street.

“We lost a big portion of the shopping center, and we were really crippled that particular year because the temperatures were 10-15 below zero,” Schinleber said. “We were struggling not only with the fire but the fact that everything was freezing.”

As soon as the water hit any surface, it turned to ice, Schinleber said, and all the runoff from the hose turned into ice, too. Firefighters eventually had to chip the hose out of the street using axes and take it back to the fire station to thaw. 

“It was a major league mess,” he said.

While Schinleber loved the exhilaration of fighting fires and the feeling that he had at the end of every day, knowing he had helped someone, the job did have its dark side. Danger was ever present, and one day it hit home for Schinleber.

In June 1999, Schinleber’s best friend, Wayne Luecht — who had been best man at his first wedding — died at age 47 after an electrical explosion at .

“It’s one of the things that you try not to think about. The job is very dangerous,” Schinleber said. “People get hurt and people get killed.” 

But, he said, he’s fortunate not to have had any close calls himself.

Service Extends to Katrina-Ravaged New Orleans

Beyond simply responding to fires, Schinleber managed the department’s radio communications, maintained its large fleet of vehicles and, because of his Navy training with parachutes, was able to store and repair the heavy gear. He also went above and beyond outside the department, teaching “Stop, Drop and Roll” in local elementary schools, joining Illinois’ state incident management team and becoming certified as a fire and arson investigator.

Studying to become a state incident manager led to Schinleber’s most far-flung assignment: New Orleans. Having just completed the training, Schinleber was asked to be a member of the first deployment of emergency aid personnel from Illinois. The U.S. Air Force flew him and seven others to New Orleans to help the city’s fire department.

Landing in Louisiana, within a week of the hurricane’s touchdown, reminded Schinleber of the opening scenes of the movie Platoon. He and the other emergency personnel walked out of the back door of the airplane, which folded down into a ramp, into an airbase full of helicopters and small planes.

“There’s broken things everywhere, and it’s kind of eerie,” he recalled. “No radios to talk to anybody; no cell phones work.”

Schinleber and the other firefighters stayed in a Catholic retirement home and a Catholic school on the south side of the river, sending task forces into the most devastated areas of the city by day, when there was light. 

“There was no water, no electricity and everywhere we went, we had to go with national guardsmen because of the potential of being shot,” he said.

Schinleber Plans to Don Uniform Again—As a Civil War Reenactor 

Now that he’s retired, Schinleber plans to continue his work with the Historical Society. He also plans to spend more time doing World War II and Civil War reenactments, a passion he’s pursued for the past 15 years.

Along with his wife, who wrote a book about women during the Civil War, Schinleber enjoys dressing up in historic costume and acting out the past with a group of Civil War reenactors based in Villa Park.

“The way we teach history is awfully cold and dry and hard to follow. It’s all dates and numbers, he said. “I realized history is people and by being a reenactor, you get to feel and show to other people the human side of what these people experienced.”

In retirement, Schinleber will also spend time with his four kids, two of whom live in the area, and he may get a part-time job, he said.

But he’ll miss the unique camaraderie of the firehouse, where he was known for cooking soups, stews and giant enchiladas.

“It becomes more than just the people you work with, it becomes more like an extended family,” he said. “You see the best and worst of everybody.” 

Schinleber will be recognized at the next village board meeting at 7:30 p.m. in on Tuesday, Jan. 24, when President Sandra Frum will read a proclamation in his honor.