Neighborhoods without hydrants extra challenges to firefighters

The fire that gutted a Barrington Hills mansion earlier this month illustrates the kind of herculean challenge that suburban fire departments face when battling blazes in neighborhoods that lack the fire hydrants many communities take for granted.

In all, 40 fire companies from departments as far away as Hebron, Des Plaines, Hanover Park and West Chicago converged on Barrington Hills April 18 to blast the fire with hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. But instead of hooking their hoses to nearby hydrants, all of that water had to be brought in from elsewhere in trucks, ratcheting up the degree of difficulty for firefighters.

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