50 years later, Palatine honors three firefighters' ultimate sacrifice

Standing at the Palatine firefighters memorial Thursday, retired Battalion Chief Scott Ohlrich recalled the dedication of the volunteer firefighters who served the community in the 1960s and early 1970s.

"Seconds after the siren above the village hall began to wail, you'd see John Wilson sprinting out of his Ben Franklin store toward the Slade Street station, Roy Wente leaving his Sanitary Market (store) stripping off his butcher's apron, Howie and Richard Freeman racing out of their Zimmer Hardware store, Pat Paske running across the tracks from his barber shop," said Ohlrich, whose father, Jim, also was among the volunteers.

On Feb. 23, 1973, three of those firefighters - Wilson, Warren "Auggie" Ahlgrim and Richard Freeman - rushed to a fire that broke out in the basement of the downtown Ben Franklin store and never made it home.

On the 50th anniversary of the massive blaze, firefighters past and present, family members and community leaders gathered Thursday at the memorial - across the street from where the store once stood - to honor their ultimate sacrifice.

The service included a honor guard march to the memorial from nearby Fire Station 85, a wreath laying and a ceremonial bell ringing.

Wilson, Freeman and Ahlgrim perished while battling the fire.

Retired fire Lt. Bill Noland remembers the cold morning when the fire broke out and how he and Ahlgrim arrived at the station at the same time. Noland fought the fire from the roof but was ordered off before it collapsed.

He remembers the fallen firefighters as good men. Wilson, he said, ran the Ben Franklin store, while Freeman was among the first in the state to train as a paramedic. Ahlgrim loved horses and had bought Noland's 1966 Ford pickup truck as he prepared to go into the plumbing business full time, he said.

The fire helped spur the Palatine Fire Department's move from a volunteer to a full-time service. Two weeks after the blaze, Noland said, he received a call from Fire Chief Orville Helms telling him he would like him to start full time.

Pete Altman, whose father was the first to report the fire, said he was standing near the railroad tracks watching the blaze when two firefighters enlisted him for his welding skills to help enter the building by removing the hinges from a dumbwaiter.

"We worked hard, and when the window was going to blow, (the two firefighters) grabbed me and pulled me backward so I wouldn't get hit by the backdraft," he said.

John Tobin, who took pictures of the fire that day and later wrote a book about it, recalled the devastating impact of the fire on the other firefighters, including his father.

"Guilt. Second-guessing. They didn't have any counseling back then," Tobin said. "They got their counseling from the bottom of a beer bottle."

Gary Vogt said the loss of three fellow firefighters hit his father hard.

"He was a pallbearer at the wake for Ahlgrim," he said. "My dad never recovered."

Richard Freeman's sister, Diane Dolan, attended Thursday's ceremony with his brother, Dave Freeman, and his son, Chris Freeman, who was only 4 when his father died.

Dolan said her brother was going through a transition at the time.

"He was deciding if he would become a full-time fireman or take over the (Zimmer Hardware) store full time," she said.

Dave Freeman said the ceremony, held every year on the fire's anniversary, is a tribute to the spirit of the volunteer firefighters.

"You're talking about guys running from hardware stores and grocery stores to fight fires," said Freeman, whose father, Howard, also served on the volunteer department.

"They were both very committed to the community and to the fire department and to helping their neighbors," he said.