North Cook News

The village of Morton Grove swore in two new firefighters to their department. At their April 25th village board meeting, members of the Morton Grove community were excited to add two new members to the ranks of their fire department.

Police and Fire Commission chairman Michael Simkins was able to introduce the two recruits to the board and administer their oaths of office to make them sworn members of the department.

"And obviously why we have the big crowd" Village President Dan DiMaria said. "And it's an honor to be swearing in two firefighters tonight, Solomon Algozino and Jan Loper, and that will be done by our police and fire commission chair Michael Simkins."

Simkins first introduced Solomon Algozino, who was joined by his parents and his girlfriend. Solly, as he is called by the department, joined the department back in February and just completed his training at the Romeoville Fire Academy. He has been assigned to day shift for a two-week orientation before moving on to his permanent position. Algozino grew up in Oak Park, attending college at Western Illinois University for his degree in fire science before moving out west to work with forest fires for three years. He is glad to be back in the area and to become a member of the Morton Grove Fire Department.

The second recruit was John Loper, who also just completed his academy training in Romeoville, and will begin on black shift in early May. Loper is a local, attending the University of Illinois to earn his English degree and winning a national championship for the boxing team he was a part of. He has also completed EMT school and worked on an ambulance crew, but now he is very excited to follow in the family trade of fighting fires, as his father and two uncles worked as firefighters for the city of Chicago for a total of 94 years between the three of them.

Fire chief Ralph Ensign congratulated both of the recruits and handed them their badges to allow their loved ones to pin them during the ceremony. The village of Morton Grove has 40 full time sworn firefighters working out of two stations in the community, and last year they responded to almost 4500 calls for fires, accidents, EMS and other emergencies.