By Bob Seidenberg
Deputy Fire Chief William “Bill” Muno’s nearly four decades of service came full circle on Friday, Nov. 21, with Evanston Fire Department staff gathering outside department headquarters at 909 Lake St. for a Walk-Out ceremony in honor of the retiring public servant.
Bagpipe music played, and a flag that stood atop headquarters was lowered and presented to Muno as he walked out of the station as a member of the department for the last time.
“Thank you for your time — 39 years,” said an emotional Fire Chief Paul Polep.
It’s incredible,” he told Muno. “You’ve been a pillar to this department. Look at all the members out there,” he said of Muno’s colleagues stretching nearly three quarters of a block along Lake Street.
“We’ve all learned something from you for nearly four decades,” Polep continued. “We’ll keep learning. You know how right is right.”
Muno’s interest in becoming a firefighter started well before he joined the department on Aug. 18, 1986, he said in an interview at the station before the ceremony.
”It’s been a lifelong dream ever since I was little enough to be pushed in a stroller by my dad to the fire house over on Washington Street, where a neighbor was a captain of an engine,” he said.
“And my dad also knew several other firemen … and so I just took a liking to the fire trucks and the firehouse atmosphere. And when I was big enough to ride my bike to the firehouses, I would do that routinely and just look at the trucks and talk to some of the firefighters, to the point where shortly after high school I started hanging around more.”
Before he knew it, Muno said, “I was actually getting the privilege of riding along with them on the truck, going on calls with them every other weekend — practically for the fun of it, the excitement, all the way until I got called to be hired in 1986.”
A different atmosphere
Firehouse life was different in that pre-digital era, he recalled.
“You’d have one or two TVs, and you’d have to watch what the senior firefighters or officers wanted to watch. We didn’t have air conditioners in all of the rooms. They were very old firehouses — the oldest was station 4, built in 1927 — very old and antiquated, and they tore that one down shortly after I got on,” he said.
“But things were very simple then, and the camaraderie was really strong because there wasn’t a lot to do other than sit in front of the firehouse, talk to each other, talk to the people walking by after dinner. And it was just a real cool experience; you really got to know the guys and gals you worked with closely just by having that sit-down.”
‘You finally made it. Don’t screw up’
After high school, Muno worked in Elk Grove Township as a paid on-call firefighter for several years, gaining more experience. When Munro joined the Evanston Fire Department, he received a starting pay of $9.60 an hour.