伊利诺伊州芝加哥 - 随着距离华盛顿街69号大火周年纪念日，芝加哥消防局报告了自那时以来实施的改革。
消防专员Cortez Trotter说：“这场悲剧对我们部门的每个成员产生了深远的影响，每天我们挑战自己，做出使我们的房屋和企业更加安全所需的改变和改革。”
Trotter went on to state that in the days, weeks and months following the fire, the Chicago Fire Department implemented significant changes including: conducting top-to-bottom stairwell searches early in the response to a fire, taking immediate control of building’s communication system, and improving coordination of ground communications.
自从特罗特专员成为专员发生的更多变更以来，该部门实施了一项新的高层事件指挥令，该命令大大改变了高层大火的方式。该部门开始了一系列动手的高层培训演习，更多的员工和资源致力于培训平民进行高层教育。此外，部门增加了通信货车中的技术数量，并配备了新的手持设备，以更好地改善地面通信。
On September 29, 2004, Fire Commissioner Trotter responded to 20 recommendations made by the Cook County Commission charged to investigate the tragedy. In that response, he reported that the department adopted 18 of 20 recommendations.
自悲剧以来，该部门的最大变化是新的高层事件指挥令。新订单的要点是：
- Increases the number of personnel assigned to the initial response by 60%;
- 建立一个快速上升的团队搜索（老鼠），该搜索将仅专门用于所有楼层，楼梯间，走廊和电梯的所有搜救行动，同时同时进行灭火；
- Assigns a Chief Officer to oversee all search and rescue operations during the initial response;
- 作为初步响应的一部分，建立紧急医疗服务（EMS）；
- 建立战术指挥委员会以增加问责制并验证任务完成；和
- Establishes detailed procedures for communications panel operation and smoke movement precautions.
Commissioner Trotter has also made training and education the backbone of the new high-rise incident command, which is a two-prong approach with an internal and external strategy.
The internal strategy has dramatically increased training of in-house personnel in classroom and real-life training settings. The commissioner promised to train every member of the fire department within sixty days. To date, nearly 500 members, including the top rank personnel, have received classroom training on high-rise incident command. The department has also held four hands-on high-rise training sessions with at least two more scheduled in the weeks to come.
正在进行一个更具激进的培训计划，其中包括建筑管理和安全人员和建筑物的乘员。
Training the public on fire safety is part of the external training strategy. The Fire Department increased the number of personnel assigned to civilian high-rise education and developed a consistent citywide Life Safety Program message consisting of the word CALM: Call, Alert, Listen and Move, to remind building occupants what to do in the event of a high-rise fire. A DVD was also created that can be downloaded and duplicated by every building tenant.
“Moving forward, I want our residents and visitors to know that we intend to use this format for other areas of Life Safety training and that we will continue to implement needed reforms and changes”, he added.
Trotter also said that the recommendations contained in the Witt report presented by the State of Illinois just two weeks ago are currently under review.
“From this lengthy report, which we need more time to review, we will implement valid recommendations that haven’t already been implemented in the last year,” he said, adding, “We are always open to good ideas about how we can better do our job.”
“I am not uncomfortable with legitimate criticism because we understand that we are accountable to Chicago’s residents. This is why we will continue to make changes necessary to make this an even better department and to make Chicago the safest city in the country.”
