Pleasantview Fire Protection District Sprinkler Save Tree
All too often, fires that are successfully extinguished or controlled by fire sprinklers don’t make headlines. That’s why the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB) promotes Illinois fire sprinkler save stories to highlight the “prevented fires” that often go unnoticed by the general public.
But some fire departments have taken this one step further by creating Fire Sprinkler Save Trees—visual displays that feature the “hero” fire sprinklers that activated during fires, along with the stories behind each save. The Pleasantview Fire Protection District pioneered the idea nearly four decades ago, and now Libertyville Fire Department is building on that tradition with its own newly launched tree.
At Pleasantview FPD, the Sprinkler Save Tree, housed in the Fire Prevention Bureau’s offices at Station 1, stands as a unique and enduring symbol of fire protection done right. The idea began in 1984 when Pleasantview FPD’s Fire Prevention Bureau started collecting activated fire sprinklers as teaching tools. The tree was constructed in 1985 in partnership with Cybor Fire Protection, which provided piping and materials for the display.
Pleasantview FPD was the first district/department in the region to implement such a concept. In 2007, the department celebrated its 50th sprinkler save, a milestone featured in NIFSAB’s newsletter. In 2010, U.S. Fire Administration Deputy Administrator Glenn Gaines visited the station to view the display in person. By 2019, the 65th sprinkler had been added.
Recently, Pleasantview FPD reached two new milestones with its 70th and 71st sprinkler saves, both at the Waste Management facility in Hodgkins. The 70th save involved a lithium-ion battery that ignited while on a conveyor line, triggering three sprinklers that contained the fire. The 71st save, which occurred in June 2025 at the same facility, marks a similar incident in which a single fire sprinkler extinguished a rubbish fire on a conveyor belt as firefighters arrived.
“Death by fire can be engineered out of buildings,” said Senior Fire Inspector / Fire Investigator Samuel Giordano, Jr. “These latest saves are reminders of how fast automatic fire sprinklers work. In many of these cases, businesses can reopen the same day. It makes a huge difference for the community.”
“Fire sprinkler systems save firefighters’ lives by controlling or extinguishing fires before they grow out of control, reducing the intensity of blazes and the risk of flashover—allowing firefighters to operate in safer conditions and with greater efficiency,” added Giordano.
Giordano describes the Pleasantview tree as the “pride and joy” of the Fire Prevention Bureau, and it’s proven to be a powerful public education tool that continues to inspire other fire departments—including Libertyville.
Libertyville Sprinkler Saves Tree
Libertyville Fire Department unveiled its own Fire Sprinkler Save Tree during its Fire Prevention Week open house in 2024. Designed as a portable display, the tree features a vertical riser with two arms, each holding two fire sprinklers: pendent ESFR fire sprinklers from a Medline Industries warehouse fire (August 2020), and upright fire sprinklers from a restaurant fire (Easter Sunday 2024). Photos of the buildings and summaries of each incident hang beneath the corresponding sprinklers, while general information about fire sprinklers is suspended in the center.
Following the open house, the tree is now on display in the fire prevention area of Libertyville Fire Department’s headquarters and can easily be transported to educational events.
“We were lucky. I didn’t even ask for the sprinklers—they were given to us,” said Libertyville Fire Marshal Mike Weaver. “At first, they were just office decorations. Then we had another save on Easter in 2024, and we reached out to NIFSAB for advice on how to highlight their successes. They showed us some examples, such as Pleasantview Fire Protection District’s sprinkler save tree, and our project took root.”
“We made a pretty crude sketch, and they provided the materials and labor to create something that looks good. Plus, I think what makes the tree so interesting is that you’re displaying the actual fire sprinklers that activated. It’s a little piece of local history,” added Weaver.
Libertyville plans to add two more saves soon—one from a single-family home garage fire (October 2024) and another from a manufacturing plant fire (December 2024).
“It’s a great way to show what fire sprinklers actually do—and what they save,” said Weaver. “It’s not just about the building and its contents. It’s about lives, jobs, businesses, tax revenue—so many things that are preserved when fire sprinklers do their job.”
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