Evanston fire captain and paramedic Dennis McGuigan is tired. He has a respiratory infection and a constant headache. His blood was sent to the Mayo Clinic to test for mold and iodine poisoning. He’s seeing a toxicologist next week.

McGuigan,48, and three other Evanston firefighters came home Monday after working 12 days in hurricane-ravaged southern Louisiana.

Evanston Engine 24 with its four men arrived at Station 17 of the St. Tammany Fire Protection District #1 about Sept. 7. The station is in Slidell, a city on Lake Pontchartrain near the Mississippi line.

While local firefighters took time off to deal with their damaged and destroyed homes, about 50 of their colleagues from the Chicago area took over their jobs.

“Our mission was to take over the Slidell fire department because these guys were working seven days in a row and right on the fringe of going insane,” McGuigan said. “They were at their endpoint.”

While in Slidell, the Evanston firefighters were on duty 24 hours a day. As area residents came back home and the power returned, circuits shorted out and houses erupted in flames, firefighters said.

For firefighter and paramedic Jim Regan, 30, who has worked in Evanston for five years, it was unlike anything he had experienced.

“We had two or three house fires a day, ” Regan said. “In Evanston, we have one a month, and we work one out of every three days.”

McGuigan got less than five hours of sleep per night. When he wasn’t fighting fires, he and the other men helped the Slidell firefighters clean up the damage in their homes.

In a department where 65 percent of the workforce had their homes severely damaged or destroyed, the help was more than appreciated, said Slidell District #1 Fire Chief Larry Hess.

“None of the firefighters came from Illinois,” Hess said. “They all came from heaven.”

Regan, McGuigan, Division Chief Ronn Gannon, and Captain and paramedic Jim DuPont left Evanston early Sept. 5. After driving for 28 hours, they arrived at Louisiana State University, where they were held for another 30 hours. They received vaccines for tetanus, hepatitis A and B, and diphtheria, McGuigan said.

When they got to Slidell, flood waters had largely receded. But fallen trees obstructed many of the roads. Rural parts of the parish lacked hydrants, so firefighters had to bring water tankers into the area in addition to their engines, Regan said.

“It was 90 to 95 degrees with 95 percent humidity,” McGuigan said. “It was hot and humid and we’re working hard, and more times than not you’re literally wringing wet.”

Houses burned in the town, while brush fires in the bayou threatened populated areas, firefighters said. With 82,000 people, the fire district is slightly larger than Evanston’s. But its service area stretches for more than 120 square miles. At least three of the seven fire houses were too damaged to be used when the Evanston firefighters arrived.

“A lot of homes built on cement slabs were completely gone,” Regan said. “Homes were moved from one side of the street to another. The storm really wiped the town out.”

Some of the houses they responded to had 40-foot pine trees fall into their roofs.

“For three mornings, at 5:30 or quarter to 6, our wake-up call was either a house fire or a double-wide trailer fire,” McGuigan said. “You’d see shrimp boats embedded in homes, trailers transported on rail cars that floated.”

As some of Slidell’s firefighters returned to work on Sunday, the Evanston firemen started the overnight trip home. It wasn’t surprising that some of them got sick, though two of the firefighters are now feeling well, Evanston Fire Chief Alan Berkowsky said.

“They were going straight through 12 days,” Berkowsky said. “When you put anyone through that kind of stress and endurance, they will be worn down.”

McGuigan said he’ll be back on the job next Wednesday, while Regan is taking it day to day. One day, after they recover, they might visit their colleagues in Louisiana on a happier note.

“The guys from the Chicago area will be coming down here for Mardi Gras and they’ll have places to stay,” Hess said. “They impacted us in a way that will be part of the history and culture of our fire department forever.”

Reach Greg Hafkin at [email protected].