BCR said:
Someone told me one time that the engine and trucks in the other boroughs that have company numbers in the 100,200 & 300's goes back to when they were all seperate depts. when they all merged together all the lower numbers were mostly taken and they would have been duplicates, example if there was an engine 99 already in Nyc and xyz borough merged to be apart of the city and had there own engine 99 it would then just become engine 199 or 299 or 399, instead of changing company numbers completely. Not sure if anyone could elaborate on this or if it is an old wives tale but it kinda makes sense but making sense isn't usually a top priority of any FD
The original independent fire departments had their own sequential numbering. Volunteer companies numbered sequentially, then later numbered sequentially within their own towns, and then the independent cities numbered sequentially as they annexed and merged departments.
For example, the City of Brooklyn FD was the final result of all of the mergers in Brooklyn. They had Engine Companies 1 through 57 and Ladders 1 through 25. They retained these numbers following the merger into the City of New York from 1898 until 1899. Since these were duplicate numbers with Manhattan/Bronx and since the Manhattan/Bronx numbers had already reached the 70's with continued growth expected towards Westchester County, engine companies in Brooklyn had 100 added to their existing numbers and ladder companies had 50 added. Thus, Brooklyn Engine 1 became 101 and Brooklyn Ladder 1 became 51.
Companies in Queens continued in this sequential numbering with Long Island City Engine 1 being renumbered 158 and so on.
Staten Island Engine companies added 200 to their original number. Thus, Engine 1 became 201, etc. Ladder companies added 100 to their original number. Ladder 1 became 101, etc.
By 1913, Manhattan/Bronx engine numbers were in the 90's and Brooklyn/Queens engine numbers were in the 170's. Expected continued expansion and growth would eventually lead to duplicate numbers once again, so the companies were renumbered again.
Brooklyn/Queens engines had another 100 added to their number so that Engine 101 became 201 etc. Brooklyn/Queens ladders added another 50 to their number so that Ladder 51 became 101. Staten Island engine numbers were reduced by 50 so that Engine 201 became 151. Staten Island ladder numbers were reduced by 25, so Ladder 101 became 76.
Within the present numbering plan, expansion in Manhattan/Bronx could continue up to Engine 149 and Ladder 75, expansion in Staten Island could reach Engine 199 and Ladder 99, while Brooklyn/Queens are open ended.
Expansion to the north (Westchester County) was rejected by the voters in the 1900's. Expansion to the east (Queens) ended with the formation of Nassau County. Expansion to the west would cross state lines to New Jersey (not likely) and to the south is the Atlantic Ocean.
Other than on Staten Island, which does not have any skipped or omitted company numbers, the rest of the city has numbers that were previously used and can be re-used for new companies again. (For example Engine 66, Engine 72, Engine 85, Engine 232, Engine 251, Engine 326 and others.)
