FDNY and NYC Firehouses and Fire Companies - 2nd Section

[mack]

1937 new FDNY apparatus video:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6jy3ZKY_bg


    - 19 new Mack pumpers including Engine 299:

         

    - H&L 24 turns-out

         

         

         

 

[mack]

1967 Queens 13 alarm Jamaica gas explosion video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYk_qduyXmE


January 13, 1967 - Queens Box 8803 - Engine 298/Ladder 127 1st due companies - apparatus destroyed by explosion

    https://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/August-2017-Jamaica-Gas-Leak-13-Alarms.pdf

    https://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/gas-leak-13-alarm-explosion-fire-in-1967/

 

[guitarman314]

1937 new FDNY apparatus video:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6jy3ZKY_bg


    - 19 new Mack pumpers including Engine 299:

         

    - H&L 24 turns-out

         

         

         

Those 19- 1937 Mack Type 21 1000gpm pumpers were originally assigned to engine(s): 20, 34, 36, 46, 50, 53, 55, 59, 64, 69, 154, 210, 229, 231, 245, 249, 283, 290 & 299. These were the first pumpers delivered with solid (not leather) subway straps.  Engine 20's had a special box behind the driver's side front fender for their mascot Dalmation, "CHIEF" to ride in. Also, the 10-1937 Seagrave Model 6-GF 85ft. tillers were originally assigned to Ladder(s): 6, 20, 21, 24, 27, 31, 103, 113, 120 & 123. They were the first Seagrave ladder trucks delivered with front windshields and left-hand steering wheels.

 

[manhattan]

G'man,

Do you have any idea how long the 1937 Seagrave Model 6-GF 85ft. tiller assigned to Ladder 24 remained in service with that company?  That was where I visited and played on the apparatus very often in the late 1950s and '60s.

Thanks.

 

[guitarman314]

G'man,

Do you have any idea how long the 1937 Seagrave Model 6-GF 85ft. tiller assigned to Ladder 24 remained in service with that company?  That was where I visited and played on the apparatus very often in the late 1950s and '60s.

Thanks.

The '37 Seagrave was #321 and was L24's until April 5, 1948, when L24 received their 1948 American LaFrance. The '37 Seagrave went onto L15, got a 1948 WLF tractor, then went to L167 in 1955. 

 

[manhattan]

Holy cow!  I'm younger than I thought!!

Thank you.

 

[t123ken]

Concerning Engine 11 and Houston Street.
Houston Street used to be a normal-width street, as it still is west of 6 Avenue by Engine 24/Ladder 5/Battalion 2.
When it was widened and buildings were razed (mostly old law tenements I was told), they didn't do too good a job in leveling the now widened street.  Much of the debris was just shoveled into the cellars and that's why for decades it was a bumpy ride on Houston.  The foundation walls remained solid but the debris filling the cellars settled.
About 10-15 years ago the street was redone and you could still see the foundation walls as excavation was in progress. 
There's a building on the southwest corner of Broadway and Houston that has some steel sticking out of its north side.  I've often wondered if that's the remains of a loft building that was demolished to widen the street.

 

[manhattan]

I believe those steel beams sticking out of the north face of the building were an art installation going back to the 1970s or perhaps the '60s.  They can be interesting when the sun hits them and casts shadows on the building, which I think was the artist's intention.

 

[t123ken]

I did some research and you are correct.

The southwest corner of Broadway and West Houston for many years featured an art installation, called ?The Wall? consisting of a few dozen aquamarine girders poking out of a blank wall. It was installed in 1972 by artist Forrest Myers.

 

[t123ken]

I just found this article which gives information on the work of art:
http://sohobroadway.org/a-look-back-at-sohos-broadway-forrest-myers-the-wall/

It does mention in the article "Charles Tannenbaum, the owner of 599 Broadway originally commissioned it to cover existing architectural scars, joists that remained since an adjoining building was taken down to widen Houston Street."

 

[mack]

I just found this article which gives information on the work of art:
http://sohobroadway.org/a-look-back-at-sohos-broadway-forrest-myers-the-wall/

It does mention in the article "Charles Tannenbaum, the owner of 599 Broadway originally commissioned it to cover existing architectural scars, joists that remained since an adjoining building was taken down to widen Houston Street."

Broadway and Houston Street - 1920 - original 599 Broadway building and building to right before Houston Street widened:

   


Broadway and Houston Street - 1930s - after Houston Street widened and building to right razed:

   

   


Broadway and Houston Street - current - 599 Broadway with artwork:

   
   
   


Houston Street History:
 
    Houston Street is named for William Houstoun, who was a delegate from the state of Georgia to the Continental Congress from 1784 through 1786 and to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The street was christened by Nicholas Bayard III, whose daughter, Mary, was married to Houstoun in 1788.[4] The couple met while Houstoun, a member of an ancient and aristocratic Scottish family, was serving in the Congress. Bayard cut the street through a tract he owned in the vicinity of Canal Street in which he lived, and the city later extended it to include North Street, the northern border of New York's east side at the beginning of the 19th century.

    The current spelling of the name is a corruption: the street appears as Houstoun in the city's Common Council minutes for 1808 and the official map drawn in 1811 to establish the street grid that is still current. In those years, the Texas hero Sam Houston, for whom the street is sometimes incorrectly said to have been named, was an unknown teenager in Tennessee. Also mistaken is the explanation that the name derives from the Dutch words huis for house and tuin for garden. The narrow, westernmost stretch of the current Houston Street, from Sixth Avenue to the West Side Highway, was known as "Hammersley Street" (also spelled "Hamersly Street") until the middle 19th century, and was inside Greenwich Village. It later came to be regarded as the Village's southern boundary.

    In 1891, Nikola Tesla established his Houston Street laboratory. Much of Tesla's research was lost in an 1895 fire.

    The street, originally narrow, was markedly widened from Sixth Avenue to Essex Street in the early 1930s during construction of the Independent Subway System's Sixth Avenue Line. The street widening involved demolition of buildings on both sides of the street, resulting in numerous small, empty lots. Although some of these lots have been redeveloped, many of them are now used by vendors, and some have been turned into playgrounds and, more recently, community gardens."  - Wikipedia

 

[mack]

Engine 315/Ladder 125 Firehouse  159-06 Union Turnpike  Jamaica Hills, Queens  13th Division, 50th Battalion  "Clown College"

    Engine 315 organized 159-06 Union Turnpike                                    1929

    Ladder 75 organized 91-45 121st Street former volunteer firehouse    1907
    Ladder 75 moved 91-62 111th Street at Hose 2                                1912
    Ladder 75 became Ladder 125                                                        1913 
    Ladder 125 new firehouse 91-45 121st Street with Engine 270          1913
    Ladder 125 moved 159-06 Union Turnpike at Engine 315                  1953

    Ladder 125 notes:

          Pre-FDNY - Ladder 125 organized in former quarters of volunteer Richmond Hill Engine 1 as FDNY Ladder 75

          Ladder 125 moved new firehouse 91-45 121st Street with Engine 270:

             


159-06 Union Turnpike firehouse:

   

   

   

   

   

   


Engine 315:
 
   

   

   

   



Ladder 125:

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   


Engine 315/Ladder 125:

   

   


Engine 315/Ladder 125 videos:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFBMV7XRsgg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zm-YNo19wk

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87nZoTsVC3o


Engine 315/Ladder 125 FDNY medals:
             
    OSCAR WINEGAR FF. ENG. 315 MAR. 27, 1950 CRIMMINS

    THOMAS E. DOYLE FF. ENG. 315 MAR. 27, 1950 MC ELLIGOTT

    JAMES A. MILLS FF. ENG. 315 OCT. 29, 1982 MC ELLIGOTT

    BRIAN T. O'CONNOR LT. ENG. 315 JUN. 1, 1995 HOLY NAME

    KENNETH G. BAUMEISTER FF. LAD. 125 NOV. 19, 1975 BROOKMAN

         

    JOHN J. FLANAGAN FF. LAD. 125 NOV. 19, 1975 KRIDEL

         

    ROBERT E. WILLIAMS CAPT. LAD. 125 OCT. 29, 1982 DOLNEY


Engine 315/Ladder 125 LODDs:

    CAPTAIN DANIEL J. MURPHY ENGINE 315 February 20, 1941

          Captain Daniel J. Murphy died from injuries he received at Box 6997 while operating at a fire on February 2nd, 1940 at Northern Boulevard and 223rd Street while detailed to Engine 274. He died as a result of the severe smoke inhalation. He was appointed to FDNY on June 7, 1919, promoted to Lieutenant on April 1, 1930 and assigned to Engine 29. He was promoted to Captain on October 2, 1938 and assigned to Engine 29. He transferred to Engine 315 on April 1, 1939. He was fifty-two years old at the time of his death. (From "The Last Alarm" by Boucher, Urbanowicz & Melahn, 2007)


    FIREFIGHTER JOHN FLANNIGAN LADDER 125 December 8, 1975

         

          Firefighter Flanagan died as a result of inhaling poisonous fumes and carbon monoxide poisoning while operating at a fire in the basement of a discount store on November 19th.


    RIP.  Never forget.


Jamaica Hills:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica_Hills,_Queens

    http://forgotten-ny.com/2008/12/jamaica-hills-queens/

 

[mack]

FF Joseph J. O'Neill Ladder 125 (then H&L 75) - 16 year veteran firefigher dies from fall on lunch break - August 19, 1910:

   

    RIP.

 

[mack]

Ladder 125 - 1969 Mack MB-series cab with 1955 FWD wooden aerial:

   


Note: FDNY purchased 1969 10 Mack MB-series tractors for older aerial ladders.  Some of the truck companies who received the new Mack tractors were:  L 5; L 39; L 85; L 115; L 140. 

Not sure about other ladder companies.

Ladder 5:

   

Ladder 39:

   

Ladder 85:

   

Ladder 140:

   

 

[68jk09]

In a very earlier unrelated post (not sure what thread) which i had related but a friend who was a Chauffer years ago  in 140 told me they had got this enclosed Sub Nosed Mack Postal Service type cab retrofitted to thier Rig & he said "it even had a cigarette lighter in the dashboard" .....well after their first job when i asked him how the job went he said "when i pulled the Power Takeoff Handle to engage the Aerial the dashboard knob came off in my hand & the cable kept coming out but never engaged " .

 

[johnd248]

A long time ago, I had a cousin who worked many years in E 214 and transferred to E 315 where he worked until he retired.

 

[mack]

Question:  What FDNY ladder company "walked like an Egyptian" in 1986?


   

 

[CFDMarshal]

Ladder 25!

 

[mack]

Question:  What FDNY ladder company "walked like an Egyptian" in 1986?


   

You got it, Reverend  -  Ladder 25. 






"Walk Like an Egyptian"  -  The Bangles  - #1 US Billboard 1987

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv6tuzHUuuk

    Ladder 25 members at 1:46 in video
   

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walk_Like_an_Egyptian


Song facts:

Songwriter Liam Sternberg wrote this. He got the idea when he was on a ferry boat, and saw people struggling to keep their balance. The way they held out their arms and jerked around made it look like they were doing Egyptian movements, and if the boat moved suddenly, they would all topple over.
This was the biggest hit for the Bangles, but they considered it one of their least favorite songs, as their rock pedigree was compromised by a goofy song they had nothing to do with composing. Most Bangles songs were written by at least one member of the group, with the notable exception of "Manic Monday," which was written by Prince.
All members except drummer Debbi Peterson sang a verse. Peterson was originally supposed to sing the whole thing, but producer David Kahne had each member audition the lyrics to determine who would sing what verse.
This was offered to Toni Basil, but she turned it down. The Bangles needed one more song to complete their album, so they took it.
The difficult recording process caused a lot of tension within the band. These tensions would eventually break them up.
In the US, this was the #1 song of 1987 according to Billboard's year end chart.
The video for this song made the band superstars, as it aired in heavy rotation on MTV. The Bangles became darlings of the network, but early on they weren't sold on the medium. Here are some quotes from 1985 where they kvetch:
Debbi Peterson: "When you listen to a record you can imagine what they look like and what they were doing when they recorded, but when you see the video it ruins it for you."

Susanna Hoffs: "I wish they could be more like movies, I wish they could somehow fulfill you, bring you through an experience."  -  http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=595

 

[mack]

NYC EMS (pre-FDNY) members unit also "walked like an Egyptian" later in video: