Queens 13 Alarm Gas Explosion January 13, 1967

[firebuffkevin]

Story and pictures of burned apparatus:

http://beyondthefireline.com/site/#/gallery/jamaica-queens-13-alarm/img-0028f1/

http://www.gasaxeart.com/blog/?p=239

 

[guitarman314]

I was 16 and traveled from the Bronx by subway to see this job.

 

[johnd248]

I remember the story that the FF on the 3 x 6 watch at E 248 woke up the guy for the 6 x 9 watch.  He said something was going in Queens but didn't have any details.  A few minutes, E 248 responded to the fire, all the way out to Jamaica.  Talk about a long run from Church and Bedford Avenues in Flatbush.

 

[nfd2004]

I remember seeing that on the TV News. Massive fire. It was one of the things that got me interested in the FDNY. A year later was when I started going down there.

  I had taken a course a few years later given by a gentleman named Dick Sylvia. He worked in NYC for Fire Underwriters (now called ISO, I think), but he was a big FDNY buff. He also wrote many articles for Fire Engeering in his day.

  In one of his classes, he talked about this Queens Explosion. Of course at that time, the bell system was in service, long before any voice alarm or computers. I remember him writing on the blackboard the bells that were transimitted for a Brooklyn Company to respond into Queens for this 13 Alarm Fire. Maybe somebody out there would be able to give those numbers. It was like a series of 15 seperate numbers for that Brooklyn Company to Respond into Queens for the 13 Alarm fire at Queens Box ????.

 

[johnd248]

They would transmit a Bklyn box followed by a Queens box:
77-44-1705-99-4567.

The fourth alarm assignment from Bklyn box 175 would go to Queens box 4567.  At least, that is how I remember it.

 

[lucky]

The phrase for the bells was "What, Where, Who". An engine special call was 5-1234-201 meaning a secial call for an engine to box 1234 and the engine being 201.
The boro call was transmitted three different ways. The boro of the fire, the box of the boro giving the additional alarms, and the other three boros all received the bells slightly different.
Lets assume that there was a fifth alarm at Queens box 7272 and the chief asked for three additional alarms. The dispatchers would pick a box distant enough in another boro so that the companies would be available. Lets say they picked Brooklyn box 2525. The broolyn dispatcer would tap out 99-7272-33-2525. That meant ta any engine assigned on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd alarms would respond to Queens box 7272. They wouldn't put in 77 for Brooklyn because they are in Brooklyn. The Queens dispatcher would tap out 7272-77-33-2525. They wouldn't tap out 99 because they were only putting it out to Queens houses. The other boros would tap out 99-7272-77-33-2525.
I hope that wasn't too confusing.

 

[nfd2004]

Thanks guys. Thats basically what I was talking about.
 

 

[811]

The Borough (or Simultaneous) Call signal was transmitted by telegraph exactly the same in all Boroughs. A key to remembering it was "FIRE, FIRE, HELP, HELP, HELP"

For example one Borough Call signal transmitted for Manhattan's  Morgan Post Office fire at 9th Ave & W 30th St of 12/15/1967 was 66-676-99-22-7729 which indicated that the fire was at Manhattan (66) Box (676) and the additional help would be from Queens (99) a Second Alarm Assignment (22) from Queens Box (7729) which would provide the assistance (Engine Companies Only were to respond on these signals).

Basically the Term Simultaneous Call and Borough Call were the same, the difference being a Simultaneous Call directed the greater alarm assignment for one Box Location to respond to another. If it involved another Borough, the term Borough Call applied. A Simultaneous Call could be used within a Borough, for example, to direct a downtown Brooklyn assignment to a major fire in Coney Island.

These telegraph signals were a way to get a lot of apparatus on the road quickly, probably faster than it can be done today with either VOICE ALARM OF COMPUTER.