"Telephone Booths"

[sandero]

Photos of some FDNY Seagrave rearmounts from the mid-70's show the presence of a small "telephone booth" enclosure located near the middle of the body on the officer's side.
Were any members regularly assigned to this position?

 

[lucky]

The can man. The space was needed during adaptive response times when the trucks had an extra man aboard.

 

[BCR]

I'm pretty sure these were installed when the switch from tillers started, as there were 7 on a tiller (6 in the cab + tiller man) and when they got rearmounts there was no where for the tiller man in the cab. I am told it is the junior members seat, as it was not very comfortable or warm in the winter. Someone correct me if I'm wrong

 

[Charging in 113]

I remember being a kid and going to my daddy's fire house and they had one stored in the house behind the engine on Saint Johns place  In Brooklyn

 

[68jk09]

I remember being a kid and going to my daddy's fire house and they had one stored in the house behind the engine on Saint Johns place  In Brooklyn

I think you are referring to an actual antique Telephone Booth that used to be installed around the City not the ones that were built into a rearmount.

 

[68jk09]

The FDNY phone booths came during the period of "adaptive response' where the manpower was increased....the original 1970 Seagrave RMs did not come w/them...the first ones were made by the FDNY Shops by cutting out a compartment midship on the Officers side of the rig ...later Rigs  came from Seagrave w/the booth in place from the manufacturer.....in 102 & 108 the Roofman rode in it in many other Cos the Can  Man rode in it......there have been other posts on the subject & several pictures i just don't know where they are posted. 

 

[68jk09]

I found a previous post i had made on another site concerning the "phone booth"....... Some "Phonebooth trivia"........When i was in LAD*108 we had a major accident w/our '69 American LaFrance Tiller .....luckily no one was seriously hurt but the estimate to repair was 6 months or better......the FDNY did not have much of a spare pool in those days....Chief Burton Clarke the head of Repairs & Transportation at that time gave us a brand new un-assigned '70 Seagrave Rear Mount which was one of FDNYs first... (TCU 732/LAD*176 actually had the very first which was a '69 American LaFrance 4 speed stick.. Maroon in color)...we did not want a RM as we had tested a demo model in our area previously....however due to the time frame of repairs to our '69 & the possibility of getting a series of unreliable spare pos s .....we took the RM as a spare.....the last thing the Chief said was "dont mess this one up ..its not yours" .....after about 2 weeks we got broadsided by an oil truck...(low speed /no serious injuries/not much damage).....Chief Clarke was not happy though.....when our '69 Tiller was repaired he asked us again "do you want to keep the RM ? we said no thanks .....the Tiller was THE rig....the point of this is......the original '70 RMs did not have phone booths ....in 108 everybody was used to riding on an open rig ...at least the FFs......but w/the RM ....generally the Can & Irons rode in the crew cab section of the RM but the Roof..the O.V. and the extra man during adaptive response hours rode on the very narrow backstep which basically was not intended for riding on.....there was also much more bouncing in the rear than a pumper....unfortunately a FF in another LAD was thrown from the backstep of a RM & died (REST IN PEACE CLARENCE)......riding outside on a RM was then forbidden.....the seat between the Chauf. & the Off. only provided 1 more seat for a total of 6 FFs & 1 off.... in areas where adaptive response called for 2 extra FFs there still was a seat missing ( even where there was only 1 extra FF.for AR).... using the middle seat in the cab was tough.....the shops cut out a compartment on the OFF side about midship & constructed a phone booth....after the later RMs came from the factory w/one....certain Companies & or certain areas of the City had different assignments as to who rode in the booth...in 108 in the period we had it.... we had the Roof man ride in it to allow him to do a size up as he was approaching the box...(this worked ok when the Fire was on the Off side but he still had to stand inside & look out as the seat faced rearward)...i think in other areas some Cos. had the Can Man ride in it...the problem we felt w/that was that as a Junior Man or ENG Detail he was not privvy to any info/discussion/instructions on the way since he had no Radio in those days..... whereas the Roofman did & the Roofman was generally a more Senior Member & usually not a Detail.....once the adaptive response debacle was discontinued & manpower on trucks went back to 6 then to 5 on all Trucks ...the phone booth became history.....i remember an incident where a dude on his 10 speed tried to round a curve in the road at the same time as us & he got his handlebar hooked in the phone booth opening...the roofman pulled him in & the bike didnt even get run over...in a more serious incident another Truck tee-boned a soda truck...the overhang of the RM Aerial which was 3 ft in those days imbedded itself in one of the side bays of the soda truck the RM stopped on impact but the soda truck proceeded a few more feet ripping the Aerial from the front cradle & bending over the top of the phone booth......luckily the FF inside ducked as was not seriously hurt .... there was a thread on the Phonebooth on the rant but it was lost last year ....this is an important part of FDNY History that should be remembered as it also took place during an important period...the previous thread had some good photos by some contributors ...maybe they will add some as well as comments from others who were around in that time

 

[mack]

Thanks Chief.  Great explanation.

By the way, I remember when there used to be real telephone booths with pay phones, located on street corners. 

 

[68jk09]

5230 collection......Note the blackened Ladderpipe attached to the top of the Booth caused by the diesel stack right in front of it giving the FF a good dose of CO before he even got into a bldg...... http://fdnyrant.proboards.com/attachment/download/124

 

[68jk09]

FDNY T2

 

[sandero]

Must have been a pretty uncomfortable place to ride, especially in the winter.
Thanks to all for the detailed info.