The Book "20,000 Alarms"

jerseymike · Oct 16, 2015

For all of you that enjoyed the book 20,000 Alarms, today (October 16th) marks the 45th anniversary of that incredible rescue on Adelphi St. made by Lt. Hamilton and F.F Polera. I'm sure many of the firefighters on scene that night are long gone, but there's probably some who are still with us and were there on that night who still remember what went down. If any members on this site were there that night and would like to share their story of what happened/what they were doing, there's a lot of us who would enjoy reading their stories. I've said many times that the "History" section of these forums are my absolute favorite...

1261Truckie · Oct 16, 2015

I was riding with 132 that night and we responded on the 2nd alarm from a nearby water leak. When we arrived our officer was getting orders from the chief when a member came out of the building and yelled they needed help getting two trapped guys out.
Prior to our arrival, E-219 was stretching a line into the building and conducting a search. While operating Lt. Geraghty (E-235 working in 219 )and another member (I think his name was Orokes) fell through an opening in the floor. Lt. Hamilton and F/F Polera went down a ladder that had been placed in the opening and searched for the two. They found the firefighter first and assisted him up the ladder. They then found Lt. Geraghty, who had passed out, tied a line on him and got him raised out of the cellar. All the while there was heavy fire and high heat from the tire fire that was burning in the cellar. A hell of a rescue in, quite literally, a hell of a place.

68jk09 · Oct 16, 2015

Continued RIP to those involved that have since Passed To a Higher Level....i actually took Bill Polera's spot as a FF in R*2 back in mid 1977 after he received a broken back in a Secondary collapse while searching an occupied collapsing bldg in Red Hook ....i believe his Son is/was a Police Officer on Long Island.....some posts from a previous thread on the 1970 Fire on Adelphi St

jerseymike · Oct 21, 2015

Awesome stories. You guys should really think about writing a book or two about that era. Look at the guys who made money off of their memories. Just saying...

aussiegeorge · Oct 24, 2015

I remember reading that book many years ago when i was still a young fire-fighter and thinking 20,000 alarms man that's a lot of turnouts,now just passing 31 years on the job i worked out that the stations I've been assigned to would make my count at around 35,000 alarms,still loving every shift i work.

CFDMarshal · Oct 25, 2015

aussiegeorge said:
I remember reading that book many years ago when i was still a young fire-fighter and thinking 20,000 alarms man that's a lot of turnouts,now just passing 31 years on the job i worked out that the stations I've been assigned to would make my count at around 35,000 alarms,still loving every shift i work.

That is an interesting comment AussieGeorge. I have always been interested in the call volume of departments and companies. I have no concept and only a guess of what the call volume would be for departments in Australia. Do you care to share? Calls and types of calls?

aussiegeorge · Dec 4, 2015

cdfmarshal i work in Australia's biggest city Sydney.There are 102 fire stations in the city the slowest engine(we call them pumps)goes on around 300 runs in a year and the busiest around 6500.T he types of calls would be the same as any big city in the USA.We don't run on EMS calls as a rule but are called to assist the ambulance service(a separate govt dept)to a lot of incidents.We are the primary rescue servive for the city but the police have 1 part of the city that they are the primary rescue service,they have a few units like the police esu units of NYPD.Some parts of the city are busy with fires and other parts the stations are busy running on mainly automatic fire alarms.There are lots of grasslands and brush areas on the fringes of the city some of those areas keep the stations there busy esp in the summer time.There are 3 HAZMAT units in the city which have a reasonable workload.Pretty much the same as big city fire departments in the USA.

CFDMarshal · Dec 4, 2015

Thanks AussieGeorge. If you like sometime in the International section of the forum please post a profile of your fire department. Stay safe.