6/28/22 Bronx Technical Rescue Box 8855

If it is truly a trench rescue, there will be a bit of a challenge getting the equipment from city island to hart island via boat. Like always the members will figure it out and get it done professionally.
 
BX to E70: Go to the dock slip for Hart Island.

E70: The patient is being transported from Hart Island to the dock on Fordham Street in City Island.

E70 to the BX: Worker was hurt digging graves. We need EMS. 10-18 for a 10-31.
 
Is the Hart Island ferry big enough (or have the weight capacity) to carry an FDNY rescue?

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Might be the slip at the end of Fordham St which is where the Hart Island Ferry is as Ray posted above
 
Years back FDNY has several old rigs stationed on Hart Island.
 
Years back FDNY has several old rigs stationed on Hart Island.
Those rigs were Long Gone….one was an International, have no idea where they go that….Hart use to house inmates who did the burials and there was also a halfway house which ran 24x7….Oh, and we can’t forget the MISSLE SILO.
 
Prisoners no longer bury the dead on Hart Island. OCME still delivers bodies several times a week. The city under DeBlasio early in covid hired a private company to do burials. Its actually quite organized. Hart Island had an actual fire house on its south end. It was pretty much an unheated brick single story garage. If memory serves me correctly an old Ward LaFrance CD pumper in 1971 and later in (1977 ?) an old Mack Model C pumper. Both had the basics for Engine Company Operations. I don't remember any masks on the rigs or any firefighting clothing stored in the "Fire House". I do remember that E 70 was responsible to make periodic visits to the rigs to make sure they were serviceable and conduct a radio check with The Bronx. Got to buff the trip on the ferry and visit the rig in 77 thanks to Ret FF Ernie Hughes E70. Also remember the "Darth Vader" helmets being sent out there after the FDNY pilot was over for the Phoenix House residents to use as some sort of an "unofficial" fire brigade until the FDNY got on the island. Currently, I do not believe the water mains or hydrant system on the island are functional. Last structure fire on the island that I can recall was about 8 -9 years ago and was a vacant building in the middle of the night. FDNY went over with a BFU on the ferry with a group of firefighters. Marine Company ( don't know which one) took care of most of the fire using the monitors from the boat but that is even tide dependent. . Very windy night also.
 
As a grammar school kid, (OLR, Bedford Park, if that means anything), my schoolyard bunch got bored with Orchard Beach. Just Bronx street kids looking for a thrill, local lore tipped us off to the possibility of some fun and adventure at the Fordham Street dock on City Island where the Hart’s Island ferry landed.

To get there we had to take the Webster Ave 41 bus to Fordham ROAD, then transfer to the City Island bus (not the Orchard Beach bus) to Fordham STREET on City Island Avenue. Then hike a few blocks to the dock on the east side of the island.

And there it was, a rather large terminal building, with maybe even a concession stand, that allowed us to duck in and change to our bathing suits. To us the ferries were huge (on the scale I would later discover to Governors Island) and came and went every half hour or so. We knew there was a prison on Hart’s Island and noticed there some desperate looking characters getting on and off, but nobody bothered anybody, them or us. We were there to swim.

At high tide it was probably a 10 foot jump off the side of the dock to the water. At low tide 15 feet or more. It was a looong jump, but one that proved your manhood (the incessant peer pressure of the schoolyard). The best was when the ferry came in or left...the reversing props would churn the water like the waves at Jones Beach...clutching the pier so as not to be sucked in...we got what we came for!

Hours of this and then the long ride home...redheaded, sunburned, and tired, on these buses without air conditioning.

“Where you today? Oh, me and the guys just went to the beach, Mom.”

Nothing like growing up in the Bronx.



Prisoners no longer bury the dead on Hart Island. OCME still delivers bodies several times a week. The city under DeBlasio early in covid hired a private company to do burials. Its actually quite organized. Hart Island had an actual fire house on its south end. It was pretty much an unheated brick single story garage. If memory serves me correctly an old Ward LaFrance CD pumper in 1971 and later in (1977 ?) an old Mack Model C pumper. Both had the basics for Engine Company Operations. I don't remember any masks on the rigs or any firefighting clothing stored in the "Fire House". I do remember that E 70 was responsible to make periodic visits to the rigs to make sure they were serviceable and conduct a radio check with The Bronx. Got to buff the trip on the ferry and visit the rig in 77 thanks to Ret FF Ernie Hughes E70. Also remember the "Darth Vader" helmets being sent out there after the FDNY pilot was over for the Phoenix House residents to use as some sort of an "unofficial" fire brigade until the FDNY got on the island. Currently, I do not believe the water mains or hydrant system on the island are functional. Last structure fire on the island that I can recall was about 8 -9 years ago and was a vacant building in the middle of the night. FDNY went over with a BFU on the ferry with a group of firefighters. Marine Company ( don't know which one) took care of most of the fire using the monitors from the boat but that is even tide dependent. . Very windy night also.
 
Recent NYC Firenet thread on NYC islands:

 
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