7/15/23 Bronx All Hands Box 3576

Hank

Hank

Joined
Mar 9, 2023
Messages
2,580
Incident Location: 323 East Gun Hill Road

Phone Alarm Reporting Fire In Apartment 4D.

BX/L32: Apartment 4G Reporting Fire On The 4th Floor.

B27: Transmit The 10-75, Fire In Apartment 4D Of A 6-Story Multiple Dwelling.

CIDS: 6-Story 150x80 Class 3 H-Type Multiple Dwelling.

BX/B27: L39 Is Designated Your FAST Truck.

B27: Using All Hands For A Fire On The 4th Floor Of A 6-Story Class 3 NFP Multiple Dwelling. 323 East Gun Hill Road Is The Confirmed Address. 1 L/S/O, Water On The Fire. Primary Searches Are Negative. (Duration 10 Min)

Exposures:
1: Street
2: Attached 7-Story Multiple Dwelling
3: Unknown
4: Street

B27: (1) 10-45 No Code, EMS Evaluating The Patient. (Duration 16 Min)

D7: All Visible Fire Has Been Knocked Down. Primary Searches Throughout Are Complete & Negative, Secondary Searches On The Floor Above Are Complete & Negative. PWH. (Duration 20 Min)

D7: Secondary Searches Throughout Are Complete & Negative, Under Control. The 10-45 Is A Code 4. (Duration 27 Min)

B27: We Found A Li-Ion Battery, We Removed It & Isolated It From The Building. Requesting HazMat.

Rundown:
E62, E79, E63, E38
L32, L37, L39F
B27, B15
R3
SQ41
D7
RAC3
*SQ61 Operating At Box 8982*
IMG_4429.jpeg
 
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3576...I used to live at 3502 Hull Ave. Apt.4a until 1951. I think E.62 had a Ward LaFrance and L.32 had an International tractor pulling 75' tiller.
 
I do not recall that FWD tractor, before my time i guess. But a 1947 or '48 WLF tractor was assigned to L32 ( pulling an ancient tiller) in the early fifties. In 1955 L32 received one of the new FWD models, the last wooden aerials purchased by the FDNY.
Most of the pre- WWII tillers and ALF tractors then went to the spare pool (or banished to the hinterlands of Queens and Staten Island).
 
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When I went to Chauf. School March 1972 we trained with two Tillers .... both 1947 WLF Tractors with 1938 Seagrave Aerials.....these were the Rigs we drove around on primarily practicing Downshifting & Double Clutching...when other later model Aerials came to The Rock (Welfare Island) for day training or evaluation we would do some familiarization on them but not driving them....for the most part back then most busy LADs had as a Regular Rig either ALF...Mack or Seagrave Metal Aerials....there were a few TLs & a few RMs also but the slower LADs had a pretty old collection.
 
68jk09 said:
When I went to Chauf. School March 1972 we trained with two Tillers .... both 1947 WLF Tractors with 1938 Seagrave Aerials.....these were the Rigs we drove around on primarily practicing Downshifting & Double Clutching...when other later model Aerials came to The Rock (Welfare Island) for day training or evaluation we would do some familiarization on them but not driving them....for the most part back then most busy LADs had as a Regular Rig either ALF...Mack or Seagrave Metal Aerials....there were a few TLs & a few RMs also but the slower LADs had a pretty old collection.
Click to expand...

You’re right Chief. Those old WLF Tractors hung around till the early 70s, dragging 40 year old tillers behind them. Two memories of them from the summers of ‘69 or ‘70...

A young soldier on leave, I was invited to the quarters of E88/38, where my father had been the senior officer for years. The engine was out, but parked on the street outside was an old Ward LaFrance tractor and an ancient tiller. The number on the sideboard below the side ladders was “12x” or “13x” something. I stepped into the house and asked where the company was from...the FF on watch told me...”Rockaway... we are the 4th section tonight of L38”. Blew my mind that’s how busy the Bronx had become.

Some time later... Imbibing in the Jolly Tinker Pub (owned then by Michael J. Prendergast of County Waterford, Ireland and Engine 91-2) on Webster ave ...
...in walks FF Sammy Preston from E79 and another FF from L37. Sammy was also on the roster as a part time bartender (as was I) in the pub. When on duty, Sammy would wave to the tavern patrons from the back step as 79s rig rolled down Bedford Park Blvd. This night, Sam was seeking someone to follow an old WLF tiller spare rig to be returned to L28s quarters in Harlem. Soldiers are taught never to volunteer, but Sammy I couldn’t refuse. I followed them in my car all the way to 69/28/s quarters on West 143d Street (both companies were out at the time, of course). Sam was not comfortable backing in a tiller truck so they drove the rig head first into the side of 28s bay and left it parked pointing at the kitchen. Crossing the Macombs Dam Bridge on the way back to the Bronx, our tillerman motioned us to turn up the hill to Highbridge, where he was from. Of course, since we were in the neighborhood, we had to pay our respects to his old friends and acquaintances, and so we bounced from joint to joint along Ogden Avenue for a bit. I dropped them both off on Briggs Ave after a reasonable absence and returned to my own misdeeds at the Jolly Tinker.

A different world it was.

Don’t wish to clog up the dialogue here. Perhaps such recollections would be better suited to another forum on this site. Please do suggest.
 
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If someone doesn't want to hear good stories told, I'm guessing they'd be much happier over on the small engine and household appliance repair chat website.
 
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