A TALE OF TWO FDNY CHIEF’S – INTERESTING READING – by Bob Farrell (Capt, TL31)
January 11, 2017“THE TALES OF TWO CHIEF’S IN TWO PARTS”
PART # ONE
I was a Lemon-aide to these two Chief’s- Chief of Department,
John T. O’Hagan and Assisistant Chief of Department, Alfred Eckert.
Chain of command dictates me to begin with John T. I drove both these guys in the 9th Battalion in the 60’s. when their regular aide was off or on medical leave. (Just a Lemon-Aide)
As mentioned in early post’s John T, said when he became Chief of Department he would change operations 100% and he did. John T. was a combat paratrooper in World War two in the South Pacific theater. Coming home from this conflict he entered the F.D.N.Y.
and rose through the ranks very quickly and Captioned the famous Rescue #1. He came into the 9th Battalion in the 60’s. He rose again to Deputy Chief writing #1 on the exam. He was beat out by Chief Eckert from being #1 on the list by seniority in rank. Both these Chief were assigned to the 3rd Division which is the Bon-ton of the F.D.N.Y.
When the Chief of Department test took place, John T. wrote #1 and was #1 on the list. Next is his accomplishments as the Boss.
He introduced tower ladders and ladder trucks to respond at the same box. Tower Ladders introduced a new method of firefighting..
Made 1 3/4 inch lines standard into the service for residential fire’s upgrading from 1 1/2′
Upgraded rescues as water scuba teams and jaw’s of life.
Light weight scuba masks.
Through the Lock method of forcible entry.
Local Law # five- firefighting in Hi-Rise Building.
Firefighting standard of Ladder Companies using Chief Reagans Ladder #3.
John T. fought against the building of the twin Towers- He said many times if a airplane hit it, as it did to the Empire State Building,-The buildings would fail. He also said, 5000 square feet of fire the building would also fail. -John T. was ahead of hie time as proven by 911 incident.
To relieve overworked companies, He formed tactical control Units and finally Interchange of units to not only relief overworked units but to train slow companies to upgrade and keep them sharp.
Finally, he set the whole job to school to be taught how to fight fires in different buildings. And this was on their off tours on overtime.
In my opinion John T O’Hagan was he best Chief of Department we had or ever will have. Rest in Peace Chief – you did your best for the FIRE DEPARTMENT OF NEW YORK.
P.S. JOHN T. O"HAGAN not only was the Chief Of Department but was also Fire Commissioner at the same time and that my friends is tough to beat in any organization.
