Adelphi St. Anniversary

[jerseymike]

I was thumbing through my (very old) copy of 20,000 Alarms yesterday. One of the chapters was "October 16, 1970". It was about 2 firefighters who were rescued by Lt. Richard Hamilton and F/F Lou Polera at a cellar fire on Adelphi St. Just wondering if any of you older guys were there that night...

 

[nfd2004]

I wasn't there but as a buff, I remember reading about that rescue taking place. It was important to me because as a buff, I had just met Lt Hamilton and rode a couple of times with Rescue 2.

As I remember Those firefighter were trapped in the basement of a commercial building with tires burning in that basement. I think I read in WNYF Magazine at the time that it was so hot down there that it melted the metal ladder that was used to get those guys out.

 

[68jk09]

I was not there but was OTJ then.....the FF  (Polera)  first name was Bill....he & Dick Hamilton have since passed to a higher level as well as one of those rescued..his name was Geraghty he was a LT in 235 working that tour in 219  ....three of his Sons later came OTJ ...two Steve (Chief Rescue Operations ) & Tim (FF R*1)  are still OTJ....the third Ed RIP (BC BN*9) was killed on 9-11-01.....the Fire store was a bicycle shop.

 

[69 METS]

I was not there but was OTJ then.....the FF  (Polera)  first name was Bill....he & Dick Hamilton have since passed to a higher level as well as one of those rescued..his name was Geraghty he was a LT in 235 working that tour in 219  ....three of his Sons later came OTJ ...two Steve (Chief Rescue Operations ) & Tim (FF R*1)  are still OTJ....the third Ed RIP (BC BN*9) was killed on 9-11-01.....the Fire store was a bicycle shop.

I read the account of that rescue in the book "20,000 Alarms", sounded like they did an amazing job (to put it mildly). I worked with all three of the Geraghty sons at different points in my career.

 

[1261Truckie]

I was there that night. 132 responded as the 2nd alarm truck. When we arrived, no mention of the rescue that was under way was made. Our officer was reporting in to "command" and was being told to set up a ladder pipe on the exposure 2 side, when a guy from 105 came out from the building and yelled for help. Our lieutenant asked what's up and was told two guys fell into the basement and two guys from rescue are down there getting them. The lt told our chauffeur, tiller and me to set up the pipe and took the rest of the assignment inside to help out.
All were removed shortly, the fire went to a 3rd, hi-ex foam was used and it was a helluva night. The basement of that dump was full of tires.