Back when....

I believe there were around 60 Ward La France Civil Defense Pumper's that were to be used in case of an attack by a foreign country & to be  manned by Civil Defense Auxilliary FFs....since fortunately we were never directly attacked in the U.S. the Pumper's became kind of a spare pool for the FDNY.
 
Back in the early fifties, the federal govt., due to the cold war, bought and loaned CD pumpers to many cities.  New York was one of the cities. These pumpers were given a life span of a number of years. They were not to be used by the city except for major disasters.  In the late sixties and early seventies, the fire department fleet was in a shambles. At this time these pumpers became a major source in the spare pool.  As I remember these rigs were fast and loud.
An example of how bad the fleet was that one night Ladder 54 was sent a spare which was the tiller that was assigned to proby school. When the radio shops were notified that the spare needed a radio, they informed the Captain that it was a condemned rig and should not have left the "Rock."
In 1974 I went to Engine 75 and  the situation was not much better with the spare fleet.  I remember once doing at least 8-10 changes in a month's time.  One of these was done in the midddle of the afternoon on Fordam Rd and Kingsbridge, a major intersection in the Bronx.
 
Some spare rig stories....There was a Fifth Alarm on Grand nr Manhattan Av in Williamsburg one night around '69/'70...it came in around 1830...1 FF was on his way back from a detail & went to the scene in his car.....the Fire started in the heavily stocked basement of an Army & Navy store......... the bldg was the center bldg in a row of nine 3 story frames w/stores on the 1st fl & railroad flats above....all the stores had rear extensions on the 1st fl....the Fire really took off & got into the cockloft & spread to all 9 bldgs it was a cold January night & his car was frozen in several inches of frozen ice & stayed there for days.....our Aerial was caked in ice & frozen in place w/the Aerial up ......everything was caked in ice...i came in the next morning & we went to the scene.....the Dept Mech & the hydrant thawing rig's were attempting to melt ice on the rig's.... the Mech deemed ours out of service from hydraulic damage while trying to operate the frozen ladder.....the shops delivered a spare but it was a wooden Aerial that was uncovered.....the rule in those days was you had to take the wooden spare to a slower area & swap & take their covered Metal Aerial....the LT told me & another FF to take the wooden aerial to a particular QNS Co & swap it for theirs.....the weather was in the teens at best & the rig had no Tiller windshield just a seat & a wheel....i was Tillering... the FF driving was not familiar with where the particular Co we were going to was so i gave him directions since i knew where it was.....we went down Bushwick Av (lights & sirens in those days).....halfway there i was frozen myself.....in QNS we were speeding down Rockaway BLVD & he was supposed to cut off onto Liberty Av but he just kept going.... the buzzer to signal him to stop was broken & there were no HTs then....after going about 15 blocks too far in the freezing weather we got slowed down in traffic & i yelled to a PD car alongside to pull ahead & tell him to f'n stop......i re-directed him back to the FH.....nobody told them we were coming....the LT on duty there gruffly said "we can't take this rig.....the city just got a lawsuit against it because we were driving on the homeowners sidewalk across the st & damaged his sidewalk...we cant get this rig in & out w/out going on the sidewalk".......we got on the phone to tell our LT & get further instruction's ....our Company as well as our BN & DIV were still at the scene of the Fire so the LT where we were sent called his DIV who said "I'll get back to you"...we wound up eating lunch w/the QNS Co waiting to hear something (& finally thawing out)....around 1330 the DIV called & said to go to another LAD on the other side of his DIV so off we went again getting frozen in the process.....the 2nd place we got to was'nt too happy about giving up their rig but this was the policy ....the CPT there said to his FFs ....." i want this wooden piece of shit thoroughly washed & checked out before you take a thing off the regular rig".....this gave us some time to thaw out again......finally when he was satisfied he let them swap .....at least on the ride back there was a windshield in the Tiller.....we finally got back to BKLYN around 1600.....a cold day of doing nothing.............another time a few years later our rig broke down & the Mech said we had to get a spare.....he tried to send us a rearmount but we refused.....he said if you want a Tiller spare the only one available at this time is stored in a FH in Staten Island .....we said we'll take it....the messenger drove us to SI.....i was driving & another FF was in the Tiller......going along the BQE everything was going fine .....as i went down the exit ramp onto Flushing Av by the Navy Yard several people on the street were pointing & laughing.....i looked in the mirror & saw heavy smoke emitting from under the turntable area ...the rig had gone on Fire...it initially burned the wiring from the tiller buzzer so the Tillerman could not signal me when he first saw the smoke away's back....by the time ENG*211 arrived the rig was damaged seriously in the area under the turntable....now we had no choice but to take the original Rearmount spare..........changing over a LAD apparatus back then was not too much of a chore......very little in the way of equiptment carried compared to today.....one time we had a '60 American La France Tiller spare that had a bad set of gears.....after the first few runs 2nd & 3rd gear crapped out i had to start in 1st then rev it up & throw it into 4th then it would chug along till it got up to speed .....the LT called the shops who said as long as its running keep using it....the LT said to me OK it wont last long like this...the siren was bolted to the plywood roof covering just back from the windshield & after awhile from all the lurching the bolts ripped from the plywood the siren was now dangling in front of the windshield the rig lasted through the night doing about 20 runs before we got another spare...... . .one time in R*2 the rig broke down & the Mech said no spare Rescue rig was available so he sent us to the Sumner Ave Armory to get a spare pumper.....there was some miscommunication as to what Pumper to take & we wound up being given the wrong one....it was stored there awaiting repair because the rear wheels were not tracking properly....we loaded it up w/our eqiptment into the hose bed & went in Service....on the first run i looked in the mirror & something seemed off.....i thought it was the mirror arms ......after the run i fooled with the mirror arms a little.....then on the next run it looked even worse....by the time we got back to qtrs & I looked in the mirror while backing in it was obvious the whole rear had shifted....luckily we did not sideswipe any passing or parked cars.......... another time in R*2 we were sent to the shops & they said "you have to leave your rig here for at least several hours ".....they said take the one of the bosses unmarked Gran Fury sedans & go back to your qtrs & we will call you when it's ready.....the rig was outside so my LT said to me "pull the Fury in front of the rig where they can't see us".....i did & we put our masks & hand tools in the trunk...six guys w/gear in a sedan is tight...we went to 2 jobs before they called us back to the shop for the regular rig....the Shop bosses car smelled like smoke & the trunk & interior were smeared w/plaster.



 
And to think today, some guys get upset if the air conditioning in the rig doesn't work.
 
Chief JK,
132 Relocating to 108 (the old house), two stories, somewhere around late 1969 or early 1970:
1) Relocated to 108 sometime in the evening and were in their quarters when 108 returned from the job. We told them to clean up and we would stay until they were back in service. I was in the kitchen with a bunch of the guys and a bunch of cats. 108's men told us the cats kept the rats out of the house. Anyway I was sitting in a chair and this big gray cat was sitting in front of me giving me the eye. One of the 108 guys told me that the chair was the cat's favorite one and I better get out of it. I stood up and the cat dove onto the chair making a growl that let me know who the boss was.
2) While enroute to 108's quarters for an afternoon relocation, 132 got a run on the air. Not knowing the exact location of our box, the lieutenant asked the dispatcher for directions. The dispatcher asked where we were, and when he gave him the intersection the dispatcher asked if he could see two distinct columns of smoke. The lieutenant replied "yes" and the dispatcher told him "you are responding the column on the right".
As you often say "good times"
 
What I remember about the CD pumpers - they were made between 1953 to 1955. NYC received 65 of them. The FEDS said that they were assigned to firehouses throughout the city for 15 years. After that FDNY was able to use them. Some companies had them assigned as their regular rig, others became spares. They were 750 GPM pumpers.
 
In some cases they were handy because they had the booster reels that were handy for small rubbish and brush fires.
 
The CD pumpers originally had a lighter version of 2 1/2 " hose it was marked w/a red stripe if i remember correctly.......ENG*217-2 had one as their rig & it had the lighter 2 1/2 on it. 
 
memory master said:
In some cases they were handy because they had the booster reels that were handy for small rubbish and brush fires.
Click to expand...
Another nice feature was "Pump & Roll" that allowed the rig to move in low gear while pumping. The "Road, Pump, Pump and Roll" gear selector was at the bottom left of the pump panel.
 
My dad told me that when he was in E16 and they were going north from E25th street on a box and saw they had a car fire he would just ease a bit off the gas so 21 engine got in there first because they had the booster. 16 had the '54 Mack with no booster line.
 
The 2 1/2" hose came in handy in Engine 217-2. The only hose allowed in any type of building that was stretched from either the first or second section was a 2 1/2. The first section had an old timer for a captain and he would have it no other way. We operated that way up to the day we were disbanded in '72.
The CD pumpers were odd in that they had a vacuum clutch that was supposed to keep the clutch depressed until the MPO revved up the throttle. Most of them were broke by that time and you needed an MPO with long legs as he had one foot on the ground in front of the panel and the other on the clutch in the cab until he  shifted into pump position. I think that the only apparatus that could move in pump were the few '46 Wards with booster tanks.
 
There was a District Chief in Boston, I think it was either D-7 or 9, his way of operating was a big line (2 1/2 line) on ALL building fires. Woe be the company officer who ran a small line inside. His thought was you can always make a big line smaller but you ain't making a small line bigger. Chief Stapleton explained this guy in one of his books.
 
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