fdny1075k said:
Detroit and Baltimore still go to a lot of fires, as do the major cities like NYC and Chicago. St. Louis, DC, Gary, IN still see work regularly. A lot of places that were burning 20 years ago like Newark and Camden, NJ have slowed down in recent years. I don't think theres any city in America that experiences the same volume of work as there was during the 60s and 70s.
"fdny1075" is absolutely correct. Once the FDNY War Years had started to slow down, many smaller cities in the northeast began to see a big increase in fire activity. In Connecticut it was cities like Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven. In Massachusetts it was cities like Worcester, Springfield, Lawrence, Lynn, and of course Boston and many of those surrounding cities. In Rhode Island it was Providence and a few cities around there. In New Jersey it was Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth, Paterson etc.
There was always something burning in these cities. Building fires every day, numerous car fires, rubbish fires. These fire departments were flowing water on something burning all the time.
Buffs hanging out with their scanners and cameras were almost assured of seeing one or two building fires a night. Boston had a hangout called "Whip City", around the corner from their Shops and the now closed Eng 43/Lad 20. Hartford had a Dunkin Donuts on Farmington Ave. Bridgeport had a Hamburger Stand on North Ave near the Route 25 expressway. Providence had the Burger King on Broad St, but before that it was a parking lot across the street from the old police/fire headquarters when they were still open.
In the 1980s, these cities all saw their share of work. But things started to change once the 1990s came in. On a much smaller scale, what the FDNY experienced during their War Years of the mid 60s and into the 70s, these other smaller cities were catching their own set of war years from a heavy increase in fire activity during the 80s.
A car fully involved was considered just a routine thing then. It was just a matter of putting the fire out, have the police get a wrecker to tow it away and be forgotten about. One afternoon sometime in the early 1990s, I remember such a car fire. After knocking down the fire, I noticed the chief showing up to this. I thought, "what's he doing here, checking up on us" ? "We can take care of this ourselves".
When the fire was knocked down the chief then called me aside. He told me he wants me to call for a Fire Marshall. I remember saying to him; "Chief are you kidding - for this" ? He then told me from now on, any car fires like this or involving property damage, we need to call a fire marshal. It was around that time that fire activity started to slow down.
Many cities began to investigate such fires. The ability to investigate fires through new high tech methods proved to be very effective. In addition, many insurance companies offered funds to buy equipment and give more training to fire marshalls investigating fires in an effort to cut down on their insurance claims. There was also an effort put forth by cities combining police officers, with fire marshalls (who had no arrest powers) to arrest and prosecute arsonist. Word was starting to spread that they will arrest people for setting fires. It worked.
Today for most of those cities, the fires have decreased dramatically. It had to be done. People were getting hurt and dying because of arson. Blocks of neighborhoods would be burned out. Cars were routinely stolen for joy rides, then set on fire. Or an owner would set his own car on fire to collect the insurance and use it to buy a new one.
In the meantime, although the fires have been greatly reduced, the runs for these fire depts is up much higher now. The fire calls have been replaced with a high number of runs like EMS calls. Back in the 1980s, fire depts would go to a trash can burning on the corner but not to somebody having a heart attack a block up the street.
These days it's sometimes hard for todays firefighters to understand how different things were 25-30 years ago. I can understand that because sometimes it even hard for guys who worked during those days to believe how busy it really was then too.
