FDNY and NYC Firehouses and Fire Companies - 2nd Section

[mack]

Signal 8-8 Fire Buff Club - Richmond  (Staten Island):


Fire Engineering
Bells, Buffs and Blazes
01/01/1966
By Paul C. Ditzel

"When New York buffs get to reminiscing, they are likely to recall that most embarrassing of days when, fate of fates, the Third Alarm Association?s headquarters in the Bronx burned.
But it?s an ill wind that doesn?t blow someone some good, as the cliche goes, and this particular wind played a role in bringing a group of energetic young buffs on Staten Island to the fore.

When the TAA relocated in Manhattan, there was need for someone to provide canteen service on Staten Island. A group with a name as big as its ambition volunteered?the Richmond Association of Auxiliary Firemen-8-8 Fire Buff Club.

At that time, circa I960, the Staten Island buffs club was only two years old. And if it?s any source of pride to the many young buffs who write this column in search of encouragement, the Staten Island club was formed by a 15-year-old.

On January 24, 1961, the Staten Islanders entered into an agreement with the American Red Cross and the New York Fire Department. The pact called for the club to provide canteen service on Staten Island (or Richmond as the natives know it) 24 hours a day. The Staten Island Chapter of the Red Cross funded the operation and provided the equipment.

With a moniker as big as the one sported by the Richmondites, it wasn?t too long before they changed it. (The Super Pumper hadn?t yet been built and it would take a rig that big to carry all that hand lettering.)

In 1964, the club became The Signal 8-8 Fire Buff Club, Inc. But Staten Island wasn?t big enough to contain these enthusiasts and they have ranged fairly far in pursuit of the smoke spoor.
When a general alarm blaze struck a chemical plant in Garwood, N, J., the Signal 8-8 group turned out. The president of the chemical firm later wrote:
?The voluntary formation of the 8-8 Fire Buff Club for the purpose intended by private citizens is certainly strong evidence of the good citizenship and high public spirit of these men. Meeting this emergency was an outstanding example of intercommunity cooperation, for which all the people of our company are most grateful.?

After still another general alarmor - this one in Bayonne, N. J.?Fire Chief John T. Brennan wrote:
?The Islanders, who remained at the scene until the fire was brought under control early yesterday morning, are to he complimented for their work.?

When the worst fire in Staten Island?s history (April 20, 1963) destroyed more than 100 homes, 16 members and their wives worked with firemen, helped to evacuate citizens, and assisted at Red Cross shelters.

?In the five days that followed,? says Secretary John J. Kryger, ?members worked at Red Cross disaster headquarters in all capacities until all the victims were assisted. We do this at every fire involving a family. We check on the condition of the family after the blaze is under control. If assistance is required, we notify the Red Cross.?

What started out as an enthusiastic group of buffs in their teens, has become a club whose members now wear the FDNY blue, or serve in other fire service capacities. President John Jansen is with the Fire Patrol of the New York Board of Fire Underwriters; Vice President Roy N. Johnson is a fire alarm dispatcher in Manhattan; and Kryger, the club?s founder, is secretary.

Membership totals 23 and the outfit runs out of Room 100, 36 Richmond Torrace, Staten Island, N. Y. 10301. Their phone number, in case you?re in New York is YU 1-8951."


    Note - The "YU" in phone number was for "Yukon"

 

[mack]

There has also been a 6-6 Fire Buff Club mentioned in this site. I don't know if there has been any buff club associated with the Bronx. 

 

[mack]

Fire buff organizations history - 1960s:


Fire Engineering
BELLS BUFFS and BLAZES
05/01/1965
By Paul C. Ditzel

"TO BUFFS EVERYWHERE, New York City is without peer as the capital of buffdom. It?s a city of spectacularly big blazes and of disastrous fires: The Triangle Shirt Waist Co. fire; the famous Wooster Street blaze; and that fireman?s nightmare which regularly plagues the New York Fire Department?Hell?s Hundred Acres in lower Manhattan.

It?s a city of unusual fires: The recent Grand Central subway blaze; the highin-the-sky fire when an airplane crashed into the Empire State Building. It?s a city where some of the most rugged waterfront fire fighting is practiced: The SS Normandy blaze, the aircraft carrier Constellation disaster.

It?s a place where airliners collide over the city and come crashing down to set a five-alarm fire in a church and another multiple-alarm fire several blocks away.

It?s a city where one battalion chief gets so much action that a second battalion chief is moved into BC?s quarters to alternate with him on handling the alarms when the going gets rough.
It?s a city where buffs are as knowledgable about the complex procedure of fire alarm communications in that peculiar jargon of simultaneous borough calls and Signal 7-5 ?holding all companies? and radioed reports from Car 5 (the fire chief) that he?s ?doubtful will hold,? that many buffs concentrate on listening to the action on their radios and over alarm and telegraph registers. The fire isn?t nearly as interesting to them as the chess game that the dispatchers ?on the platform? play in juggling equipment and manpower of the world?s largest fire department.

New York is a City where there are more buffs per square mile than any place on earth. It?s a city where the buffs get to fires faster (usually by subway) than almost any city anywhere. It?s a place where buffs cannot lay claim to the title until they have seen a simultaneous borough-call blaze before they go off to buff Valhalla and, hopefully, return reincarnated as a New York City fire buff.

Amid this plethora of firemanics, buffdom in New York City also lays claim to having more organized clubs than anywhere else?five of them in the various boroughs. And, if you count the environs where there is always plenty of fire fighting, too, three more of them. All of which makes a total of eight clubs in the Greater New York area.  In this and future columns, well visit, if only vicariously, these clubs and look at some ot the worthwhile community service performed by them as the New York Fire Department celebrates the centennial of its organization.

The city?s two best-known clubs are The Fire Bell Club of New York and the Third Alarm Association. Brooklyn, which can usually stand alone as an action-packed place for fire action, has the energetic 255 Fire Club, Inc. Staten Island has its eager-to-serve Signal 8-8. And, of course, there is the wellknown Association of Auxiliary Firemen of Manhattan, Inc.
Small wonder, then, that the International Fire Buff Associates decided to hold their 1965 midwinter board meeting in New York not long ago. The Third Alarm Association (TAA) was host club for the meeting and provided a program of scheduled events and some unscheduled events?but nonetheless predictable. In the latter category, the buffs turned out to a five-alarmer in a foam rubber factory in Flushing, Queens, on a Friday night.

And just to prove that the unusual can be counted upon to happen in New York, consider what happened to the city?s new fire chief, John T. O?Hagan. It?s something that will go down in his and the buffs? record books.

The first multiple that Chief O?Hagan took in was a Saturday noontime blaze in a bowling alley near Broadway and 218th Street in Manhattan. They stopped it with second-alarm response. But not for long, because a firebug was not sated with a mere deuce.

The following evening, an alarm was again turned in for the bowling alley. Before Car 5 declared the fire under control, the affair had gone into a fourth alarm. Twenty-two TAA?ers responded with the American Red Cross canteen and operated at the scene for five hours.

When not counting the register taps, buffs are likely to be poring over the official FDNY magazine, ?WNYF? which is one of the finest publications of its kind. With New York Firemen? is popular with buffs all across the nation who subscribe to it for $2.00 by the calendar year. Subscriptions should be sent to Samuel Black, Subscription Department, WNFY, Room 1104, Municipal Building, New York, N. Y. 10007. The magazine is celebrating the centennial itself with special commemorative issues.

Or, if you want a quick eyeball-to-eyeball rundown on what happened in the FDNY last year, send a big envelope?and we mean a big envelope? with about 15 cents postage affixed to it to Ira Hoffman, GPO Box 19, Brooklyn, N. Y. 11202. Ira tells me that he has a limited supply of the complete list of runs and workers for the FDNY during 1964.

Until the next simultaneous borough call, please send your anecdotes and club reports to me. There?s a new address? P. O. Box 66337, Los Angeles, Calif. 90066. Regretfully, letters cannot be answered other than in this column."

 

[69 METS]

A picture of 255 Club members providing support to members at a fire:

   

My great uncle was very active in the 255 Club as well as the Auxiliary Fire Corps.

 

[JOR176]

There has also been a 6-6 Fire Buff Club mentioned in this site. I don't know if there has been any buff club associated with the Bronx.

The older guys on this site know that Manhattan and The Bronx boxes both the the prefix of 6-6  and that Brooklyn and Queens had the prefix of 7-7. The reason why is that all Manhattan boxes ended before Box 2000 and the Bronx boxes started at 2100. The Brooklyn and Queens prefix worked because the Brooklyn boxes ended at 3999 and the Queens Boxes started at 4000, This was during the time when that Bells were still in operation,this would not work today as you know there are 4000 boxes in both Queens and Bklyn.I hope you will understand what I'm trying to say here LOL. and old expression "you had to be there to see it or understand it"

 

[mack]

There has also been a 6-6 Fire Buff Club mentioned in this site. I don't know if there has been any buff club associated with the Bronx.

The older guys on this site know that Manhattan and The Bronx boxes both the the prefix of 6-6  and that Brooklyn and Queens had the prefix of 7-7. The reason why is that all Manhattan boxes ended before Box 2000 and the Bronx boxes started at 2100. The Brooklyn and Queens prefix worked because the Brooklyn boxes ended at 3999 and the Queens Boxes started at 4000, This was during the time when that Bells were still in operation,this would not work today as you know there are 4000 boxes in both Queens and Bklyn.I hope you will understand what I'm trying to say here LOL. and old expression "you had to be there to see it or understand it"

Richmond (Staten Island) boxes had the prefix 8-8.

 

[manhattan]

There has also been a 6-6 Fire Buff Club mentioned in this site. I don't know if there has been any buff club associated with the Bronx.

The older guys on this site know that Manhattan and The Bronx boxes both the the prefix of 6-6  and that Brooklyn and Queens had the prefix of 7-7. The reason why is that all Manhattan boxes ended before Box 2000 and the Bronx boxes started at 2100. The Brooklyn and Queens prefix worked because the Brooklyn boxes ended at 3999 and the Queens Boxes started at 4000, This was during the time when that Bells were still in operation,this would not work today as you know there are 4000 boxes in both Queens and Bklyn.I hope you will understand what I'm trying to say here LOL. and old expression "you had to be there to see it or understand it"

I'm not positive about this and if anyone cares to correct me please feel free to do so.  I believe that the highest box number in Manhattan (in the early 1960s, at least) was 1868 at Henry Hudson Parkway, 300 feet south of Dyckman Street Entrance.

There were unassigned box numbers from 1870 through 1899.

 

[fdhistorian]

Engine 95/Ladder 36 firehouse 29 Vermilyea Avenue Inwood, Manhattan  Division 7, Battalion 13 "The End of the Line"

    Engine 95 organized 29 Vermilyea Avenue w/Ladder 36                        1915

    Ladder 36 organized 1901 Sedgwick Avenue at Engine 43                    1908
    Ladder 36 disbanded                                                                          1913
    Ladder 36 reorganized 29 Vermilyea Avenue at Engine 95                    1915 

As can be seen in the early photos, the firehouse was lettered for Engine 95 and Ladder 50.
Ladder 36 was originally organized with Engine 43.  In 1913 Engine 43 and Ladder 36 became a combination company numbered 43.  In 1915, Combination 43 reverted to Engine 43 only, so number 36 was available for reassignment when Ladder 50 came up.  Ladder 36 was organized while Ladder 50 was later used for a new Ladder Company at Engine 89 in 1926.

The land engine quarters of Engine 43 (which Mack has not profiled yet) has been home to three different Ladder companies.
Prior to that, Engine 43 was the first Fireboat (Marine Company), "William F Havermeyer"

Ladder 36 was organized there, then disbanded when Engine 43 became a Combination company.
TCU 712 was stored at Engine 43 when off duty.
Ladder 59 moved there in 1978.  (Technically, Ladder 59 was organized from TCU 712)

Engine 43, in 114 years of history (as a land engine), hosted three Ladder companies, but only for a total of 47 years  (Ladder 36 1908-1913, TCU 712 1969-1971, Ladder 59 1978 to present)

 

[JOR176]

In reply #426 Manhattan stated that the last Box# in Manhattan was 18something that is in the parameters of up to 2000. I'm quite sure Chief JK knows that I'm correct in the way I explained it.

 

[mack]

Engine 43 (Marine)  Manhattan    DISBANDED

    Engine 43 organized East River                                          1875
    Engine 43 moved Pier 40 Pike Street East River                    1877
    Engine 43 moved Pier 1 Hudson River                                1879
    Engine 43 foot of Clinton Street East River                          1883
    Engine 43 moved Pier 55 Grand Street East River                1893
    Engine 43 moved foot of E 3rd Street East River                Unknown
    Engine 43 moved Pier 55 Grand Street East River                1894
    Engine 43 moved foot of E 5th Street East River                  1895
    Engine 43 moved foot of Grand Street East River                  1897
    Engine 43 moved foot of E 96th Street Harlem River            1898
    Engine 43 disbanded                                                          1903


Engine 43 history:

   

    In August of 1874, the Commission?ers contracted with Wood Dialogue & Company, Philadelphia, for the con?struction of a fireboat at contract price of $23,800. When placed in service on May 12, 1875, the boat, which had been named the WILLIAM F. HAVE?MEYER, was berthed at the foot of Pike Street. East River, and Engine Company 43 was organized to man her, with two officers, two engineers, pilot and five firemen. The HAVE?MEYER was a wood hull vessel and, like several of the early fireboats, had quarters aboard for the crew. In fact, these boats were moved from one lo?cation to another without any more preparation than running the fire alarm telegraph wires to provide a ship-to-shore connection. Until the time that John Kenlon became Chief of Department, the company number remained with a fireboat regardless of its location.

    - Marine 1 FDNY  http://marine1fdny.com/fireboat_history_new.php


Engine 43 fireboat:

    WILLIAM F. HAVEMEYER (1875-1901)
    "William F. Havemeyer"
    1875-1901
    106' x 22' x 10'
    6000 gpm
    "First" fireboat of the City of New York
    Wood hull
    Coal fired steam powered
    Quarters on boat for the crew

         

         

         

         

         

         


Harper's Weekly  Nov 11, 1882:

   

THE FIRE-BOAT OF NEW YORK HARBOR

    Not least important in the Fire Department of New York city is the harbor fire-boat William F. Havemeyer, or, as she is officially known, Engine No. 43, N.Y.F.D. This fire-boat is a powerful steam-tug of 110 tons burden, and was built in 1875 by Wood & Dialogue, of Camden, New Jersey, by order of Fire Commissioners Perley, Van Cott, and Hatch. She is propelled by a low-pressure engine of 300 horse-power, and is one of the swiftest tugs in the harbor. She has made the distance from her berth - Pier 1, North River, close beside Castle Garden-to the foot of West Twelfth Street in twelve minutes.

    For fire apparatus the Havemeyer is provided with two powerful Amoskeag pumps, capable of throwing 2000 gallons of water per minute. This immense volume of water can be thrown through ten separate lines of hose, or connected in one, from which it discharges with force sufficient to overthrow brick walls or tear down a substantial building.

    An amusing incident in the career of the fire-boat happened a few years ago, upon her return from a short excursion down the bay, with a party of Western chief engineers of fire departments on board. An elevator in Brooklyn was on fire, and several tub-boats were throwing streams of water upon it. As the Havemeyer approached, with a view of rendering assistance, and at the same time showing the Western visitors of what she was capable, the tugs directed the several streams against her for the purpose of driving her off. Instead, however, of leaving she turned two of her powerful streams upon them, and within five minutes had the field to herself having completely deluged her opponents. She then went to work and subdued the fire, to the great admiration of her guests.

    Her equipment includes nearly 5000 feet of the best rubber hose of which is three inches in diameter, the largest ever made, and a large assortment of nozzles, among which is a "Siamese," or double nozzle, and a "double Siamese," or quadruple nozzle. She is connected with the regular fire alarm of the city by a cable, which can be detached at an instant's notice, and with the several engine-houses by telephone.  Her fires are never allowed to go out, and a constant head of fifty pounds of steam is maintained in her boilers. She is always clear of her berth within a minute after receiving an alarm, ad has been cleared and got under way in thirty seconds.

    The crew of fourteen men is commanded by Captain R.R. Farrell, who ranks with the foreman of a land company, and Lieutenant W.C. Braisted, who ranks as assistant foreman. There are also two pilots, two engineers, three stokers, and five men who act as deck hands, or, at a fire, as firemen. The duty is arduous, for all hands must sleep on board, and though they may take their meals at their homes, no more than two men are allowed to leave the boat at a time, and at fires the work is incessant and more prolonged than that of land companies. The reasons of this prolonged duty is that the Havemeyer uses salt-water, she is employed to drench out fires that come within her reach, in order that Croton may not be wasted. Thus, during the holiday season last winter, she was stationed for ten days opposite the United States Storage Warehouse fire on South Street, during all of which time she kept a steady stream playing upon the smouldering ruins.

    The fire-boat is expected to answer all calls along the water-front of either river within the city limits, and upon her arrival at the scene of a fire her Captain reports to the Chief of Battalion in charge, and receives orders from him the same as a foreman of a land company. In addition to this duty, the fire-boat must be ready at all times to go to the assistance of any vessels getting on fire in the harbor, and, if necessary, must tow all vessels in dangerous proximity to the burning one to a place of safety, or tow away the burning vessel itself. On special occasions she has responded to calls beyond the city limits, once going as far as Tarrytown, and once, when Hoboken firemen were on a strike, rendering valuable assistance in subduing a fire that broke out on the Eagle-Steamship Company's pier, and saving much property.

    It is estimated that the Havemeyer has saved from destruction property worth more than her weight in gold, and realizing her importance, and also her inability to all calls made upon her along our constantly increasing line of water-front, the Fire Commissioners have ordered another fire-boat to be built. This new boat, now in the process of construction, will be considerably larger than the Havemeyer.

    The crew of the present fire-boat are an active, well-trained lot of men, who take great pride in their craft, and spend their spare time in burnishing her brass fittings, painting her wood-work, or in otherwise beautifying her. They have also on occasions exhibited great personal bravery, not only at fires, but while lying quietly at Pier 1. There is not one of them who is not ready to spring overboard in answer to a cry of distress, and several persons who have fallen or been thrown into the water in this vicinity owe their lives to the brave crew of the fire-boat Havemeyer.


Engine 43 - Confrontation at the Sanitation Docks - 1895:

On May 18, 1895, the New York Times reported on a confrontation between the Havemeyer and the Restless, a tugboat chartered to the city's Sanitation Department. A fire had broken out at the Sanitation Department's "dumping wharf". The wharf, a large wooden wharf near 46th Street was used to load barges with the city's garbage. Tugboats, like the Restless, would then tow the barges out to sea, where it was dumped.

A colony of homeless men the New York Times called "wharf rats", lived in spaces within the wharf, where they supported themselves by salvaging bottles, rags, and other refuse that had resale value.The New York Times blamed the fire on cooking fires the homeless men used to cook their breakfasts.

When the Havemeyer arrived at the wharf it found that the Restless was already fighting the fire with its less powerful pumps. When the Restless refused to get out of the way the Havemeyer turned its pumps on it. The New York Times reported that the smaller vessel was at risk of being swamped. The conflict between the two vessels consumed fifteen minutes, only ending when a senior fire department official convinced a senior Sanitation Department official to order the Restless to get out of the way.

The fire was eventually extinguished when The New Yorker came to assist the Havemeyer.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Frederick_Havemeyer_(fireboat)


Engine 43 LODD:

    ENGINEER JOHN BULGAR, E-43 (Fireboat Havemeyer) detailed to E-29  OCTOBER 28, 1890

          Thrown from tender while responding to a fire.

          Engineer of Steamer John Bulger was assigned to FDNY Engine Company 43, the fireboat William F. Havemeyer. No information on his death could be found except for a telephone message from Foreman Cooney of Engine 29 to Doctor Johnson in the dispatcher?s logbook. Engineer of Steamer Bulger was detailed to Engine 29 probably to relieve the Engineer of Engine 29 for a meal break. Engines 29 and 43 were located close to each other.

          The following is a transcript of a telephone message from Foreman Cooney to Dr. Johnson relayed through the dispatchers:

              ?Fireman Bulger of Engine 43 detailed to Engine 29 was thrown from the tender while proceeding to a fire and was hurt about the head. Was taken to Chambers Street Hospital. He died at 3:20 p.m. in the hospital.?

          The fire was at 194 Broadway in a five-story brownstone measuring twenty-five feet by one hundred feet. Damage to building and contents was slight.    - from "Find a Grave"

    RIP.  Never forget.

 

[mack]

Engine 43/Ladder 59  firehouse  University Heights, Bronx Division 7, Battalion 17 "Best in the West" "Sedgwick Slashers"

    Engine 43 organized new firehouse 1901 Sedgwick Avenue          1904
    Engine 43 became Combined Engine 43                                      1904
    Combined Engine 43 became Engine 43                                      1908
    Engine 43 became Combined Engine 43                                      1913
    Combined Engine 43 became Engine 43                                      1915

    Ladder 36 organized 1901 Sedgwick Avenue at Engine 43            1908
    Ladder 36 disbanded                                                                  1913
    Ladder 36 reorganized 31 Vermilyea Avenue at Engine 95            1915

    Ladder 59 organized 1264 Boston Road at Engine 85                    1972
    Ladder 59 moved 1901 Sedgwick Avenue at Engine 43                1978


1901 Sedgwick Avenue:

   

   

   

   

   


Ladder 59 1264 Boston Road 1972-1978 - "Tin House":

   

   


Engine 43:

   

   

   

   


Ladder 59:

   

   

   

   

   

   

   


Workers - 1980s:

   

   

   

   

   


Engine 43/Ladder 59:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzpqLs_xAyA

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_LN8py3Plg

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuitiUZlh2Q

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GKIFOEt10k


Engine 43/Ladder 59 Medals:

    THOMAS J. MC GRATH FF. ENG. 43 OFF DUTY MAR. 9, 1976 1977 STEUBEN

    PHILIP A. DELVECCHIO FF. ENG. 43 L-59 JUN. 18, 1986 1987 FDR

         

              July 1979 - Feb 1991 Firefighter Engine 73 and Ladder 59
              Feb 1991 - June 1996 Lieutenant Engine 64
              Jun 1996 - Feb 2003 Captain Ladder 59
              Feb 2003 - Nov 2008 Battalion Chief, Battalion 27
             
    JOHN J. FANNING (2) FF. LAD. 59 FEB. 4, 1977 1978 WAGNER

         

          BC John Fanning - LODD - World Trade Center September 11, 2001

         

          http://bravestmemorial.net/html/members_individual/fanning_john/newsdaycom_chiefjfanning.html

    FRANK PAMPALONE LT. LAD. 59 JAN. 21, 1980 1981 FIRE CHIEFS

         

    JOHN CALAMARI FF. LAD. 59 OCT. 18, 1982 1984 DELEHANTY

         

          http://nycfire.net/forums/index.php?topic=25861.0

    FRANK PAMPALONE LT. LAD. 59 MAY 28, 1983 1984 KRIDEL

    PATRICK R.CONCANNON FF. LAD. 59 JUN 10, 1984 1985 EMERALD

         

    JOHN F. CALAMARI FF. LAD. 59 JAN. 29, 1986 1987 PIPES & DRUMS

         

    RICHARD JACQUIN CAPT. LAD. 59 L-27 AUG. 21, 1988 1989 NYS HONORARY FIRE CHIEFS

    RICHARD JACQUIN CAPT. LAD. 59 L-27 AUG. 21, 1988 1989 JAMES GORDON BENNETT

          Capt. Richard Jacquin was awarded the James Gordon Bennett Medal for bravery and rescues performed at Box  5-5-2935, 1748-54 Jerome Avenue, August 21, 1988 at the "El Hoyo Social Club fire".  The El Hoyo Social Club was an illegal cellar social club on the corner of 175th Street. Capt. Jacquin, working overtime in Ladder 27, responded as the second-due truck. Capt. Jacquin, Fr. Fennell and Fr. Forsyth went towards the entrance to Joe?s Auto Repair shop. There were several civilians frantically trying to raise the roll down gate of the repair shop. The civilian?s efforts jammed the roll down gate. It was stuck and it was only raised 2 feet above the floor. Heavy smoke was coming out of the gate. Captain Jacquin deployed his search rope and he, Fr. Fennell and Fr. Forsyth entered the auto repair shop. The smoke condition was heavy and fire was raging in the cockloft. They made their way toward the rear of the shop. They came upon two large dogs that had succumbed to the smoke. As they made their way deeper into the shop, they found an open stairway. High heat was coming out of the stairway. They descended the stairway, into the rising heat.  Half way down the stairway, they found an unconscious man. Captain Jacquin removed him to the outside of the building where he was turned over to EMS personnel that started CPR.  Ladder 27?s forcible entry team continued their search for trapped occupants. Captain Jacquin re-entered the cellar where he found Fr. Dennis Fennell with an unconscious female. He helped Fr. Fennell carry the victim up the stairs and over the obstacles deep in the auto repair shop to the street and they began resuscitation on the female victim.   
 
          http://www.fdnysbravest.com/El_Hoyo_Social_Club_February_Newsletter_2017.pdf

         

    CHARLES F.MAGRATH LT. LAD. 59 JUL. 2, 1989 1990 FIRE MARSHALS

    KENNETH C. SMITH FF. LAD. 59 JUL. 31, 1990 1991 CONRAN

    KARL W. LOEHMANN FF. LAD. 59 HEALTH SERVICE NOV. 17, 1991 1991 1992 HONOR LEGION

         

    DOUGLAS C. HANTUSCH FF. LAD. 59 R-3 NOV. 7, 1994 1994 1995 KRIDEL

    ROBERT HAGAN LT. LAD. 59 1998

    JOHN K. BARRETT FF. LAD. 59 FEB. 5, 1997 1998 GOLDENKRANZ

    JOHN K. BARRETT FF. LAD. 59 OCT. 23, 1998 1999 FIRE MARSHALS

    THOMAS G. O?SHEA FF. LAD. 59 EMERALD SOCIETY 2004

    ALFRED J. RONALDSON FF. LAD. 59 JUL.16, 2009 2010 PRENTICE

          Box 75-4797 0010 hours

         

    JAMES F. ROGERS CAPT. LAD. 59 FEB.7, 2010 2011 PULASKI

          Box 75-2986 0341 hours

         

    CODY J. BAKER FF. LAD. 59 NOV. 24, 2013 2014 KRINDEL

          Box 75-2989 1232 hours

         

    JOHN COLON FF. LAD. 59 DEC. 11, 2013 2014 KANE

          Box 75-2961 0936 hours

         


Engine 43 LODDs:

    FIREFIGHTER CHARLES E. PARKS ENGINE 43 November 8, 1907

          Fireman Charles E. Parks was killed when he was thrown from the hose wagon while responding to an alarm at 1:40 in the morning. This was not the first time that Fireman Parks was thrown from apparatus. On October 4, 1902 he was operating the tiller of Hook and Ladder 8 while responding to a two-alarm fire at 142 to 144 Worth Street in Manhattan. The truck struck some planking in the road at the intersection of White and Elm Streets near the quarters of Engine 31 causing the severe jolt that threw Parks from the heavy apparatus. He was taken into quarters and a doctor was summoned. Dr. Rea of Hudson Street Hospital diagnosed a concussion and had Parks taken to the hospital in critical condition. He survived the incident. Fireman Parks was appointed to the Fire Department on February 1, 1900 and assigned to Engine 43 on April 1, 1904. Born on July 19, 1873, he lived at 2548 Hoffman Street in the Bronx.      - From "The Last Alarm"

    FF GARY M. VALENTINO, ENGINE 43, DETAILED DIVISION 7 AIDE, NOVEMBER 26, 2010

          FF Gary Valentino, a 13 year veteran, was assigned to Engine 43 and was detailed as driver for the 7th Division Chief. He died from a heart attack while working a tour of duty. 

         
                 
          http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/veteran-firefighter-gary-valentino-dead-found-unconscious-firehouse-bunk-article-1.454137

          https://nypost.com/2010/12/09/firefighter-found-dead-in-throggs-neck-station-died-of-natural-causes-city/

    RIP. Never forget.


Engine 43/Ladder 59 History:

    "43 ENGINE, 59 TRUCK"
    By LARRY WOODCOCK Columnist
    1st Responder Newspaper

    "The University Heights neighborhood of the Bronx is better known for the Bronx Community College and its Hall of Fame. To me, it?s known for the home of 43 Engine and 59 Truck, a place I frequent and consider myself lucky to be associated with.

    When I first came here in early 2002 during my firehouse tour, I became friends with since retired Fireman Shawn Boland. After hanging out for the day, it was easy to see that this place was squared away. Although quite a few of those guys from then have retired or were promoted, the tradition and the camaraderie amongst the current members is apparent. This is a testament to the dedication that goes into maintaining what this house and this job have: history and a lot of it.

    The reputation of 43 and 59 precedes them, no matter whom you ask. They are a good mix of predominantly guys with ten years on and a few old timers, who make for an interesting bunch to say the least.

    At times when I showed up solo or not, the time has always been interesting and down right comical. It is the same circus, just different clowns as they say. I?m always asked, ?are you staying for the meal, either way your IN.? This is one reason to never show up empty handed.

    I attended many company functions from taking pictures to getting shirts and patches. The sentiment is always the same. ?Larry whatever you need.?

    Their firehouse was built and completed in 1903. The two story red brick structure has an ornate lion?s head medallion in the center of the second floor exterior. The house was built for $35,000. It is located at the corner of Burnside and Sedgwick Avenues, overlooking the Major Deegan Expressway. This house was the design of Arthur Hogan and Vincent Slattery. The two architects, at the time, were well connected politically and had quite a number of civic properties.

    They are most famous for Manhattan Landmark and the National Registry of Historic Places, the Hall of Records also known as the Surrogate?s Court. That is a seven story structure located at 31 Chambers Street. They also designed two other firehouses for the city during their tenure in the early 1900?s.

    The University Heights neighborhood dates back to 1894, when New York University?s Bronx campus was built. It was later renamed Bronx Community College, in 1973. The college houses the country?s original Hall of Fame, which is an open air colonnade with bronze busts of 102 of the most influential people in American history.

    Today the neighborhood population stands at over 42,000. Once the Jerome Avenue elevated train opened in 1917, the once farm community became a home, where the well-to-do had their mansions and villas. It was soon transformed to the present day five and six story h-types with old and new law tenements, along with taxpayers that make up the current landscape.

    It is also home to Richmond Plaza, a series of 42 story high rises. These are the tallest buildings in the Bronx.

    From a historical view, University Woods, a small park located between Cedar and Sedgwick Avenues, was used as a fort by British troops during the Revolutionary War. It still contains a pathway with the original stone walls used by the troops.

    Although not in the same neighborhood but worthwhile, take a walk over to the intersection of the Grand Concourse and 193rd Street to a small park. You will find a small cottage which was the last home of legendary American Writer Edgar Allen Poe. This is a piece of history worth visiting.

    The number 43 once belonged to the first fireboat to serve the FDNY and was established in April of 1875. It was relocated several times.

    In 1877, it appeared first at Pier 40 at Pike Street at the East River. It then moved to Pier 1 in 1879 at the foot of Clinton Street at the East River.

    In 1883, it relocated to Pier 55 at Grand Street at the East River. In 1893, it moved to the foot of East 3rd Street at the East River. Number 43 moved back to Pier 55 in 1894. In 1895, it moved over to the foot of East 5th Street. In 1897 they it returned to Pier 55. In 1898 it moved to the foot of East 96th Street at the Harlem River, where they would remain until being disbanded in October of 1903.

    They were reorganized as 43 Engine, a land unit on May 1, 1904 at their present location.

    59 Truck is considered a newborn by FDNY standards. It was organized as Tactical Control Unit 712 in 1969 and quartered with 82 and 31. In 1971, they moved in with 85 Engine on Boston Road. They disbanded in 1972 to become 59 Truck and were relocated to 43 Engine in April of 1978.

    Both companies have several individual medal winners as well as unit citations. 43 Engine had one line duty death in their history.

    I have to thank Lieutenant Cordaro, Lieutenant Fagan, Pops, Buzzo, the Wahoo, Falesto, TZ, Carmona, Klett, Frace, Tesi, Trahey, Tierney, Donaghy, Ronaldson, Olmstead, Colon, Pagan, Sierra, Walsh, Klammer, Coleman, Kerrigan, Kuhens and all members of 43 and 59, past and present, for accepting me and allowing me to be part of your house. They always treat me like more than just a guest. They are the epitome of class and I will never be able to thank them. And lastly to one of the closest people in my life, Stan Aviles, thank you for being the friend that you are."

          http://www.1strespondernews.com/webpages/news/displaynews.aspx?ID=0464a7c8-9413-4593-a9ee-191bbf2188ab


University Heights:

   

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_Heights,_Bronx

    http://forgotten-ny.com/2008/03/university-heights-bronx/

 

[mack]

El Hoyo Social Club Fire
Box 5-5-2935
1748-54 Jerome Avenue, Bronx


Division 7 Training and Safety Newsletter - February 2017

"On August 21, 1988, the weather was warm and sunny.  In the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) in the Bronx, routine tasks were being conducted and Multi-Unit Drills were taking place. 

At 1748 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, a single story taxpayer stood at the corner of E. 175 Street.  The building was 50 feet x 100 feet.  The building contained six stores, four fronting on Jerome Avenue, and two fronting on East 175 Street.  In the cellar of this building, there was an illegal social club called ?El Hoyo? (aka:  ?The Cave? or ?The Hole?).  The only entrance to this illegal club was off of the Jerome Avenue side.  There was a stairway approximately 10 feet from the front of the building.  The stairway entrance was flush with the floor and the wooden stairway was steep. 
Inside the club in the cellar, the ceiling was low (7 feet).  There were candles burning in the club.  There was a bar towards the front of the occupancy.  There was no sprinkler system, automatic alarms or fire extinguishers in the social club.  There was no emergency lighting.

There was a confiscated salad oil bottle filled with gasoline that a patron brought to the club a week before.  A Bouncer searched a man attempting to enter the club with the container on his person.  The Bouncer found the container, and then ejected the patron.  The Bouncer kept the container filled with gasoline.  It was being stored behind the bar. 

At around noon, the club was filled with patrons.  There were estimates from the Fire Marshals that there were as many as 150 people in the small club.  Loud music was playing.  It was a party atmosphere.  The salad oil container filled with gasoline was discovered to be knocked over.  A barmaid attempted to clean up the spill coming from the container when suddenly, the fluid ignited.  The possible ignition source was from one of the candles burning at the bar area.  The fire spread quickly and the entire club filled with smoke.  The heat and smoke banked down due to the low ceilings. 

The area where the fire started was near the stairway, the only exit out of the occupancy.  Panic ensued as the patrons flooded the exit.  The people charged up the steep wooden stairway until the means of egress was no longer passable.  The only exit out was being consumed by fire.  Many people were able to escape, some could not.  The exiting patrons had to climb through the thermal levels.  The heat was unbearable as they came closer to the ceiling level.  There were eight trapped people.  They were trapped in the El Hoyo Social Club inferno. 
Three of the trapped occupants worked their way to the rear of the social club.  They were able to breach a wall that lead to the occupancy to the rear of the club, the cellar of Joe?s Auto Repair.  On the floor of the cellar of the auto repair shop were tires, auto parts, and general debris.  The three escaping people became overcome with smoke as they attempted to traverse across the cellar floor of Joe?s Auto Repair.

Outside, someone ran to the fire alarm box at the corner of Jerome Avenue and West 175 Street.  The Bronx Communications Office received ERS (Emergency Reporting System) Box 2935 at 1237 hours.  Engine 42, Engine 75, Ladder 33, Ladder 27 and Battalion 19 were dispatched.  Captain Michael Giovinazzo was working overtime in Engine 42 for the day tour.  As they approached Jerome Avenue from E. 175 Street, he could see a large cloud of smoke in the sky.  At 1240 hours, Engine 42 arrived and transmitted a 10-84 and a 10-75.  Engine 46 and Engine 43 were dispatched.  The Bronx Fire Dispatchers also sent Rescue 3 and Ladder 59 due to numerous phone calls reporting a fire in a social club.  These units were sent before Engine 42 arrived.
 
Battalion Chief Michael Towey of Battalion 19 arrived at the fire at 1241 hours. He saw:  1) Many civilians in the street in a frenzy attempting to help the Firefighters as they arrived; 2) Smoke and fire coming out of the crack in the sidewalk between the building and the sidewalk; and 3) A heavy fire condition in the stores at ground level that had extended from the cellar social club occupancy.  He called the Bronx Fire Dispatcher and requested ambulances respond for the numerous injured people and the New York Police Department (NYPD) respond for crowd control.  At 1244 hours, B.C. Towey transmitted a 2nd alarm. 

Capt. Giovinazzo of Engine 42 ordered his Firefighters to stretch a 2 ? inch hand line to the entrance to the El Hoyo Social Club.  Fr. Jim Fearon had the nozzle.  He had an arduous task of trying to advance the hose line down the stairway to the social club.  Capt. Giovinazzo mistakenly thought the stairs had burned away.  Engine 42 lied prone on the floor trying to knock down the fire coming out of the stairway opening.

Ladder 33 arrived as the first due Ladder Company led by Capt. Jimmy Gallagher.  Also working in Ladder 33 that day were Fr. John Rafferty, Fr. Joe Maggi, Fr. John Clarke, Fr. Anthony Pascucci, and Fr. James Graney.  They saw the fire was extending upward and into three of the four stores on the Jerome Avenue side and into the cockloft.  They
commenced forcible entry of roll down gates.  They laddered the front of the building and started performing a search of the area above the fire. 

Ladder 27 was the second to arrive Ladder Company.  Captain Richard Jacquin of Ladder 59 was working overtime in Ladder 27 for the day tour.  Also working in Ladder 27 was Fr. Tom Murphy, Fr. John Clavin, Fr. Dennis Fennell, Fr. Joe Kisonas and Fr. Jim Forsyth.  Fr. Murphy positioned Ladder 27?s apparatus on the exposure 4 (E. 175 St.) side of the building.  He raised the aerial ladder to the roof.  Captain Jacquin, Fr. Fennell and Fr. Forsyth went towards the entrance to Joe?s Auto Repair shop.  There were several civilians frantically trying to raise the roll down gate of the repair shop.  The civilian?s efforts jammed the roll down gate.  It was stuck and it was only raised 2 feet above the floor.  Heavy smoke was coming out of the gate. 

Captain Jacquin deployed his search rope and he, Fr. Fennell and Fr. Forsyth entered the auto repair shop.  The smoke condition was heavy and fire was raging in the cockloft.  They made their way toward the rear of the shop.  They came upon two large dogs that had succumbed to the smoke.  As they made their way deeper into the shop, they found an open stairway.  High heat was coming out of the stairway.  They descended the stairway, into the rising heat.  Half way down the stairway, they found and unconscious man.  Captain Jacquin removed him to the outside of the building where he was turned over to EMS personnel that started CPR.  Ladder 27?s forcible entry team continued their search for trapped occupants.  Captain Jacquin re-entered the cellar where he found Fr. Dennis Fennell with an unconscious female.  He helped Fr. Fennell carry the victim up the stairs and over the obstacles deep in the auto repair shop to the street.  Fr. Fennell began resuscitation on the female victim.
 
While Ladder 27 was making entry into the auto repair shop, Fr. Ed Marcoux of Ladder 59 used the saw with the metal cutting blade to gain better access to the auto repair shop. Captain Jacquin reentered the cellar for the third time.  When he made it down the scorching cellar stairs, he found Fr. Jim Forsyth with an unconscious male.  He was struggling to remove him to safety.  Both he and Captain Jacquin were able to remove the unconscious man to the street where resuscitation efforts were started.

Deputy Chief Tom Moran of Division 7 was dispatched on the 10-75.  As he was responding, D.C. Moran requested that an additional Battalion Chief be dispatched to act as a Victim Tracking Coordinator. 

When he arrived, he was briefed by Battalion Chief Mike Towey of Battalion 19.  B.C. Towey was put in charge of the attack on the Jerome Avenue side of the building.  Then, at 1249 hours, Deputy Chief Moran transmitted a 3rd Alarm. 
Deputy Chief Moran decided to employ an alternative attack point.  He ordered Ladder 44 to open a sidewalk cellar gate on the exposure 4 side of the building.  The El Hoyo occupancy was one occupancy away from the sidewalk cellar gate entrance.  Battalion Chief Bill Peterman of Battalion 17 was ordered to supervise this operation.  Ladder 44 was being led by Captain Ed Handibolde.  Lieutenant Gary Connelly of Engine 92 ordered his firefighters to advance a hose line into the sidewalk cellar gate.  The heat was high enough that Lieutenant Connelly feared flashover in the narrow cellar entrance. 

The alternative attack plan that was being conducted by Engine 92 and Ladder 44 was showing progress.  Ladder 44 was able to breach a gypsum block wall which led them to the bar area of the El Hoyo social club.  Engine 92 was able to extinguish the fire near the front of the cellar occupancy.

Deputy Chief Moran of Division 7 developed a command structure for the fire.  He was unable to establish a Command Post for at least 20 minutes into the fire due to the uncontrolled frenzied civilians in the street.  He deployed Battalion Chief Towey of Battalion 19 to the front of the building, Battalion Chief Peterman to the operation at the sidewalk cellar gate on exposure 4, Acting Battalion Chief John Ievolo of Battalion 27 was sent to supervise the roof and the rear of the
building, and Battalion Chief Tom Rappe of Battalion 56 was put in charge of coordinating search efforts from the rear of the building.
 
Unable to advance a hose line into the cellar from the front of the building (Jerome Avenue), Capt. Gallagher of Ladder 33 ordered his members to enter the store over the fire to cut a hole to vent the fire away from the stairway.  Fr. John Clarke and Fr. Jack Rafferty of Ladder 33 entered the store above El Hoyo and performed this tactic.  Engine 75 moved their back-up hose line into the store to protect these firefighters.  Engine 42 was lying on the floor with the hose line trying to get an angle with their hose stream to attempt to cool the cellar ceiling.
 
Engine 92?s hose line was making progress in the cellar.  Ladder 33?s forcible entry team made it down the interior stairs and began searching for trapped occupants.  Captain Jimmy Gallagher of Ladder 33 found an unconscious male near the bar area.  This male was removed up the stairway to the street where CPR was administered.  One minute later, another two fire victims were found near the bar area.  Another minute passed, and another fire victim was found near the rest rooms.  There were now seven victims found and removed from the building.  CPR was being administered in the street to these victims. 

Deputy Chief Tom Moran of Division 7 was now experiencing the nightmare of every Fire Chief; multiple fire victims in an uncontrolled fire.  With the initial reports of between 60 to 200 people trapped, Chief Moran transmitted a 4th Alarm at 1312 hours.  One minute later, another fire victim was found by the rear bar.  This would be the last fire victim of the El Hoyo Social Club.

EMS personnel informed Deputy Chief Moran that some of the victims that were removed from the cellar inferno had been declared dead.  A make-shift morgue was set up at the gas station. The Rev. Julian Deeken, a Fire Department chaplain, administers last rites to covered bodies at a temporary morgue across the street on E. 175 Street.  Six of the eight trapped people would eventually perish.
 
Operating firefighters were physically and emotionally exhausted.  Deputy Chief Moran transmitted a 5th Alarm for relief purposes at 1332 hours.  The fire was placed ?Probably will Hold? at 1352 hours and declared ?Under Control? at 1407 hours. 

FDNY Firefighters were pushed to their limits trying to rescue the poor souls that were trapped in this illegal social club.  Ladder 33, Ladder 44, and Engine 92 were awarded Unit Citations.  Fr. James Forsyth of Ladder 27 was awarded the ?Thomas E. Crimmins Medal?, Fr. Dennis Fennell of Ladder 27 was awarded the ?Walter Scott Medal? and Captain Richard Jacquin of Ladder 59 was awarded the FDNY?s highest medal, the ?James Gordon Bennett Medal.?"

    http://www.fdnysbravest.com/El_Hoyo_Social_Club_February_Newsletter_2017.pdf


    http://www.stevespak.com/fires/bronx/66-55-2935.html

    https://www.apnews.com/30495d945e90d0ecf16924f28440b4ab

 

[nfd2004]

The El Hoyo Social Club fire occurred only about two years prior to the Happyland Social Club fire, which took the lives of 87 civilians. 

After these two fatal fires in these illegal social clubs, the FDNY formed a Special Fire Marshalls Task Force to shut down such operations. There were numerous such operations going on throughout the city and something had to be done.

 

[mack]

Happy Land Social Club Fire - Illegal club fire kills 87 - March 25, 1990

   


"Happy Land Fire" - Wikipedia

Location
    1959 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460
    West Farms, Bronx, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date
    March 25, 1990; 28 years ago
Time
    3:00 a.m. EDT
Target
    Happy Land Social Club
Attack type
    Arson, mass murder
Deaths
    87
Non-fatal injuries
    6
Perpetrator
    Julio Gonz?lez
Motive
    Argument with girlfriend

"The Happy Land fire was an act of arson that killed 87 people trapped in the unlicensed Happy Land social club at 1959 Southern Boulevard in the West Farms section of the Bronx in New York City on March 25, 1990. Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival, many of them part of the Garifuna American community. Unemployed Cuban refugee Julio Gonz?lez, whose former girlfriend was employed at the club, was arrested soon afterward and ultimately convicted of arson and murder.

Before the blaze, Happy Land was ordered closed for building code violations during November 1988. Violations included lack of fire exits, alarms or sprinkler system. No follow-up by the fire department was documented.
Julio Gonz?lez served three years in prison in Cuba in the 1970s for desertion of the Cuban Army. In 1980, he faked a criminal record as a drug dealer to help him gain passage in the Mariel boatlift.The boatlift landed in Florida; he then traveled to Wisconsin and Arkansas and eventually settled in New York, sponsored by the American Council for Nationalities in Manhattan.

Six weeks before the fire, he split up with his girlfriend, Lydia Feliciano. Before that, Gonz?lez had lost his job at a lamp factory in Queens. At the time of the fire, he was two weeks behind on the rent of his room, and the owner of the boarding house where he was staying said of him: "From what I know, he was down to his last hope."

Incident

The evening of the fire, Gonz?lez had argued with his former girlfriend, Feliciano, who was a coat check girl at the club, urging her to quit. She claimed that she had had enough of him and did not want anything to do with him anymore. He was ejected by the bouncer about 3:00 a.m. local time. He was heard to scream drunken threats, such as that he would "shut this place down."

Gonz?lez went to an Amoco gas station, then returned to the establishment with a plastic container with $1.00 worth of gasoline. He spread the fuel at the base of a staircase, the only access into the club, and then ignited the gasoline.

Eighty-seven people died in the resulting fire. Nineteen bodies were found downstairs; the others upstairs. Six bodies were found within several feet of the front door.Some of those trapped punched a hole through a wall to an adjoining union hall[clarification needed] in an attempt to escape. Most of the deaths were from asphyxiation or due to having been trampled. Most of the victims were young Hondurans celebrating Carnival, largely drawn from members of the local Garifuna American community.The fire was the deadliest in New York City since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, and the deadliest in the United States since the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in Puerto Rico in 1986.

Initial reports indicated that only three persons survived the blaze, but later reports gave the number of survivors as five or six. Among them were Feliciano, the club owner?s wife, and a disc jockey. The disc jockey was hospitalized in guarded condition with second and third-degree burns over half his body.

The blaze was extinguished in just five minutes, with 150 firemen having responded."

   
   


Firehouse Magazine:

   

   

   


    https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Publications/NFPA-Journal/2013/January-February-2013/News-and-Analysis/Looking-Back

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dKoN5TTDHI

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFbV2WY0V4g

 

[mack]

Engine 77 (Marine)  Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens/Staten Island        BECAME MARINE 7

    Engine 77 organized foot of Gansevoort Street Hudson River Manhattan            1903
    Engine 77 moved foot of Main Street East River Brooklyn                                  1904
    Engine 77 moved foot of Beekman Street East River Manhattan                        1911
    Engine 77 moved Seaside landing, Far Rockaway Queens                                  1922
    Engine 77 moved foot of Hyatt Street Staten Island                                          1922
    Engine 77 moved foot of Beekman Street Manhattan                                        1922
    Engine 77 moved new firehouse foot of Fulton Street East River                        1931
    Engine 77 disbanded to organize Marine 7                                                        1959

Fireboats:

    Abram S. Hewitt                                                    1903-1922
    New Yorker                                                            1922-1931
    William J. Gaynor                                                  1931-1959


Firehouse Beekman Street East River Manhattan 1911-1922:

   


Firehouse Fulton Street 1931-1959:

   

   

   

   

   



Engine 77 Fireboat Abram S. Hewitt: 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   


Engine 77 Fireboat New Yorker:

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   


Engine 77 Fireboat William J. Gaynor:   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

[mack]

Engine 77 (Marine) continued:

Engine 77 Medal:

    EUGENE E. KENNY CAPT. ENG. 77 JUN. 25, 1958 1959 TODD

        Midnight June 24, two ships collided just east of the Manhattan Bridge. A freighter, "Nebraska", was bound from New Haven to Newark.  A tanker, "Empress Bay", was traveling from the Bayway Refinery, Linden, N.J., to Mount Vernon, N.Y.  Captain Kenny commanded the first fireboat to respond and led efforts to save members of both crews. In the maneuver to save the crew of the "Nebraska", many of whom were forced to the extreme stern, the "Gaynor" was caught under the big ship?s fantail, the propeller of the latter cutting a deep gash in the fireboat?s hull, flooding the 44-year-old craft?s boiler room. Captain Kenny, however, not only managed to get most of the "Nebraska?s" crew off the ship, but was able to bring them, with his boat, to Pier 31, where immediate and successful steps were taken to prevent the "Gaynor" from sinking.

   


Engine 77 LODDs:

    FIREFIGHTER BRERETON E. JOHNSON ENGINE 77 August 13, 1913

          A costly fire in a factory in the Devoe oil yards at the foot of Ninth Street along the East River in Long Island City also cost the life of an FDNY fireman and injured several others. With the fire threatening to extend to the many flammables stored nearby, the fireboat Abram S. Hewitt moved to battle the flames. As the bow gun was operating and delivering a stream of water at more that 130 pounds of pressure, it suddenly tore loose from the boat?s deck and flew into the air. The nozzle and base, weighing close to a half-ton, blasted upward and struck the operator, Fireman Brereton E. Johnson of Engine 77 (later listed as Boat 7 and Marine 7 in archives), in the head as it rocketed by. He was killed instantly. An officer responding to the blaze with Engine 202 was thrown from the rig and fractured his skull on the pavement. A 14-year-old boy watching the fire fell into the water and was injured by flying debris. He too was taken to the hospital. As firemen were taking up from this job, they raced 10 blocks to a blaze in the very hospital the injured had been taken to hours before. This fire proved to be of little consequence.

         

    FIREFIGHTER EDWARD J. FOX ENGINE 77 January 27, 1927

         

    FIREFIGHTER JOHN M. GRAUE ENGINE 77 January 27, 1927

          Fireman Joseph A. Heslin of Engine 9, Firemen Edward J. Fox and John M. Graue of Engine 77 were killed when the third, fourth and fifth floors collapsed in this three-alarm fire. The seven-story building at 144 Goerck Street contained bales of shoddy and clippings piled ceiling high. A thirty-foot section of the seventh floor collapsed under the weight of the bales. The beams were pulled from their socket, collapsing the floor. Members of Engine 9 and the members of the fireboat New Yorker (Engine 77) were operating on the third floor and the fire was almost out when the seventh floor let go without warning. Eleven men were carried down to the second floor under tons of debris. Several members crawled to a window and were rescued by ladders. Firemen Fox and Graue were both breathing when found but were buried a second time when debris from the floor above landed on them. After digging them out a second time they were both found dead. At 6:00 the next morning, Fireman Heslin was found dead and he was still holding on to the nozzle. - "The Last Alarm"

    RIP.  Never forget.


Fireboat Abram S. Hewitt - Rossville, Staten Island:

   

   


FDNY fireboats:

    http://www.capecodfd.com/pages%20special/Fireboats_FDNY_H1_Hist-Overview.htm

 

[mack]

   

Fire Engineering - Epic of the East River
08/01/1958

"This is an epic of magnificent response to the call of duty."?New York Times. A fireboat flotilla assisted by land-based units?and radio?win a dramatic and dangerous engagement with uncontrolled fire."

FEW FIRES HAVE DEMONSTRATED the effectiveness of fire department radio, efficiently used, as that which involved the tanker Empress Bay, owned by the Petroleum Tankers Corp. of New York and the steamship Nebraska, owned by the Swedish Transatlantic Line of Gothenburg, in New York?s East River, in the early hours of June 25.

Firefighters are tactical athletes, and they require boots with maximum flexibility.

Scientific studies have proven that lighter weight and more flexible boots are safer, not just more comfortable. Firefighters are tactical athletes, and they require footwear that enhances their performance in the dangerous and multi-hazard environments in which they work.

But for the prompt and intelligent use of the New York Fire Department?s twoway radio and the strategy employed by both land and marine units of the department, aided by the U. S. Coast Guard and commercial craft, a disaster of unprecedented magnitude involving not only river craft but miles of busy waterfront might well have eventuated.
As it was, the blast and fire brought total destruction to the tanker and its 280,000-gallon cargo of gasoline, heavy damage to the S. S. Nebraska, and came within an ace of wrecking the center of the Manhattan Bridge, when flames which flared aloft over 160 feet ignited it. Also seriously damaged was the fireboat William Gaynor (Engine 77), first of the fireboat fleet to respond, and prominent in the rescue of the crews of the burning vessels.
It all began about midnight June 24, when the two ships collided just east of the Manhattan Bridge. The freighter was bound from New Haven to Newark; the tanker from the Bayway Refinery, Linden, N. J., to Mount Vernon, N. Y. The 172-foot tanker was ripped open midships by the heavier vessel and its gasoline cargo spilled onto the river and ignited. As the two craft remained locked together, the freighter was quickly involved. It is estimated over 1,000 feet of the river?s surface was soon covered by the flaming fuel, which lighted up the dockside on both Brooklyn and Manhattan shores.

Alarms come thick and fast

Brooklyn Fire Headquarters received the first notification of the disaster at 12:23 a.m. on the 25th, when the fireboat William Gaynor (Engine 77, Brooklyn) tapped out 2-2-2 77 over the boat telegraph circuit, reporting quickly by radio that the company was beaded toward the blaze. One minute later, the Manhattan Fire Alarm Office received Box 128 (Batavia and James streets) which marks the location of Pier 31, East River. Two other boxes, 206 and 126 were snapped at almost the same time, followed by a ?Class 3? building box. The telephone switchboards at Manhattan and Brooklyn fire communications headquarters were soon loaded with numberless telephone calls, some more or less incoherent but sufficient to convince the busy operators and dispatchers that a critical situation existed on the river, about opposite Pier 29 on the Manhattan side.

The assignment for Box 128 called for Engines 12, 9, 32, 7; Ladders 6 and 1 and Battalion Chiefs 2 and 1. Engine 12 under Captain Smiles and Ladder 6 under Lieutenant O?Shea reached the box within two and a half minutes. Chiefs Richmond of the 2nd and Driscoll of the 1st also made quick response, the former reporting via radio such meagre details as were available upon reaching the dockside. Anticipating possible contact between the drifting blazing ships and the Manhattan shore, Engine 12 was directed to connect to and supply, the standpipe of Pier 29 East River and to place its deck pipe in position for operation. Engine 7 did likewise to protect Pier 31.

Meantime, the Gaynor, commanded by Captain Eugene Kenny, was in touch with Brooklyn and ?Citywide? communications headquarters by radio, as it covered the half mile from its berth to the blazing vessels. At 12:26 a.m., ?Citywide? was informed by Engine 77 that an oil boat was ablaze between the Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridges, At that time, Captain Kenny requested at least two additional boats be dispatched. Two minutes later, Engine 57, the fireboat John D. McKean, Captain Gallagher, from the Battery, and Engine 86, the John J. Harvey, Lieutenant Farrell, from its Hudson River berth, were en route.

All fireboats summoned

Assistant Chief of Department, Thomas P. O?Brien (who also heads up the bureau of communications), in charge of the department at the time, had been notified by headquarters and was headed for Box 128, which location was to become the focal point of operations.

Informed by radio of the critical situation materializing on the river Chief O?Brien radioed for all available boats to be dispatched to Box 128 (Pier 31). Within the next four minutes, the fireboats John Purroy Mitchel, Engine 232, Lieutenant Albertelli; the Thomas Willett, Engine 78, Lieutenant Gallagher; the James Duane, Engine 85, Lieutenant Becker; the Fire Fighter, Engine 223, Acting Lieutenant Farrell and the Sylvia Wilkes, Engine 51 (newest of the fireboat fleet), Lieutenant Brickfield, were heading full speed for the scene.

Radio reports also reached Fire Commissioner Edward F. Cavanagh, Jr. and Fire Chief George David, only recently appointed head of the department, and Deputy Chief Alfred Mendey, First Division which includes the Battalions 1 and 2. On the Brooklyn side, Deputy Chief-inCharge of the Borough Edward McGarry, and the heads of the 34th, 32nd, and 31st Battalions were informed by radio of events. The head of the Marine Battalion (25), Acting Battalion Chief R. L. Olsen, responding with the tender Smoke. This new boat (FIRE ENGINEERING June 1958) was destined to play an important part in the action, its movements together with those of the entire fireboat flotilla, being directed by radio.

Arriving at dockside, Chief O?Brien?s first act was to check the various sources of information coming in and to size up the general situation. At that time the locked vessels, forming a giant floating torch, were yawing widely over the river, in the grip of the strong ebb tide. Passing directly under the Manhattan Bridge, heat and flames ignited ties and all other combustibles in its center span. At the time, it was impossible to foresee just where the floating conflagration would wind up, or what it would ignite on contact or heat by radiation.

It was determined from reports by the Gaynor, that a large tanker and a steamship, the Nebraska, were involved, and drifting out of control, interlocked. The fireboat by then had every one of its deck pipes at work, either trying to beat back the surface spill fire or, more important at the moment, to protect members of the crew of the Nebraska, who were in imminent danger from the flames spreading on that ship. That vessel was fully involved on the port side, and flames were working their way into the crew?s quarters and passenger cabins and other sections of the vessel. Only the engine-room crew were below decks?and their fate was not known at the time. Some of the crew of the Nebraska had gone overboard in the effort to escape the flames.

In the maneuver to save the crew of the Nebraska, many of whom were forced to the extreme stern, the Gaynor was caught under the big ship?s fantail, the propeller of the latter cutting a deep gash in the fireboat?s hull, flooding the 44-year-old craft?s boiler room. Captain Kenny, however, not only managed to get most of the Nebraska?s crew off the ship, but was able to bring them, with his boat, to Pier 31, where immediate and successful steps were taken to prevent the Gaynor from sinking. This operation well rates a story in itself.

Meanwhile, Acting Chief Olsen, in the tender Smoke, had reached the scene, ahead of the two flreboats requested by Captain Kenny by radio. He further informed the communications bureau of the worsening situation. He was directed to pick up Chief O?Brien at Pier 31.

While heading for the pier Chief Olsen performed a rescue for which he has since been cited. The Smoke encountered 17-year-old Walter Mattefecht, a member of the Nebraska?s crew floundering in the water. Suffering burns be had jumped from the burning ship, and was further threatened by the spreading blaze on the water.
When Mattefecht was unable to use the life preserver thrown to him from the Smoke, because of his injuries, Chief Olsen divested himself of heavy clothing, dove in after him, and brought him to the side of the Smoke where they were pulled aboard. Mattefecht was taken to the hospital as soon as the tender reached the Pier.

Action directed from fireboat

Chief O?Brien, his aide and others reached the burning ships, by means of the busy Smoke and established headquarters aboard the fireboat McKean, from which point the marine fire control operations were directed. These had three immediate objectives, the first being to protect and rescue any members of the crews of both burning vessels that might be aboard; the second, to confine the spill fire spreading from the burning tanker; the third, to attempt to extinguish the fire on the underside of the Manhattan Bridge.

Brooklyn Box 471 (Fulton and Columbia Heights?at the Brooklyn end of the Manhattan Bridge) was snapped at 12:26 a.m. This was responded to by Engines 205, 208, 224, 77 (fireboat Gaynor, already en route) Rescue 2; Ladders 118 and 110; Deputy Chief Timothy Driscoll of the 10th Division and Chiefs J. R. Travell and A. D. Steier of the 31st and 32nd Battalions respectively.

Borough Chief McGarry, and Deputy Chief Driscoll?10th Division, assumed charge of extinguishing the bridge blaze, and patrolling the Brooklyn waterside for possible contact of the blazing vessels. Land units of the 2nd Battalion tackled the bridge fire from the Manhattan side. Engine 9 was ordered to respond and supply the bridge standpipe from the Manhattan end, stretch two lines and use its booster on the fire.

On the Brooklyn approach, Engine 208 stretched and operated three lines on the bridge to extinguish fire along tracks and ties. Ladder 118 assisted in stretching lines and in overhauling the burned section. Engines 205 and 224 were employed to supply the bridge standpipe from the Brooklyn side. Ladder 118, together with units of the 32nd Battalion, were directed to examine the shore line. Like units on the Manhattan side, the operation was kept fluid?the various companies not being permitted to firm up in any one location.

The same fluid condition was maintained on the Manhattan side of the East River, where Chief Mendey, Division 1, supervised patrols and later, salvage operations on the Nebraska. He also participated in the action to save the sinking fireboat Gaynor. Only the two companies covering Piers 31 and 29 remained fixed for any time. The balance were occupied in patrol or bridge operations.

Chief O?Brien had directed assignments from three engine and two ladder companies to be transported to the Nebraska as soon as the fire on that ship was darkened down, and the vessel could be boarded to aid the several fire boat crews in final extinguishment and search for victims. This was done. Members of Rescue 1, Manhattan, after treating casualties brought ashore on the Gaynor, responded to the Nebraska. Their assistance, together with personnel detailed from various engine and ladder companies, was welcomed in advancing lines and examining the ship?s interior. In company with others operating on the Nebraska, these men wore demand-type respiratory protective equipment.

To secure the manpower to reinforce the fireboat crews, and to further patrol the Manhattan waterfront, Chief O?Brien had ordered a second alarm, at 12:53 a.m. (Box 128). This brought Engines 31, 10, 17, 27; Rescue 1; and Ladder 10. It also resulted in these relocations: Engines 221 to 31; 209 to 9; 256 to 7; Ladders 18 to 6 and 20 to 10.

Using heavy fog patterns and powerful straight streams to sweep back floating flames from the fireboats, which were positioned completely around the blazing vessels, the fire on the Nebraska was soon sufficiently cooled to permit fire fighters to gain its decks by means of hook ladders. Heavy 3 1/2-inch lines were thereupon taken aboard and broken into smaller lines which were worked into the interior sections of the ship to knock out fire in that area.
Cavanagh and David in action

While these fire fighting operations aboard the Nebraska were being continued, Fire Commissioner Cavanagh and Chief David arrived, and the latter took command. Investigation revealed that the engineroom crew and the captain of the Nebraska were still aboard and safe. Careful checkup showed all 36 crewmen of that ship accounted for. Two of the Empress Bay?s crew were missing and believed dead (their bodies were taken from the sunken tanker several days later).

It required eight hand fines aboard the Nebraska to contain and control the fire in the crew?s and passengers? quarters, the cargo, storerooms and other parts of the vessel. More than 20 turrets and deck pipes were employed by the fireboats in overcoming the main body of the blaze in the gasoline slick and on the two vessels. In this effort, the fireboat Mitchel (Engine 232), was given the task of tackling the fire on the underside of the Manhattan Bridge. Two of the boat?s big deckpipes were discharged under high pressures and, although the streams reached the bridge structure approximately 160 feet above, the strong current in the river made it difficult for the boat to effectively hold its position. The action therefore was broken off. Prior to all this, power on the bridge, had been cut off.
During the intensified marine engagement, another disaster was narrowly averted when a second tanker loaded with flammables blundered into the scene, reportedly actually brushing the wreckage. Fortunately, a direct collision was averted, but fire fighters had an anxious few moments. U. S. Coast Guardsmen were alerted at their station about a half mile away, by the geyser of flame that shot up. Within minutes, 11 Coast Guard boats were heading for the blaze.

The Coast Guard rendered invaluable assistance both during the fire control operations and later, when the fumes from still escaping cargo of the sunken Empress Bay continued to be a menace to navigation. For 24 hours after the crash the Empress Bay remained half submerged with her blistered bow projecting above water. Then she sank out of sight. The Coast Guard shut off marine traffic on the East River after a conference at 4:00 a.m. between Captain George W. Holsman and Chief O?Brien. At 8:55 a.m. after another conference between Coast Guard and fire department officials including Deputy Chief Hugh A. Halligan at that time in charge of the Marine Division, it was decided to open one side of the river. All craft was warned by the Coast Guard to take precautions in passing near the wreck. When all danger of reignition of fumes was past, buoys were placed around the sunken tanker, which was abandoned, a total loss.

Coast Guard cooperation was directed by Captain Holtzman, acting captain of the port at the time. The vessels under his command range from fire fighters of the tug type to 42-footers equipped with foam throwing equipment and other gear. The Coast Guard?s headaches continued after the fire, when it was necessary to control the miscellaneous river traffic, particularly the many sight-seeing and excursion boats. No smoking was ordered on all craft during the danger period.

Credit of fire fighters and press is also given the tug Dalzellera, Captain Bert Deeley, which assisted in rescue efforts and in disengaging the two locked vessels.

Fireboat Gaynor saved

Another highlight of the action was the successful effort to save the foundering Gaynor, at Pier 31. Even before the scarred Nebraska had been towed around the Battery to Pier 26 North River, where overhauling operations were completed, firemen were concentrating on saving the Gaynor. Prominent in this action were supervising engineers who rushed eductors and other salvage gear to the scene of the fire department?s emergency utilities unit. In these operations, fire department pumpers drafted directly from the waterlogged engine room which at one time contained 9 feet of water. Engines 7, 17, 27, 31 and 32, together with units of the Marine Division, Ladder 1 and the EUU were able to lower the water level to permit temporary partial plugging of the leak, whereupon the Gaynor was towed to the Todd Shipyard in Hoboken, escorted by Engines 232 and 86, operating eductors all the way.
Both Commissioner Cavanagh and Chief David, together with Chief Mendes, took part in supervising these efforts to save the Gaynor, and later, to overhaul the burned, blistered and still-smouldering Nebraska which reached Pier 26 under its own

The Coast Guard rendered invaluable assistance both during the fire control operations and later, when the fumes from still escaping cargo of the sunken Empress Bay continued to be a menace to navigation. For 24 hours after the crash the Empress Bay remained half submerged with her blistered bow projecting above water. Then she sank out of sight. The Coast Guard shut off marine traffic on the East River after a conference at 4:00 a.m. between Captain George W. Holsman and Chief O?Brien. At 8:55 a.m. after another conference between Coast Guard and fire department officials including Deputy Chief Hugh A. Halligan at that time in charge of the Marine Division, it was decided to open one side of the river. All craft was warned by the Coast Guard to take precautions in passing near the wreck. When all danger of reignition of fumes was past, buoys were placed around the sunken tanker, which was abandoned, a total loss.

Coast Guard cooperation was directed by Captain Holtzman, acting captain of the port at the time. The vessels under his command range from fire fighters of the tug type to 42-footers equipped with foam throwing equipment and other gear. The Coast Guard?s headaches continued after the fire, when it was necessary to control the miscellaneous river traffic, particularly the many sight-seeing and excursion boats. No smoking was ordered on all craft during the danger period.

Credit of fire fighters and press is also given the tug Dalzellera, Captain Bert Deeley, which assisted in rescue efforts and in disengaging the two locked vessels.

At the pier, engine and ladder companies went to work on it. Aerial ladders were raised against the ship from the pier, lines taken aboard and the last vestiges of fire extinguished.
Fire department records show two of the crew of the Empress Bay killed. Thirty-six other crewmen of both ships were hospitalized, most of them with burns. Four fire fighters suffered injuries. They were Captain E. E. Kenny, Engine 77; Firemen E. P. McCarthy, Engine 77; C. T. Schubert, Engine 208 and Philip Prail, Ladder 9 (detailed to Rescue 1).

Summary

Response?A total of 37 Fire Department units were engaged during the approximately 6-hour operation. They included 21 engine companies; eight fireboats; eight ladder companies; two rescue units; mask service unit; searchlight unit; gasoline oil unit; ambulance and emergency utility unit. Also the tender Smoke.
Operations?Seven hand lines and 20 turret streams were employed in extinguishing operations. The fire department has acknowledged with thanks, the cooperation of the Coast Guard, police department, civilian tugs and harbor craft.

Casualties?Two dead and five injured on the Empress Bay; 31 injured on the Nebraska; an indirect casualty was William V. Finn, photographer of the New York Journal American who was fatally stricken while photographing the action.

Losses?Not fully determined at this writing, on the Empress Bay and Nebraska, approximately $500,000. On the Manhattan Bridge, not given but estimated at moderate. On the William Gaynor, loss may run as high as $50,000.
Cause?Responsibility for the collision not determined at this writing. Coast Guard investigating.

The editors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the New York Fire Department particularly Commissioner Edward F. Cavanagh, Jr.; Chief of Department George David; Assistant Chief Thomas P. O?Brien; Chief Supervising Engineer John Jordon and the staff at Manhattan Fire Alarm Communications Office for their special cooperation

    https://www.fireengineering.com/articles/print/volume-111/issue-8/features/epic-of-the-east-river.html



Firehouse - Baptism of Fire - FDNY probationary firefighter Lawrence Principato personal account of fire:

    https://www.firehouse.com/home/news/10545203/baptism-of-fire

 

[mack]

1903 fireboat New Yorker:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TziHaWQ_Tgc


1930 FDNY fireboat workers:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdQkLqUJP94&t=208s


1938 FDNY fireboat radio roll call:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnMs_j81rVg

 

[manhattan]

Mack, I know it's been said so many times before, but I've got to say it again.  Your work is extraordinary.  Thank you so much.

 

[fdhistorian]

Engine 77 (Marine)  Manhattan/Brooklyn/Queens/Staten Island

    Engine 77 organized foot of Gansevoort Street Hudson River Manhattan            1903
    Engine 77 moved foot of Main Street East River Brooklyn                                  1904
    Engine 77 moved foot of Beekman Street East River Manhattan                        1911
    Engine 77 moved Seaside landing, Far Rockaway Queens                                  1922
    Engine 77 moved foot of Hyatt Street Staten Island                                          1922
    Engine 77 moved foot of Beekman Street Manhattan                                        1922
    Engine 77 moved new firehouse foot of Fulton Street East River                        1931
    Engine 77 disbanded to organize Marine 7                                                        1959

Fireboats:

    Abram S. Hewitt                                                    1903-1922
    New Yorker                                                            1922-1931
    William J. Gaynor                                                  1931-1959

Fireboats were originally considered to be 'marine engines' and were numbered in series with land engines.  Until approximately 1915, individual fireboats retained their engine company numbers wherever they were berthed.  That is why some Brooklyn and Staten Island fireboats had Manhattan engine numbers.

In following the history of a particular marine engine, from 1875 to 1915 you follow a particular boat from berth to berth.  After approximately 1915, the berths have the numbers and different boats are assigned throughout the years, with the boat taking its number where assigned.  The early boats moved easily from berth to berth because the crew was quartered aboard the boat and a berth change only required a telegraph line.

Marine Engine 77 moved from berths in Manhattan to Brooklyn to Queens to Staten Island.  Once berths were numbered, the last, longest, and permanent berth of Engine Company 77 was in Manhattan.

Boats assigned to Engine 77, wherever it happened to be at the time were:

  Abram S Hewitt  1903 - 1922 and 1931 to 1958
  The New Yorker  1922 - 1931
  Willliam J Gaynor  1958

The William J Gaynor was assigned to Engine 223  1916 - 1954.

So, matching the boat, to the company, to the berth, to the time frame - here goes:

    Engine 77 organized foot of Gansevoort Street Hudson River Manhattan          1903  Hewitt
    Engine 77 moved foot of Main Street East River Brooklyn                                    1904  Hewitt
    Engine 77 moved foot of Beekman Street East River Manhattan                        1911  Hewitt
    Engine 77 moved Seaside landing, Far Rockaway Queens                                  1922  Hewitt
    Engine 77 moved foot of Hyatt Street Staten Island                                          1922    Hewitt
    Engine 77 moved foot of Beekman Street Manhattan                                        1922  New Yorker
    Engine 77 moved new firehouse foot of Fulton Street East River                      1931  Hewitt
    Engine 77 Boat change                                                                                      1958  Gaynor   
    Engine 77 disbanded to organize Marine 7                                                        1959  Archer   

It was a bit of a project to get all of the boats, berths, companies and times to match up, but they now all correlate well with period articles such as by Clarence Meek in the 1950s.