Engine 205 - original firehouse - 160 Pierrepont St (1869-1925) - organized as Engine 5 BFD (1869) - firehouse was originally Engine 14 Pacific volunteer firehouse ( 1856-1869)
ORGANIZED ENGINE 5, BROOKLYN FIRE DEPT
ORG. 160 Pierrepont St. FQ Vol. 1869
CHANGE To Engine 5, FDNY 1898
CHANGE To Engine 105 1899
CHANGE To Engine 205 1913
RELOC. 274 Hicks St. 1925
NQTRS. 74 Middagh St. W/ L 118 1929
DISB. 1975
REORG. 74 Middagh St. At L 118 1975
"ENGINE COMPANY NO. 5
Perhaps the most centrally situated of the two score headquarters of the fire-companies, upon which the city depends for protection, is the house of Engine Company No. 5, in Pierrepont Street near Fulton. Many hundreds of times have the doors been thrown open and the engine dashed forth to answer alarms from all parts of the city. Engine No. 5 responds to first-alarms in the territory in and contiguous to Fulton Street, from dark Street to Hudson Avenue, which includes much of the most valuable property in the city. In this region are the public buildings, including the City Hall,
Court House, Municipal Building, Hall of Records, and the new Federal Building; the principal places of amusement in the Western District, including the Academy of Music. Grand Opera House. Park Theatre, Star Theatre, and the recently completed Columbia Theatre; all the chief hotels of the city; such important structures as the Brooklyn Library, the Long Island Historical Society's building, the Hamilton and Germania club-houses, the great dry goods houses, the offices of the principal banks
and trust companies, a number of large churches, the Polytechnic and Packer Institutes, and the great office buildings surrounding City Hall Square. Property worth many millions of dollars is guarded first of all by this engine-company. On second-alarms it is called to the great warehouses on the water-front and to the greater part of the Western District; while in
response to third-alarms and special calls it may be summoned to the Eastern District, and even to Greenpoint and East New York. Ever since the fatal and disastrous fire in the Brooklyn Theatre, at Washington and Johnson Streets, on Dec. 5, 1876, when 278 lives were lost, special precautions have been taken to avoid a repetition of the disaster even upon a small scale,
and firemen are detailed from Engine No. 5, to attend each matinee and evening performance in the playhouses within its territory, to be in readiness to flood the stage and quench any incipient conflagration. No. 5 is the only engine-company housed on the Heights, and it traces its history back to the old Engine Company No. 14 of the Volunteer Department,
established in Love Lane in 1846. Ten years later it removed to the present quarters. It was the crack company of the Volunteer Department and the sons of many of the best families on the Heights had been connected with it. Their house was expensively decorated and furnished, and they owned a fine engine. At present No. 5 is equipped with a fine Amoskeag engine, which has been in use for seven years. It is fitted with all facilities for the work of extinguishing fire. To draw the engine and tender four horses are stabled, in the engine-house. The names over their stalls are "Tom," " Jerry," "Speed," and " Dick." The same names are bestowed upon successive occupants of the stalls. One of the most knowing horses ever attached to the company was a strawberry roan which was in service for nine years, an unusually long time, and was finally run over by an engine and killed. As Engine No. 5 is the nearest to the City Hall it is the show
company of the city, and visitors frequently have the horses and men called out to see how quickly they can start. The horses usually get exercise enough in going to the fires to which the engine is summoned, but sometimes the interval is so long that they have to be taken out for exercise. The members of No. 5 have taken part in many great fires. The most disastrous was that in the old Brooklyn Theatre. The scenes after the flames were under control and the bodies were being brought forth were such as to cause the stoutest firemen to draw back but the members of No. 5 stuck to their posts throughout the trying ordeal. Among the other large fires in which this company has taken an important part have been those in Wechsler & Abraham's dry goods house in lower Fulton Street; in Ovington's art and crockery store; in the old Elm Place Congregational church, on the foundation of which the Grand Opera House was built; and in Smith, Gray & Co's clothing store. At the last-named fire. No. 5 was one of the earliest to arrive and the men battled with the flames and smoke until nearly suffocated. On second and third alarms the company has been called to all the great fires in the city. Despite the perils incurred the company has never had a man killed on duty and only a few have been injured." from Our Firemen - the Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2010/06/walkabout-the-b-2/#bklyn-theatre-fire3-2
BFD Engine 5 - December 5, 1876 Brooklyn Theater Fire Report - approx 278 killed
http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Search&Key=BEG/1876/12/15/4/Ar00423.xml&CollName=BEG_APA3_1875-1879&DOCID=155665&PageLabelPrint=&Skin=%42%45%61%67%6c%65&GZ=%54&sPublication=%42%45%47&sQuery=%65%6e%67%69%6e%65%20%35&sSorting=%25%35%33%25%36%33%25%36%66%25%37%32%25%36%35%25%32%63%25%36%34%25%36%35%25%37%33%25%36%33&sDateFrom=%25%33%30%25%33%31%25%32%66%25%33%30%25%33%31%25%32%66%25%33%31%25%33%38%25%33%34%25%33%31&sDateTo=%25%33%31%25%33%32%25%32%66%25%33%33%25%33%31%25%32%66%25%33%31%25%33%39%25%33%30%25%33%32&RefineQueryView=&StartFrom=%34%38&ViewMode=GIF&GZ=T
Engine 205 FDNY:
Current quarters 74 Middagh St W/ L 118:
