FDNY and NYC Firehouses and Fire Companies

[68jk09]

In regard to reply # 562 above ....across the st from 306 as posted was an early Vollie house which later became the NYPD 111 Pct until 1965 when the 111 moved to a new bldg on Northern Blvd ....in many of the early pictures they show a hydrant IFO the site....today the hyd is still in the same spot & the Bayside Municipal Parking lot is now located there. 

 

[mack]

In regard to reply # 562 above ....across the st from 306 as posted was an early Vollie house which later became the NYPD 111 Pct until 1965 when the 111 moved to a new bldg on Northern Blvd ....in many of the early pictures they show a hydrant IFO the site....today the hyd is still in the same spot & the Bayside Municipal Parking lot is now located there.

 

[mack]

Old 111th Pct - NYPD - former volunteer firehouse across street from Engine 306:




Formerly a volunteer firehouse:




Thanks Chief

 

[mack]

Engine 306 LODD - Firefighter Antonio Assante



"She recalls a church filled with firefighters, her grieving mother and a Mass that soothed but did not mend her broken heart. On New Year's Eve in 1952, Sister Bernadette Clare Assante's father was killed when he fell from a fire truck rushing to a burning barn in Bayside, Queens. For 43 years, Sister Bernadette, her mother, brother and sister have believed Firefighter Antonio Assante's death was an accident. Now, because of an implausible scenario, the family knows he died because of an arsonist, who has confessed. It's a truth that brings neither rage nor sorrow to Sister Bernadette, who was 20 when her father died. It's a truth that brings memories of a spiritual man who encouraged her to become a nun. "I don't have to be angry, I don't have to be sad," said Sister Bernadette, who keeps her father's photo in her office at Dominican Commercial High School in Queens, where she is principal. "I remember him as a great man and none of this affects that," she said.

" The resolution of the case is the stuff of a mystery novel. It began on a plane in March with a chance meeting between a city fire marshal, Robert LaSalle, and 48-year-old twins from Bayside. On the flight to South Carolina, the twins exchanged small talk with LaSalle, who said he was an investigator. "The next thing I know, they're telling me about a fire from 1952.

" The twins, whose identity is being withheld, told LaSalle they had been playing in the woods that New Year's Eve day near Lawrence Estates, at 223d St. and 40th Ave. About noon, they saw a neighborhood youth walk into a barn on the property and light up two bales of hay. The barn burst into flames. Firefighter Assante, who worked out of Bayside Engine Co. 306, sped to the blaze aboard Engine No. 38869. At 221st St. and 39th Ave., the rig made a sharp left turn, throwing him to the icy pavement. His death, at 50, was attributed to a fractured skull. The twins, just 6 years old at the time and unaware of Assante's death, told LaSalle that in the years since the fire they had seen the arsonist in Bayside. They had seen him three years ago.

"One of the twins, he tells the guy, 'Hey, you still playing with matches?

' " LaSalle said. The twins also knew his first name, and that he had once worked for a private sanitation carter. LaSalle found and confronted him. "I asked him if he ever visited this particular barn or knew about this particular fire," LaSalle said. "At first he said he didn't remember. Then he started crying.

" He told the fire marshals he had been a mischievous 14-year-old kid. He never knew a firefighter had died. The man wrote out a confession and included an apology to the Assantes. The Fire Department is not prosecuting him because he was a minor. His identity remains a secret. Sister Bernadette said she appreciated the apology, and hoped the man could live with himself. "Maybe now he can live in peace," she said."


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/ashes-memory-fire-prober-solves-40-yr-old-arson-article-1.682910#ixzz2tL74zkS3

 

[mack]

Engine 321/Foam 87/Foam 321/Brush Fire Unit 6  firehouse  2165 Gerritsen Ave  Brooklyn

    Engine 321 organized 2165 Gerritsen Ave                              1930

    Foam 87 organized 2165 Gerritsen Ave at Engine 321              1986
    Foam 87 became Foam 3212                                                  1998

    Brush Fire Unit 6 organized 2165 Gerritsen Ave at Engine 321  1997

Engine 321 firehouse dedication 1930:




Firehouse 2165 Gerritsen Ave:







Engine 321:




Foam 321:





LODD Engine 321 -  FF Michael F. Logan  - died as a result of exhaustion while operating at an alarm.    September 5, 1935  RIP


Marine Park is Brooklyn's largest park: http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/marinepark/history

 

[3511]

This link re decommissioned fh's sent by a friend. Thought I'd share as it goes with mack's thread.

http://untappedcities.com/2014/02/13/7-repurposed-fire-stations-in-nyc/

 

[mack]

Marine 1 - berth - Pier A - Battery Park - Hudson River  - 1960-1992

Built 1884-86 for NYC Dept of Docks and Harbor Police.  The design mirrored the Statue of Liberty which could be viewed from a similar but shorter tower. The roof was tin, painted green to resemble copper. In renovation by the Battery Park City Authority this roof was discarded, and replaced with copper.

The pier was expanded in 1900 and again in 1919 with a clock installed in the pier's tower as a memorial to 116,000 US servicemen who died during World War I.  It was the first World War I memorial erected in the United States.

The New York City Fire Department used the pier from 1960 to 1992 as a fireboat berth (Marine 1).


http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/01/1886-department-of-docks-headquarters.html


Pier A  Department of Docks:




FDNY fleet 1908 in front of Pier A:


FDNY renovation 1950s:


Marine 1 relocated to Pier A 1960-1992:










Marine 1 history:
http://marine1fdny.com/history_new.php

http://www.capecodfd.com/PAGES%20Special/Fireboats_FDNY_03_Old-M1.htm


Pier A after Marine 1 relocated:






http://nyc-architecture.com/LM/LM005-.htm


From 1992 onward, the pier was vacant and fell into disrepair.  A restoration of the pier commenced in 2009 with several restaurants planned:

http://ny.curbed.com/places/pier-a

 

[johnd248]

Pier A also housed what they now call the Quartermaster Dept. of the FDNY.  I bought my  first turnout coat there back in the 60s.

 

[CVILLE7111]

I believe that the Community and News Service (CANS) response car was also quartered there for a time.

 

[patrickfd]

Picture from last August when I was in the area. If I remember correctly it was being renovated into a museum although I forget for who.
http://www.squadfirephotos.com/Other/FDNY-fire-houses/i-WnC8BQR

 

[mack]

Engine 66 (Marine)/Marine 6/Marine Division/Marine 6-2  -  berths  Ft of Grand St  East River (1941-1992) Manhattan  and Brooklyn Navy Yard (1992-current) Brooklyn

    Engine 66 organized foot of Grand St, East River                          1898
    Engine 66 new quarters foot of Grand St, East River                      1932
    Engine 66 new quarters foot of Grand St, East River                      1941
    Engine 66 disbanded                                                                  1955

    Marine 6 organized foot of Grand Street, East River                      1959
    Marine 6 moved to Bldg 292, Brooklyn Navy Yard                          1992

    Marine 6-2 organized at Bldg 292, Brooklyn Navy Yard at Marine 6  1993
    Marine 6-2 disbanded                                                                  1994

    Engine 66 (Marine)/Marine 6 fireboats :
          Robert A Van Wyck                      1898
          Renamed William L Strong          1898-1938
          George B McClellan                    1938-1953
          Dr Harry M Archer                      1958-1961
          Alfred E Smith                            1961-1992
          Kevin C Kane                              1992-2011
          Bravest                                      2011-
 
Engine 66 (Marine)  Fireboat William L Strong (also named Robert A VanWyck) 1898-1948:


Marine 6 Fireboat Dr Harry M Archer launch - 1958:


Marine 6 berth - Ft of Grand Street  East River:
- in service

Marine 6 Fireboat Kevin C Kane  - Brooklyn Navy Yard  2001:


Marine 6 Fireboat Bravest 2011:


Bravest dedication:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/events/2011/052611b.shtml

Bravest dedication:
New FDNY Fireboat, Bravest, Christened and Commissioned

Bravest East River:
MARINE 6 FIRE BOAT BRAVEST fdny east river

Marine Division Brooklyn Navy Yard:





Cape Cod FD - FDNY Fireboats:
http://www.capecodfd.com/PAGES%20Special/Fireboats_FDNY_12_Historic-Boats.htm

 

[mack]

Ladder 108/Bn 35  firehouse    112 Seigel St  East Williamsburg, Brooklyn
      (also served as initial quarters for Engine 18 BFD which became FDNY Engine 218)

    Engine 18 BFD organized 112 Seigel St                      1877
    Engine 18 moved to 650 Hart St                                1887
   
    Ladder 8 BFD organized 112 Seigel St                        1887
    Ladder 8 BFD became Ladder8 FDNY                          1898
    Ladder 8 became Ladder 58                                      1899
    Ladder 58 moved to 89-91 Humboldt St                    1906
    Ladder 58 moved to 112 Siegel St                            1907
    Ladder 58 became Ladder 108                                  1913
    Ladder 108 moved to 187 Union Ave w/Bn35              1971
    (Note:  Engine 216 moved to 187 Union Ave later in 1971)

    Bn 35 organized 166 Clymer St at Engine 111            1906
    Bn 35 moved to 137 Powers Ave at Engine 113          1908
    Bn 35 moved to 166 Clymer St at Engine 211            1915
    Bn 35 moved to 112 Siegel St at Ladder 108              1927
    Bn 35 moved to 187 Union Ave w/Ladder 108            1971

Brooklyn Eagle 1887 Ladder 8 BFD organized:


From "Our Firemen: the Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department":
    "Hook and Ladder Company No. 8 occupied a two-story brick structure with brown-stone facings, on Siegel Street near Graham Avenue, in the Sixteenth Ward. The district covered by this company is a large and particularly dangerous one, for the reason that nearly every lot has a front and rear house standing upon it, the majority of which are four-story frame dwellings occupied chiefly by German families. On a first-alarm the members respond to calls from 108 boxes, which cover the territory bounded by Leonard and Jackson Streets, by Newtown Creek, Atlantic and Albany Avenues, and by Penn Street and Broadway. In addition to this they cover 88 boxes on a second-alarm and 56 on third-alarm, which latter takes in the Greenpoint District. On"special calls" they go down to the Western District. Among the large buildings in the district are St.Catherine's Hospital, the Montrose Avenue Orphan Asylum, St. Joseph's Home, St. John's College, Home for the Aged, the Beecher Home, St. John's Orphan Asylum, Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary's Catholic Church. There are also in this district several public schools, the Lyceum Theatre, Batterman's dry goods and furniture stores, Berlin's dry goods house, Worn & Sons' furniture factory, the Iron Clad manufactory, Bossert's lumber yard, Newman's lumber yard, and Puger's sash and blind factory.

    This company was organized Nov. 30, 1887. The house was formerly occupied by Engine No. 18. It has a second-class Hayes truck with extension-ladders, which was built in 1890. "Tom," a gray horse, and "Frank" and "Billy," dark bays, all fine, serviceable young horses, furnish the power for transportation. District Engineer Fanning's horses "Joh'n" and "Dick," a roan and chestnut, also have their quarters in the house. The apparatus and horses are always in the pink of condition when not in active service. There are among the members those who have been in perilous positions while in the discharge of their duties as protectors of the property and lives of citizens, and still others who have unflinchingly thrown aside all feeling of personal safety to save the lives of those who were cut off by smoke and flame."

Street map:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_East_Williamsburg_(2009).jpg

L 8 BFD at 112 Siegel St:


L 108:


1961:


112 Siegel St 1960s:









L 108 - 1962:


L 108 responding




1971:


L 108/Bn 35/Bn 60 - last tour 112 Siegel St:

Note: Bn 60 assigned to operate with Bn 35 for last tour on 112 Siegel St.

Engine 216/Ladder 108/Battalion 35 187 Union Avenue firehouse:




L 108 at the Rock 1975:


L 108/Bn 35 1976


1976:


L 108 apparatus:
FDNY ***NEW*** LADDER 108

Note:  additional L 108 pictures  http://nycfire.net/forums/index.php/topic,24281.0.html (thanks Chief)


East Williamsburg: 
http://forgotten-ny.com/2007/04/east-williamsburg-part-1-brooklyn/

http://forgotten-ny.com/2007/04/east-williamsburg-part-2-brooklyn/

http://brooklynbased.com/blog/2012/07/24/the-neighborhood-name-police-east-williamsburg/

Old pictures:  http://gothamist.com/2012/05/03/28_photos_of_williamsburg_youve_nev.php#photo-1

http://www.mhtbrooklyn.org/en_ourneighborhood.htm


Ladder 108 Runs and Workers 1944-2012:

Year Ladder Runs EMS Workers OSW ALL HANDS
1944 108      926            354
1947 108      967            711
1950 108    1166            861
1953 108    1363            967
1954 108    1335          1026
1956 108    1315          1000
1960 108    1845          1116
1962 108    2234          1190
1964 108    2709          1216
1966 108    3607          1512
1969 108    5443          3604
1970 108    6037          4239
1971 108    6145          4307
1975 108    4450          3277   
1976 108    4703          3310     
1977 108    3949          3582 
1978 108    3804          2530 
1979 108    4233          2717 
1980 108    4742          3090 
1981 108    4456          3015 
1982 108    4508          2971 
1983 108    4462          3073    508 
1984 108    4026          2765 
1985 108    3726          2598    474 
1986 108    3718          2664    448 
1987 108    4018          2904    386 
1988 108    3920          2913    392 
1989 108    4188          3252    407 
1990 108    4198          3173    405 
1991 108    4041          3066    402 
1992 108    4038          3198    429 
1993 108    4361          3595    435 
1994 108    4020          3330    551 
1995 108    3763          2136    518 
1996 108    3304  70  2739    533 
1997 108    3010 198  2529    526 
1998 108    2793  63  2382    508 
1999 108    2835  38  2415    444 
2000 108    2779  29  2299    430 
2001 108    2696    0  2244    457 
2002 108    2635    0  2152    435 
2003 108    2801    0  2296    430 
2004 108    2778    0  2245    452 
2005 108    2778    0  2245    447 
2006 108    2637    0  2236    439 
2007 108    2918    0  1668    405 
2008 108    2726    0  2324    464 
2009 108    2954    0  2626    430 
2010 108    2947    0  2523    464  67
2011 108    2942    0  2513    407 107
2012 108    2941    0  2693    404  52
Thanks Frank Raffa and WNYF

Note: Ladder 108 consistently in the top 25 runs and workers totals

 

[mack]

Ladder 108/Bn 35/Bn 60  - Siegel St firehouse last tour picture - August 8, 1971

Bn 60 was assigned to work at Siegel St with Bn 35 during its last tour.  Bn 60 was an operational "fight fires only" battalion which operated during the peak of the War Years, 1970-1975, in Brooklyn.  It was nominally located at Engine 218 but would be assigned to the busiest battalions for tours and operate "piggy-back" with the assigned chief, as a 2nd section to share the fire fighting runs/workers burden.  There were no administrative duties, no assigned companies, no specific district - just take in boxes in the busy battalions. 

 

[mack]

L 108 additional note from 1961 NY Mirror article:

Siegel St was highlighted as the "Busiest Firehouse" by the newspaper for 1960.  Ladder 108 was acknowledged as the leading truck company with 702 hours worked at jobs compared with 670 hours worked by L 102.  L 108 had 1845 runs and 1116 workers in 1960 which were among the NYC leading ladder company totals. 




WNYF Runs and Workers 1960:

L 108 4th in total ladder company workers for 1960

Note - The NY Mirror was a NYC daily newspaper, 1924-1963, with the second largest daily circulation in America.  It had a popular Sunday color section.  It was forced to close following the 1962-1963 114 day newspaper strike (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962%E2%80%9363_New_York_City_newspaper_strike).

 

[CFDMarshal]

Mack, Is there a pic of the young JK in some of those pics from L108 maybe those from the Rock. Jump in here Chief!

 

[Norah Ryan]

Hi , my name is Norah and if I am correct about my father and his career with  NYFD we must have been in the same place at times .My dad was Battallion Chief  Thomas Ryan  .My siblings and I are trying to find the house my dad slept in and I and my younger sister think it was on Broome  The elder siblings and cousin think Varrick .We also remember riding in the car but was the Battallion chief car White .I lost my Dad to unfortunate circumstances  and It has been a long time since we all have even talked about some of these things .I would love to hear from you and talk about the firehouse . my sister and I have a lot of very vague memories as we were quite young . Any help with putting some pieces in place would be so great . Sincerely .n

 

[mack]

Mack, Is there a pic of the young JK in some of those pics from L108 maybe those from the Rock. Jump in here Chief!

Elwood -  Jack Kleehaas located in these pictures:

12/31/69:



L 108 at the Rock 1975:


L 108/Bn 35 1976


Rescue 2 1984:


Picture of LT Kleehaas with newly organized Squad 41:

Middle.

 

[mack]

Hi , my name is Norah and if I am correct about my father and his career with  NYFD we must have been in the same place at times .My dad was Battallion Chief  Thomas Ryan  .My siblings and I are trying to find the house my dad slept in and I and my younger sister think it was on Broome  The elder siblings and cousin think Varrick .We also remember riding in the car but was the Battallion chief car White .I lost my Dad to unfortunate circumstances  and It has been a long time since we all have even talked about some of these things .I would love to hear from you and talk about the firehouse . my sister and I have a lot of very vague memories as we were quite young . Any help with putting some pieces in place would be so great . Sincerely .n

Norah - The former firehouse at 185 Broome St where your father most likely worked as Battalion Chief is still standing:



The Battalion Chief of the 4th Battalion operated from this very busy firehouse from 1939-1973.  There were other firefighting companies loacted there if you remember your visits - Engine 17 (now disbanded), Ladder 18, and maybe Squad 5 (also disbanded). 

185 Broome St firehouse in 1969:


A new firehouse was built in 1973 nearby at 25 Pitt St where the chief and the companies moved to.

25 Pitt St Firehouse in 1973:



Here is a website with many pictures of the chiefs and firefighters who who worked at Broome St and also at Pitt St.  Hopefully you can locate pictures of your father in their "Pictures" section:

http://www.ladder18fdny.com/ 


The other firehouses you mentioned most likely would not have had battalion chiefs assigned:

14 N Moore St (and Varrick St) famous firehouse of Ladder 8 (Ghostbuster movie firehouse) - still active firehouse:


Broome St firehouse of Engine 55 in Little Italy - still active firehouse:

 

[mack]

Ladder 108  - 1977:

DES MOINES REGISTER ? Frl., Nov. 25, 1977  "Fire Storm Rises in New York City"  by JOHN J. GOLDMAN NEW YORK, N.Y. -

"Siren wailing, radiator leaking, the "Pride of Williamsburg" roars out of the gray firehouse on Union Avenue. The hook and ladder turns into sunlight and shadows sifting down through elevated train tracks along Brooklyn's Broadway. Fireman Jack Kleehaas, nicknamed the "ghetto fox" by his truckmates, is at the wheel. Harry Ford steers the tiller in the rear. Cars scatter as the two thread the big engine down the busy street, siren and horn fighting the roar of a graffiti- covered train passing overhead to Manhattan. Ladder 108's red paint .has long faded. On its body firemen have chalked graffiti of their own: "Fun City Special. You Light 'em. We Fight "em." A few blocks away the truck pulls up at an occupied building ? the only occupied building left on the block. Arsonists have burned down the houses on all four corners. Flooded Basement The cail, it turns out, is over a pipe, leaking for two days, that has filled the basement with water until it is nearing the furnace. Fireman Jim Kopp dons hip boots and wades into the cellar amid floating garbage but is unable to stop the leak. So the firemen advise the owner to call the city again t and this time to announce that it is a health emergency. Over coffee back at the firehouse, Kopp says, "Every time there's a water leak, they call us. We're electricians because every time a light goes out, they call us. Auto mechanics. Locksmiths ? people get locked out, children lost, people mugged. They pull the box after you've done, like, 17 runs and a couple of good fires, you go over there and a guy says my basement is flooded . . . "We used to be very, very pleased with our jobs down here because most of the buildings used to be occupied. They (the occupants) were poor and they lived in rat traps of tenements. But it still was occupied and we tried to do the best we could. What happens now, they are abandoning this neighborhood and walking away from it, but they are torching it before they go." Another fireman interrupts. "They are losing blocks and blocks of the city." Dramatic Rise in Arson Throughout the nation, the rate of arson has flared dramatically in recent years until, according to the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, about one out of four fires is deliberately set. Insurance companies estimated arson losses at more than $2 billion last year, almost twice the 1975 amount. But few places have so intense a problem as some New York City neighborhoods. When President Carter toured toe South Bronx recently he saw just one well-publicized area of destruction. There are others, such as Brooklyn's Williamsburg and Bushwick sections. In an effort to halt the burning, New York recently doubled its of fire marshals from 75 to ISO. It has hired 600 more firemen and is speeding up their training to relieve beleaguered firefighters. The city's problem is complicated by an epidemic of false alarms ? 212,098 so far this year, up 24.7 per cent from a year, ago. In 1976, firemen in the Bronx answered 511 false alarms from just one box ? the city record. That box is on a corner across from a schoolyard. Some Alarms Ignored During the Fourth of July weekend, the flood of false alarms crested so high that the Fire Department was forced to ignore some boxes pulled in Brooklyn. At one point calls there were coming in at the rate of 400 an hour. "We're experiencing false alarm rates beyond what were predicted," says John O'Hagan, New York's fire commissioner. "Our system was never designed to handle the number of alarms we have. "Are we losing neighborhoods?" O'Hagan was asked. "Yes," he replied glumly. Impact on City Life "If you monitor fire incidents, you can predict social decline ... One night it's the Bronx, then Brooklyn, Manhattan. It's cyclical." What of the impact on the life of the city? "It means," the commissioner said, "we'd better start getting some assistance to solve our social and economic problems or we are not going to have a city that resembles the city we know." Williamsburg's Ladder 108 knows well about false alarms and arsonists. In July the company was first to arrive at a nasty four-alarm fire burning through five frame houses. An arsonist had used oil to torch them and when the flames flared, Ladder 108's engine caught fire. The men had to turn hoses on their own truck. Before it was extinguished, the tires melted, ropes burned off ladders, paint charred and lenses became molten plastic. The department scurried around to find a replacement, and the engine Ladder 108's men nicknamed "Fun City Special" appeared - with more than 94,000 miles on its odometer, 139,000 engine-use miles on another gauge and a bad radiator leak. A 14-year veteran, it had been put out to pasture. With more than a touch of sarcasm, the firemen chalked slogans on their substitute. They pulled it alongside a newer pumper belonging to Engine Co. 216 in their firehouse. And they took a ribbing. Both companies share the Union Avenue firehouse, and camaraderie is close. It is a key station, serving not only Williamsburg, but also Bushwick, Greenpoint, Maspeth in Queens and even farther parts of the city if the fire is big enough. Bushwick and Williamsburg are transition neighborhoods sliding downhill with gathering speed. Evidence of decline is all about Medicaid mills, boarded-up window*, charred remains of homes, stray dogs nosing at piles of garbage, streets with potholes deep enough to swallow a wastebasket Wary of Teens The psychic toll of fear and anger is not subtle either. Bands of restless black and Puerto Rican teen-agers lounge on corners or In the doorway of the local Y, its windows covered against vandalism. They wear sneakers, which which policemen have nicknamed "felony shoes." The firemen view the young men warily. When Ladder 108 returned from a recent run, one of the men found four teen-agers sitting on the hood of his car. "Hey, fellas, can you please get off the car?" he asked in his friendliest manner. "If I told them get the hell off my car, the next day it would be stripped," he explained. "You have to be careful what you say because if you have anything of value they will destroy it on you. "We have people who are prisoners in their own houses. They are just staying home hoping they can get up the next morning without getting mugged or burned out." In Williamsburg and Bushwick, residents live behind window grates, walk their children to school en masse or go to the store in groups for protection. Sometimes fear comes walking through the firehouse door. A man walked in recently to make a complaint. He explained that he lived next to a burned-out building and a gang had threatened that he was next to be torched. He left the firehouse without giving his name for fear of being killed. When the men of 108 put out a fire in three buildings on Myrtle Avenue, they found a man in one room shaking with fear. He knew who had torched the structure. The terrified apartment dweller said the fire had' started after a husband bad a fight with his wife, who then threw the man out. The husband returned to the buildings and set them on fire. "He almost fainted when we said, 'Let's get the cops. We'll bring it to the chief.' He almost threw up be got so scared," said a firefighter describing the scene. " 'No, you can't bring me out on the street. They'll kill me,'" he told the firemen. Revenge and Greed Revenge is just one cause of the arson epidemic in Williamsburg and Bushwick. The men of 108, who estimate that perhaps 80 per cent of the fires they fight are set deliberately, find that kids torch vacant buildings for fun or because they are paid to do it Unscrupulous wrecking companies look favorably on a convenient fire that saves workmen's salaries. Some landlords unable to carry a building hire professional i arsonists to burn it for the insurance. Some residents ignite their rundown apartments to relocate at the expense of New York City, which pays temporary hotel bills and buys some belongings for homeless fire victims. "We have people who have a fire in the building and they want to be relocated," says fireman Kleehaas. "A minor fire. We tell them they can't be relocated. We get back there 45 minutes later, the whole apartment is burned. "There is some guy two floors down who wasn't affected by the fire. 'I want to be relocated,'" he says. "He's on the other side of the building. Not even water damage. You get back there at 2 o'clock in the morning. His apartment is on fire. It's a game. "It's like a culture around here. Instead of sticking a knife in a guy's tires or something they throw gasoline in the stairway and they get him and everybody else who is in the building." Nice Place Once All this is especially poignant to Nick Pelella, who was born five blocks from the Union Avenue firehouse. An older man, his fellow firefighters have nicknamed him "No. 1." Pelella recalled. "Mostly German, Italian, Jewish and Polish. Everybody kept their streets clean. What's happening here in the last 10 years is unbelievable. It can't believe it. "I lived in a coal flat and the people here have the same thing, and they call it a ghetto. It was no ghetto. They made it a ghetto." For the last 10 years, the Union Avenue firehouse has been one of the busiest in the city. So far this year Ladder 108 and Engine 216 have responded to 7,765 alarms, 4,043 of them false. Kopp and fireman Bernard Mullen were reminded how difficult the job is recently. When Ladder 108 arrived at a burning building, neighbors screamed that a child was trapped on the second floor directly above the flames. The blaze blocked the only staircase. Kopp and Mullen scrambled up a ladder, and in a rear bedroom found a six-year-old boy. He had been left alone at home. With the youngster in tow, they crawled through five rooms of dense smoke past a burning door and window until they reached the safety of the ladder. The youngster was revived with oxygen. And after the fire was put out, the firemen found a surprise ? $800 in one room which they turned over to the fire marshals. Hours later a woman walked into the fire house. "Where's my money?" she asked angrily. She didn't thank the firemen for saving her son. "As far as loss of life, each guy will tell you a story you want to choke on," says Kopp. When Ladder 108" arrived at a fire in tenements above a former olive oil factory. Their truck was one of the first. Flames were shooting out of every window. Children were being thrown out of the building from five different fire escapes. "To watch the chief go on the air at that time, screaming for all available ambulances - 'We have multiple injuries and probably loss of life,' and trying to find the people, that had to be one of the worst," Kopp recalled. Nine children and four adults were killed in that one. Especially dangerous and unrewarding is fighting the fires that break out in the abandoned buildings littering Williamsburg and Bushwick. Sometimes in these structures the firemen find booby traps - holes cut in the floor covered over with paper. "How many times (do) you go to a fire and the building is totally vacant?" asks Kopp in exasperation. "It's not going to go on fire by itself. In the last few weeks, to the delight of the men of 108, who now have their original hook and ladder back, there have been some slight signs of improvement. Williamsburg and Bushwick have been saturated with fire marshals, and this appears to have somewhat lessened arson in the area. But questions remain about what will happen when the marshals are shifted to other areas of the city. And winter looms ? a traditionally hard time for firefighters."


Note - FF Harry Ford  (formerly L 108 - assigned to R 4)  LODD  6-17-2001  Fathers Day Fire  RIP

 

[mack]

Engine 249/Ladder 113  firehouse  491 Rogers Avenue  Flatbush, Brooklyn

    Engine 49 BFD organized 491 Rogers Avenue w/Ladder 23 BFD        1896
    Engine 49 BFD became Engine 49 FDNY                                          1898
    Engine 49 became Engine 149                                                        1899
    Engine 149 became Engine 249                                                      1913
    Engine 249 relocated to 489 St Johns Place at Engine 280                1996
    Engine 249 returned to 491 Rogers Avenue                                    1997

    Ladder 23 BFD organized 491 Rogers Avenue w/Engine 49 BFD        1896
    Ladder 23 BFD became Ladder 23 FDNY                                          1898
    Ladder 23 became Ladder 13                                                        1898
    Ladder 13 became Ladder 63                                                        1899
    Ladder 63 became Ladder 113                                                      1913
    Ladder 113 relocated to 2900 Snyder Avenue at Engine 248            1996
    Ladder 113 returned to 491 Rogers Avenue                                    1997

Engine 249/Ladder 113 history: http://www.nyfd.com/history/engine_249.pdf

491 Rogers Avenue firehouse early 1900s (then - Engine 149/Ladder 63):


1896 Brooklyn Eagle newspaper - new BFD fire companies:


1896 Brooklyn Eagle newspaper - new apparatus BFD Engine 49:


1896 Brooklyn Eagle newspaper - volunteer companies honor new paid units:


Note:  Before the City of Brooklyn established paid fire companies in Flatbush, the area was protected by the existing volunteer fire companies of the Town of Flatbush incorporated as the Flatbush Fire Department:
    Washington Engine 1
    Melrose Hose
    Malbone Hose
    Woodbine Hose
    Windsor Hose  (located at 1286 Prospect Avenue)
    Washington H&L 1
    Farmer H&L 2

Melrose Hose:


Brooklyn 1890s:


491 Rogers Avenue approx 1960s:








Engine 249:


Engine 249/Ladder 113 responding:
FDNY Engine 249 & Ladder 113 Responding

FDNY LADDER 113


http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/publications/md00_p13.html

Engine 249 LODD: Lt John H. Martinson 2008 RIP - http://www.waldwickfiredepartment.com/fullstory.php?57639

Engine 249 LODD:  FF Matthew Miller
Jan 30, 1908 Box # 22-644, Canarsie Ave and Snyder Ave. 28 E. 38th St.

Prospect Lefferts Gardens section of Flatbush:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Lefferts_Gardens

http://www.brooklynpix.com/catalog21bk.php?locality_no=11801