Hurricane Donna Engine Company

[mack]

Anyone identify location or engine company?  I believe it is in Brooklyn - maybe Sheepshead Bay.  Picture is during Hurricane Donna, 1960.




http://pix.avaxnews.com/avaxnews/c1/39/000039c1.jpeg

 

[FDNY793727]

3 out of the 4 helmets say 245 on them with the third from the right appearing to be a Probie Helmet. Also, the street sign to the right-side of the image says W 20 street. There is also a second rig farther down the street. Great picture you found by the way.

http://pix.avaxnews.com/avaxnews/c1/39/000039c1.jpeg

 

[mack]

FDNY793727  Great.  Thanks.  If you zoom in on your link's picture, you can see another engine company in the distance.  You can see guys riding the back step.  Also looks like next block is 21st St by street sign.  Maybe Neptune Avenue headed toward Seagate?

 

[mack]

Washington Baths in the picture was located on Surf Avenue.  Picture was Engine 245 on a flooded Surf Avenue and W 20th Street intersection headed toward Seagate.  Maybe Engine 318 further down Surf Avenue.

Washington Baths was on West 21st Street, between Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk, but there was also a Washington Baths Annex a block away on the Boardwalk at West 22nd Street. Both had salt water pools. The main Washington Baths was right next to Ravenhall and had a large entrance on the Boardwalk. There was a smaller Surf Avenue entrance in the middle of the block used mostly by season pass holders.

http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/mrconey/?p=115

http://www.brooklynvisualheritage.org/washington-baths-coney-island

 

[mack]

Surf and W 20th today - same location?

 

[mack]

Scaling ladder on right side of Engine 245 rig.

 

[811]

Westbound, on Surf Ave, tall building in left distance is Half Moon Hotel at Boardwalk & West 29th Street, projects to right.

Washington Baths shown at left was on West 21st Street between Surf Ave and the Boardwalk.

Note everyone on backstep had the Midwestern rubber coats, pretty standard for Enginemen then. Their advertising claim to fame was that the yellow stripes were "molded in, not sewn on".  Not bad coats, but I always thought the collars were a little too small.

 

[lucky]

Those midwesterns were good for taking tire patches. My rubber coat was like a goodyear advertisement.

 

[mack]

Other engine company in picture:

 

[nfd2004]

Some GREAT Detective work done on an unknown picture taken over 50 years ago. Very impressive if you ask me how all the facts were put together. I bet NYC Police Commissioner Bratian (Spelling ?) or "Truck 4" of Yonkers, wishes he had a few more detectives like you.

  Really a Great job done in putting everything together. 

 

[811]

Some GREAT Detective work done on an unknown picture taken over 50 years ago. Very impressive if you ask me how all the facts were put together. I bet NYC Police Commissioner Bratian (Spelling ?) or "Truck 4" of Yonkers, wishes he had a few more detectives like you.

  Really a Great job done in putting everything together.

Old maps and atlasses (like Sanborns) are great for placing and dating  old photos, as are reference books and the www; but the best tool often not credited is one's memory.

 

[811]

As mentioned in previous post, here is a segment of the 1929 HYDE Atlas, (Vol. 4, Plate 204) of the area spoken of.  A couple blocks west of West 21st Street were burned in a Borough Call in the summer of 1932.

 

[JOR176]

Washington Baths in the picture was located on Surf Avenue.  Picture was Engine 245 on a flooded Surf Avenue and W 20th Street intersection headed toward Seagate.  Maybe Engine 318 further down Surf Avenue.

Washington Baths was on West 21st Street, between Surf Avenue and the Boardwalk, but there was also a Washington Baths Annex a block away on the Boardwalk at West 22nd Street. Both had salt water pools. The main Washington Baths was right next to Ravenhall and had a large entrance on the Boardwalk. There was a smaller Surf Avenue entrance in the middle of the block used mostly by season pass holders.

http://www.coneyislandhistory.org/mrconey/?p=115

http://www.brooklynvisualheritage.org/washington-baths-coney-island

Mack that Eng could also be E 244 which was on W.15 St off Surf Ave at the time of this picture.

 

[mack]

Jor176 - You are right. More likely Engine 244 heading up Surf Avenue.  I forgot Coney Island had 3rd firehouse back then.  Old Brooklyn Fire Department firehouse.  I think Engine 244 was disbanded 1966.  Too bad they were not available as Coney Island burned.  There used to be a 4th engine company - Engine 326 - which was located with Engine 245 and Ladder 161 in their old firehouse on West 8th Street.  They were disbanded in 1952.         

(thanks fdnyhistorian) 

Engine 244  Coney Island:

 

[fdhistorian]

Jor176 - You are right. More likely Engine 244 heading up Surf Avenue.  I forgot Coney Island had 3rd firehouse back then.  Old Brooklyn Fire Department firehouse.  I think Engine 244 was disbanded 1966.  Too bad they were not available as Coney Island burned.  There used to be a 4th engine company - Engine 326 - which was located with Engine 245 and Ladder 161 in their old firehouse on West 8th Street.  They were disbanded in 1960. 

Engine 244  Coney Island:

Engine 244 was disbanded in 1968 (and Ladder 55 was organized on the same day)

Engine 326 was disbanded in 1952 and Engine 251was reorganized in Queens on the same day.

Side note - When Engine 326 was reorganized in 1984, it was in the adjacent neighborhood of Engine 251.  If Engine 251 is a continuation of Engine 326's history line, then 326's history line exists twice (as Engine companies) in two eastern Queens stations at the same time.

 

[guitarman314]

  Engine 244 didn't have a 1958-59 Mack C pumper back in 1960. In 1960 they were running with a 1951 Ward LaFrance #2592 that was theirs until around 1965 when they swapped rigs with E248 and got 248's 1959 Mack C 1000gpm pumper. Unfortunately, E244 was disbanded.    

 

[mack]

Thanks Gman.  So maybe the engine further up Surf Avenue was Engine 318?

 

[johnd248]

And, thankfully, when E 244 was disbanded, E 248 got their original rig back.  Took a lot of effort on the part of our Captain.

 

[mack]

E 244 1951 WLF:

 

[johnd248]

That 1951 WLF was a solid, but slow warhorse.  Rode it for years.  I remember riding the back step responding to a call when a civilian car blew through a red light and hit us on the front bumper on the chauffeur's side.  The car careened off the engine, through the intersection, and went into a store front across the street.  No injuries to FFs and no damage to the rig; six people from the car went to the hospital and the car was totalled.  It was quite a jolt on the back step but we all managed to hold on.