Ladder (Phone Booth)
- Thread starter TN46
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Fireman5230
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The Phone Booths were added with the FIRST order of Seagrave Reamounts in 1070. SOME rigs were delivered WITHOUT the booth. I have seen a photo of Ladder 84 without it. The job needed the spot added for the Tillerman's spot that was lost on this type of rig. So the Phone Booth idea was used. The companies put the lowest man a Probie or Junior Man (Johnny) in the spot. The Phone booths were used until 1981 or 1982's order of Rearmounts.
Information can be found in WHEELS OF THE BRAVEST
by BC Jack Calderone and Jack Lerch
Information can be found in WHEELS OF THE BRAVEST
by BC Jack Calderone and Jack Lerch
TN46: Earlier this week another poster referred us to his website, www.jgdwyerphotography.com. It had several nice photos from the 70's and 80's. One of the shots showed a partial view of the phone booth you are referring to. Sorry for being too lazy to track down his original post on this forum.
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Some "Phonebooth trivia"........When i was in LAD*108 we had a major accident w/our '69 American LaFrance Tiller .....luckily no one was seriously hurt but the estimate to repair was 6 months or better......the FDNY did not have much of a spare pool in those days....Chief Burton Clarke the head of Repairs & Transportation at that time gave us a brand new un-assigned '70 Seagrave Rear Mount which was one of FDNYs first... (TCU 732/LAD*176 actually had the very first which was a '69 American LaFrance 4 speed stick.. Maroon in color)...we did not want a RM as we had tested a demo model in our area previously....however due to the time frame of repairs to our '69 & the possibility of getting a series of unreliable spare pos s .....we took the RM as a spare.....the last thing the Chief said was "dont mess this one up ..its not yours" .....after about 2 weeks we got broadsided by an oil truck...(low speed /no serious injuries/not much damage).....Chief Clarke was not happy though.....when our '69 Tiller was repaired he asked us again "do you want to keep the RM ? we said no thanks .....the Tiller was THE rig....the point of this is......the original '70 RMs did not have phone booths ....in 108 everybody was used to riding on an open rig ...at least the FFs......but w/the RM ....generally the Can & Irons rode in the crew cab section of the RM but the Roof..the O.V. and the extra man during adaptive response hours rode on the very narrow backstep which basically was not intended for riding on.....there was also much more bouncing in the rear than a pumper....unfortunately a FF in another LAD was thrown from the backstep of a RM & died (REST IN PEACE CLARENCE)......riding outside on a RM was then forbidden.....the seat between the Chauf. & the Off. only provided 1 more seat for a total of 6 FFs & 1 off.... in areas where adaptive response called for 2 extra FFs there still was a seat missing ( even where there was only 1 extra FF.for AR).... using the middle seat in the cab was tough.....the shops cut out a compartment on the OFF side about midship & constructed a phone booth....after the later RMs came from the factory w/one....certain Companies & or certain areas of the City had different assignments as to who rode in the booth...in 108 in the period we had it.... we had the Roof man ride in it to allow him to do a size up as he was approaching the box...(this worked ok when the Fire was on the Off side but he still had to stand inside & look out as the seat faced rearward)...i think in other areas some Cos. had the Can Man ride in it...the problem we felt w/that was that as a Junior Man or ENG Detail he was not privvy to any info/discussion/instructions on the way since he had no Radio in those days..... whereas the Roofman did & the Roofman was generally a more Senior Member & usually not a Detail.....once the adaptive response debacle was discontinued & manpower on trucks went back to 6 then to 5 on all Trucks ...the phone booth became history.....i remember an incident where a dude on his 10 speed tried to round a curve in the road at the same time as us & he got his handlebar hooked in the phone booth opening...the roofman pulled him in & the bike didnt even get run over...in a more serious incident another Truck tee-boned a soda truck...the overhang of the RM Aerial which was 3 ft in those days imbedded itself in one of the side bays of the soda truck the RM stopped on impact but the soda truck proceeded a few more feet ripping the Aerial from the front cradle & bending over the top of the phone booth......luckily the FF inside ducked as was not seriously hurt .... there was a thread on the Phonebooth on the rant but it was lost last year ....this is an important part of FDNY History that should be remembered as it also took place during an important period...the previous thread had some good photos by some contributors ...maybe they will add some as well as comments from others who were around in that time.
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Didn't some members have there retirement party's in the phone booth ?
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He was part of a 2 FF floor above team....it initially was a 1 truck response during the adaptive response hrs.....2 FFs would go to the floor above to search .In BX. & Manhattan Trucks had 7 FFs the extra 2 were the floor above in BKLYN during A.R. Trucks only had 6 the F.A. team was the 6th FF & the Tillerman/OV.
Cant remember for sure as its been many years, and it probably wasnt recorded in too many documents, but I think the 2 + 1 response, with an AR truck applied only to pulled boxes with no additional information of a structural fire during Adaptive Response hours, second source and and phone alarms were handled as always.
This may have been written up on an AUC or something. Adaptive Response was used in Brooklyn and Bronx, not sure of Manhattan, and likely not Queens and Richmond.
This may have been written up on an AUC or something. Adaptive Response was used in Brooklyn and Bronx, not sure of Manhattan, and likely not Queens and Richmond.
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The 2-1 signal did apply to pull boxes only ...but at the time ....most alarms were from pull boxes....it was in effect daily from around 1500 to 2400 hrs in the busy areas of BX..BKLYN ...& MAN only.......the MAN & BX Trucks rode w/7 FFs.. BKLYN Trucks only rode w/6 because ohagan said BKLYN bldgs were smaller....a JO statement ....just ride down the south sts.
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Ladder 174 early 1970's Rearmount with phone booth shown in the picture on the link below.
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/3410/ladder17470seagrave.jpg
http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/3410/ladder17470seagrave.jpg
The original Seagrave rearmounts (after L27-2's two door demonstrator in 1969) were equipped with 360? strobes on either side of the cab roof. I understand they were removed after a while after it was claimed strobes can induce seizures in some people, and replaced with sealed beam Beacon-Rays.
As Chief says L108 was one of the first in Brooklyn. I think 112 and a section of 103 were also very early ones. I'll have to check the Bell Club News Notes of those years, Jack L. usually listed the order of delivery of new apparatus.
As Chief says L108 was one of the first in Brooklyn. I think 112 and a section of 103 were also very early ones. I'll have to check the Bell Club News Notes of those years, Jack L. usually listed the order of delivery of new apparatus.
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heres a picture of a 1980 seagrave RM spare with the phone booth
1980 Seagrave SR 100' Rear-Mount (SL8001)
judging by the next picture in the set 1980 was the last year for phone booths
1980 Seagrave SR 100' Rear-Mount (SL8001)
judging by the next picture in the set 1980 was the last year for phone booths
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1980 was the last year for phone booths. All subsequent years were delivered without the booth