My younger Buff years

[nfd2004]

Here's where it all starts. More images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12533995@N02/sets/72157603941305234/

    I was going through some of Franks photos (FD347). They are all Great. But one in particular caught my eye. It's actually a sign. It says "Your scanner has stopped at KCB 525. The Hot Spot on your dial" "Brooklyn Fire Radio". How true that was. In those busy War Years, it was Impossible to scan any more than one Boro at a time. They were just so busy during those War Years.
  If I was home listening to the scanner, Brooklyn was always my favorite. They were just so busy and never missed a beat. Sometimes they would announce three or four boxes in rapid succession. It was like you turned on an AM or FM radio with constant talking. Those dispatchers were really the Greatest.
  And here's a story that I heard from one of them who is now retired. He said that he would write down the box numbers that came in on a piece of paper, but was so busy that he never got a chance to put them out. He'd find the paper in his pocket when he got home. My point is that it was just so busy, even the Worlds Best Dispatchers had trouble keeping up with it. And whether it was Brooklyn, Manhattan or The Bronx, 3 AM or 3 PM, there was little "Off the Air" time in those days.

 

[68jk09]

What happened to  the doyleimages photos ?......when the link opens the site says no photos available yet.....these were some great history shots.......anybody know what happened ?

 

[nfd2004]

What happened to  the doyleimages photos ?......when the link opens the site says no photos available yet.....these were some great history shots.......anybody know what happened ?

Chief JK, those pictures "ARE GREAT". I tried it and noticed the same thing happen. But then I clicked on the Top Left, where it says "Doyleimages" and many photos showed up. There were alot of those photos under seperate photo galleries. For some reason they just are not together.
 I just don't understand it why they don't show up as orginally posted. Espically after explaining many of those photos. I just don't understand it.

 And I need to make a correction to one of my earlier post regarding the sign about Brooklyn Fire Radio. It is "KEB525", NOT "KCB525". I heard that so many times in the years past. How did I ever mess that up ??????

 

[bklyndisp54]

 And I need to make a correction to one of my earlier post regarding the sign about Brooklyn Fire Radio. It is "KCB525", NOT "KEB525".

Still backwards!   It was KEB-525.   Incidentally, FDNY has numerous licenses for 154.37Mhz and for each of its other FD frequencies.   There's a separate license for each transmitter location.   Brooklyn is currently using KYE-994, which is licensed to 35 Empire Blvd.  Callsign KEB-525 is assigned to a backup xmtr. over at the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway.  

We gave out that callsign (albeit incorrectly) for years.  I think that usage was a carry-over from the days of the "green monster", when the radio console at Empire Blv'd. was connected via a land-line link to the transmitter at the museum. Link to FD347 photo:  Colin O'Connor at Brooklyn Radio c. 1970

BTW... Years ago there was a "buffmobile" cruising the streets of Brooklyn with license plate # KEB-525.  Never found out who that was.

 

[nfd2004]

Thanks there "bklyndisp54". I corrected it for like the THIRD TIME. Sorry to ALL. I know it as good as my name. It actually was KEB525, and NOT KCB525. Sorry ! ! !
  I even got a "PM" from "69Mets" when I first made the mistake. He was trying to help me out with the right call sign. I still messed up. "I need to take a little more Geritol, and lay off "The Hard Stuff".

 

[mack]

For some members who might not be familiar with what NYC neighborhoods looked like in the 1970s-80s:

S.Bronx 1970s (FDNY responses 3 minutes into video):
New York Bronx (South Bronx) in the 70`s and 80`s

Bushwick 1970s (Lt Carritue - posted before):
Ron Carritue and the Bushwick Firestorm Years

Bushwick 1970s (NBC TV Report - gangs):
Bushwick Brooklyn (70s)

S. Bronx 1970s (John Finucane - posted before):
When the Bronx Was Burning: Firefighter John Finucane on the Bronx of the 1970's

S. Bronx 1970s (Bronx Burning - posted before)
The Bronx is Burning S2.wmv
FDNY The Bronx is Burning 3

 

[nfd2004]

Wow ! Thanks very much Mack for posting those videos. I think its espically good now as those attending the member meeting will see quite a differnt place from what it was in those days. Where single family raised ranch houses are now, were once the scene of blocks of vacant, or partially occupied burned out six story brick MDs.
  Thanks Mack, I sure appreciate that.

 

[3511]

This video reflects the devastation of the previous decade, not the late 1970' and 80's. Beginning as early as 1962, the area bordered by the Bronx Kills and Long Island Sound on the south, the Bronx River on the east, Park and Webster Aves on the west, and 180th Street on the north, was the location. It included Mott Haven, Morrisania, Longwood, Hunts Point, Melrose, and Tremont neighborhoods. It was the heaviest fire duty ever experienced by the FDNY (sorry Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Lower East Side, just look up the runs and workers for the years 1962 to 1974). By 1975, with literally nothing left to burn and people moving to Co-op City, the west Bronx became the epicenter, but it never saw the conflagrations of the 3d, 14th, 17th, 18th, 26th and 27th Battalions in the 60's and early 70's. These were the real War Years.

 

[guitarman314]

This video reflects the devastation of the previous decade, not the late 1970' and 80's. Beginning as early as 1962, the area bordered by the Bronx Kills and Long Island Sound on the south, the Bronx River on the east, Park and Webster Aves on the west, and 180th Street on the north, was the location. It included Mott Haven, Morrisania, Longwood, Hunts Point, Melrose, and Tremont neighborhoods. It was the heaviest fire duty ever experienced by the FDNY (sorry Brooklyn, Harlem, and the Lower East Side, just look up the runs and workers for the years 1962 to 1974). By 1975, with literally nothing left to burn and people moving to Co-op City, the west Bronx became the epicenter, but it never saw the conflagrations of the 3d, 14th, 17th, 18th, 26th and 27th Battalions in the 60's and early 70's. These were the real War Years.

  You are so right, 3511, AMEN!

 

[mikeindabronx]

DaBronx never loses it's reputation...

? Fri Oct 15, 3:58 am ET

MELBOURNE (AFP) ? An Indian student leader in Australia Friday slammed a new Bollywood film based on race attacks in Melbourne, saying it was an unfair portrayal of the city and its inhabitants.

"Crook: It's Good to be Bad", was "definitely inaccurate" and poorly researched, said Gautam Gupta, spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students in Australia.

"It's definitely an inaccurate description of Melbourne -- this is not The Bronx," Gupta told AFP.

The movie, which comes after a furore over hundreds of assaults on Indian students in Melbourne and Sydney, shows a series of violent race crimes by Australians, along with song-and-dance routines.

"With the level of crime and the motivation behind crime that it shows, the reflection is that the streets are filled with it," Gupta said. "But I think that's not the case and we have definitely moved on from there."

Officials also objected to suggestions that people in Melbourne, capital of Victoria state, were racist.

"We are not racist here in Victoria," state Police Minister James Merlino told the Herald-Sun newspaper. "In fact it is absolutely completely the contrary. We are one of the most diverse societies in the world."

A wave of muggings, robberies and assaults prompted protests in Melbourne and Sydney last year and a howling response by Indian media, which carried widespread allegations of racism.

The row strained diplomatic relations and damaged Australia's lucrative overseas education industry, which attracts hundreds of thousands of Asian students.

But Gupta said new anti-hate crime legislation and an initiative to recruit more police had helped calm tensions.

"The police and the government have woken up finally and the authorities are taking some concrete action," he said. "So from that point of view it's different to a year back."

Indian reviewers have also been lukewarm on "Crook", accusing it of failing to properly tackle a complex issue.

"In trying to do a ferocious flag-waving trick over the complex issue of racism and colour prejudice, ?Crook? ends up making the Australian population look like a bunch of psychotic killers," said the Calcutta Tube website.

 

[BritishAndy]

Hi Guys....
Sorry if this has been covered before, but can anyone help with additional information, photos or memories of a 10 alarm (?) fire which was in a large disused commerical warehouse which collapsed onto the quarters of Rescue One? I think it was around 1985.

Many thanks
Andy

 

[grumpy grizzly]

A verbal alarm was transmitted from the quarters of Rescue 1 at 7:26 evolved into a 10-alarm fire in the largest single-building fire since 1967. This fire went to 10 alarms on a freezing night of January 23, 1985. The eight story 125 x 90 Wiesner piano factory @ 524 W 43 st burned out of control for over 3 hours. The north wall collapse destroyed Rescue-1 quarters.  There is an outstanding photo from John Lee Gill showing three members from FDNY in a tower ladder looking into the gates of hell.

 

[mikeindabronx]

http://fdnysbravest.com/fp38.htm

This would be looking West from 10th to 11th Ave. R-3 would have been on the South side right past the fire building.

 

[Lifeguard238]

A verbal alarm was transmitted from the quarters of Rescue 1 at 7:26 evolved into a 10-alarm fire in the largest single-building fire since 1967. This fire went to 10 alarms on a freezing night of January 23, 1985. The eight story 125 x 90 Wiesner piano factory @ 524 W 43 st burned out of control for over 3 hours. The north wall collapse destroyed Rescue-1 quarters.  There is an outstanding photo from John Lee Gill showing three members from FDNY in a tower ladder looking into the gates of hell.

What was the alarm total for the Gardner Warehouse?

 

[anesti]

here is some audio from the job where rescue 1 quarters  was destroyed http://www.hfdradio.com/FDNY.htm

 

[nfd2004]

 Back in the early 80s the FDNY had went to quite a few of those American LaFrance Pumpers. For me it was a little disappointing because I was just "so in Love with those Mack C.F.s". (My wife never knew that though). But just as those Mack Pumpers would pump those jobs and many rubbish and car fires, so did these newer American LaFrance rigs.
 Air conditioning was an Unheard of for any of these rigs at the time. Whether it was a Mack, ALF, or Seagrave rig. I rode a few companies then and sitting in the seat next to that hot engine was sometimes like sitting in a furnace room on a hot summer day. Then a new idea came out. Why not paint the roof of these rigs white, to reflect some of the heat. So I remember seeing a few of those American LaFrance rigs starting to appear with a roof area painted white. As I remember in the Bronx Eng 50 and Eng 82 had one.
 After that, the all red FDNY Apparatus began to disappear. Each new apparatus began to come in painted white over red, including all ladder companies. In fact, Rescue 5 was formed in Staten Island. One of the older Macks had been put into service as that company, and its roof was repainted white. I remember driving out there from the Bronx to get a photo of it. As I remember, Staten Island also had the first Mack Tower Ladder painted with the new white roof. When that new Ladder Co 85 went into service with the newer color scheme, I also made the trip to Staten Island to get that rig shot. It was also the first time I had seen those old metal "Pump Cans" being carried on a FDNY Ladder truck.

 

[firebuffkevin]

 Back in the early 80s the FDNY had went to quite a few of those American LaFrance Pumpers. For me it was a little disappointing because I was just "so in Love with those Mack C.F.s". (My wife never knew that though). But just as those Mack Pumpers would pump those jobs and many rubbish and car fires, so did these newer American LaFrance rigs.
 Air conditioning was an Unheard of for any of these rigs at the time. Whether it was a Mack, ALF, or Seagrave rig. I rode a few companies then and sitting in the seat next to that hot engine was sometimes like sitting in a furnace room on a hot summer day. Then a new idea came out. Why not paint the roof of these rigs white, to reflect some of the heat. So I remember seeing a few of those American LaFrance rigs starting to appear with a roof area painted white. As I remember in the Bronx Eng 50 and Eng 82 had one.
 After that, the all red FDNY Apparatus began to disappear. Each new apparatus began to come in painted white over red, including all ladder companies. In fact, Rescue 5 was formed in Staten Island. One of the older Macks had been put into service as that company, and its roof was repainted white. I remember driving out there from the Bronx to get a photo of it. As I remember, Staten Island also had the first Mack Tower Ladder painted with the new white roof. When that new Ladder Co 85 went into service with the newer color scheme, I also made the trip to Staten Island to get that rig shot. It was also the first time I had seen those old metal "Pump Cans" being carried on a FDNY Ladder truck.

If you notice, they have been painting the roofs of the School Busses white to reflect the heat and keep the interiors cooler.

 

[68jk09]

The very first FDNY rig to have a white roof was SQ 1 s ALF which was painted white as a pilot program......i dont remember the year...afterwards others were painted also.

 

[R1SmokeEater]

The very first FDNY rig to have a white roof was SQ 1 s ALF which was painted white as a pilot program......i dont remember the year...afterwards others were painted also.

Squad-1, 1982 ALF #AP-8201 (Bill D)



"Staten Island also had the first Mack Tower Ladder painted with the new white roof. When that new Ladder Co 85 went into service with the newer color scheme, I also made the trip to Staten Island to get that rig shot"

TL-85 1981 Mack/Baker #MT-8107

 

[mikeindabronx]

E-48  (not the first  8204)

http://fdnysbravest.com/fp178.htm