My younger Buff years

[80sQueensbuff]

I somehow never really looked at this thread too much until the last month or so, when I read through all 93 pages, and looked at most of the links to videos and audio recordings. I can't believe I didn't look at it before. It is truly amazing to get the first hand stories from both the firefighters and the buffs. I started listening to the radio around 1975 on a multiband radio then various scanners. I was just listening to the Gettin' Salty podcast with Warren Fuchs, and they played the recording from the Knickerbocker fire. As soon as I heard the first few seconds of that I recognized it as I was listening as it happened. I was in my teens, and when the second alarm was transmitted, it was obvious something big was happening. I looked out the window of my bedroom near Fresh Meadows in Queens, and there was already a huge cloud of smoke visible. Somewhere in my apartment, which I am trying to keep from being a Collyer's mansion, I have a recording of some of that fire and others that happened around that time. It was on cheap audio tape, and about 20 years ago I reached out to Frank Raffa, and brought it to him and he was able to digitize it. That was the only time I recall hearing the units on the radio sounding like a disaster was unfolding. I drove through the area the following March, and took these photos. I wish I had known there were other people with this interest back then!