I very well could be wrong but I think that TL 1 and 2 in Willy D's pics from Providence were also former FDNY. Do you remember if they were Willy ???? I sure remember many of those rigs at jobs in those very busy Providence days. Especially E 10 / L 5 and E 8 / L 2. The places to be back then but they all saw plenty of work !!!
OLD NON-FDNY RIGS.
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I think they were. I seems that many big cities back then bought ex-FDNY scopes. And, oh yes, just like every other big city in New England and in the NY Metro Area, Providence caught plenty of work. Willy D. could probably tell you more about it. An interesting fact about Providence, was that it didn't really lose more than a couple of companies to budget cuts later on. It has still been running at pretty much full strength as it was back in the "War Years", where as cities in CT, NJ, and MA lost companies(and in some cases are still losing companies).Bxboro said:
Bxboro said:
The former FDNY Tower Ladders that Providence bought were T.L. 14 (or 13 ? I'm not sure), and T.L. 114. These were War Year Tower Ladders that saw plenty of work before hitting the streets of Providence. I thought at the time that Providence made one big mistake buying these overly used war beaten T.L.s. But they did a great job restoring them. And most of the work was done by their own shops. It certainly was a credit to the kind of work these guys did. I wish that I had taken pictures of them before and after.
When these two tower ladders went back into service after the rehab job, they went to Ladders 1 and 2. The busiest ladders in the city. My guess is that they saw at least ten years of good work there before seeing final retirement. Those Mack Tower Ladders had to be the most rugged ladders ever produced.
Over the last 30 or so years, the only company to close was the first piece, actually Engine 1 which ran with Special Hazards 1 (Heavy Rescue). And they really didn't loose the manning, only the engine. Special Hazards 1 is the heavy rescue which still runs with its four man crew. By the way, they don't call it Rescue 1 because all Rescues in Rhode Island are ambulances run by the fire depts. And speaking of Rescues, over the last 30 or so years, Providence went from 3 Rescues (ambulances) to six.
Recently however I just learned that Providence closed down Battalion 2 this past summer. Now there is only One Deputy Chief (Division 1) and one Battalion (Batt 3) to cover the entire city.
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