VINTAGE FDNY WAR YEAR LIDS

JohnnyGage said:
There were 5 salvage companies serving NYC. The "Salvage Crew" members were hired from the Model City program. "Mack" has contributed real insightful info, check out page 5 of this History section for interesting aspects of Fire Patrol and Salvage! Good stuff there...

I was detailed to drive Salvage 3 one night tour. S3 is located in E 48's old quarters on Webster Ave. I walked into quarters, saw a handful of fine young men. I met the officer, again very nice man. He told me my sole responsibility was to distribute the "hammer staple gun", one per man at an operation , and "make sure" you get "one hammer staple gun" per man back at the end of the operation. The staple guns are "locked" in a wooden box, on the floor of the apparatus, bolted down. "Aye, aye, Boss...got it". I mean, what else can I say...then he gives me a key to my room on the second floor. The room is the old 48 officers office and is padlocked closed from the outside with a hasp and lock! The Boss tells me, make sure you lock the door between runs. I'm saying to myself, what the ding dong hell is going on here?...anyway, I thank him and proceed to look over the GMC rig.

The group doesn't eat together, so I got a sandwich and ate it in my room with my own tv. Since the old firehouse was 48's, the computer signal has not been disconnected and it is interesting hearing it pulse indicating a run for 48. I can hear 48 responding about a block away.

Well, so far a quiet night. We get turned out sometime after midnight to a Manhattan job, somewhere near 103 street. And I locked the "room". The officer tells me, "no rush, we'll take our time responding"...got it. I forgot the route, but I'm just keeping with the traffic. The officer has the siren going like crazy, flipping through the different electronic tones, you would think it was the end of the world.... He turns to me and says  "we can slow down a bit more"... "sure, fine with me". I literally took my foot off the acelerator as we coast from the Bronx to Manhattan. At the fire I gave out, and accounted for the return of four hammer staple guns. Wierd tour!....Anyway here are some salvage lids...

Old Salvage 4

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Different salvage lids

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Click to expand...

FDNY Salvage rigs:

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S-1.jpg

S-1-2.jpg

S-2.jpg

FDNY-Salvage-4.jpg


 
1943 all-hands fire - NYFP arrives and operates with distinctive red helmets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe1rzfidAaE
 
My Salvage tour....one day as a COV LT i was assigned to work a 9x6 in the Salvage Unit in Harlem...it was quartered in the former LAD*43 bay alongside ENG*91.... https://www.google.com/search?sourc.....0..0j0i131j0i13j0i7i30j0i8i7i30.gcE4eMzwvsg ... i was not enthused about spending a tour not really fighting Fires however i was looking forward to getting back inside the FH i grew up in...as a kid i had spent many tours there riding with my Father as he drove 43 https://nyfd.com/manhattan_ladders/ladder_43.html sometime if 43 was not assigned to a job riding w/DV*4 who was in w/91 back then .....i used to get my haircuts at the Barber directly across he street next to Louisa's Candy Store ....back then the 3 bays of the FH consisted of (facing the bldg) left door 91..middle door an unmanned but fully equipped Reserve LAD & DV*4...then a wall & 43 in a separate bay....there was one HW with a walk through opening & another pass through on top floor....separate kitchens for the E & T....so i arrive for work & enter the old Truck side (in the old days it was never very bright inside as the ceiling lights were incandescent bulbs no fluorescents but the tile walls were clean)....now it was very dark inside & the tile walls were grimy...there was an old metal drip pan nailed over the opening to the HW ....i walked back to the kitchen to find it gutted.....there was no one on the apparatus floor so i went upstairs to the office & found the Officer who i was to relieve ....he gave me a quick rundown & then told me "the guys don't have coffee so if you want some go next door to 91 "....just then a Salvage Man came in with a big laundry bag & the Officer gave him a bag of quarters & said to me "this is so & so.. you won't see him for he rest of the tour as he will be out washing sheets"....i said ok ....the other guys were hanging out at a table on the 3rd fl which was old locker room area which also had the door to 91 sealed...i said to the Officer as he was going home that i was going next door to 91 for some coffee ....he said "ok the guys don't cook so if you want to eat at lunchtime ask 91 to count you in " i walked outside & into 91 .....the guys there welcomed me & i joined them for coffee....the ENG side was much more updated than i had remembered it as a kid....around 1030 hrs we got a Salvage run to a flooded basement uptown...when we got there the Chief said DEP was handling it & we went 10-8....back to the FH & i had lunch w/91 then we had a run to a MD Fire in BN*46s area in QNS...when we got there it was basically out....we stood fast until they completed overhauling then hung some plastic on the windows & took up...back at the FH i was sitting in the office thinking about some of the previous LAD*43 Officers i had met years ago while they sat in this same spot .....the former Truck office like rest of the former Truck side was a shell of its larger than life impressions when i was a kid...the old little stores across the St had changed ...even the old West to East traffic flow on 111 St had been changed to East to West.... time was dragging on & i was wishing 1800 would come...i never felt this way working in any other Unit suddenly the phone rang & it was the fellow in DV*15 who handles the assignments & he told me i would be Covering in 103 tomorrow...things were brightening up ...soon the night tour Officer arrived & i took up from my first & last FDNY Salvage tour.
 
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War Years helmet - James P. Ginty L 42:


    Ginty-L-42.jpg



    (another classic Mick Dick picture)
 
FDNY Helmets - 2015 ComicCon

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/fdnyhome/albums/72157659210017649
 
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