Working the 6X9 on the July 4th

J

jerseymike

Joined
Oct 17, 2012
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16
I had a buddy who had a friend in R-2 and got invited to ride with them on the night tour during July 4th. This was back in the mid-eighties. He told us how it got crazier as it got darker and that they went from fire to fire until things finally cooled down around daybreak. For years after that, I would listen to my scanner on the 4th with some fellow F/F's in total amazement of the amount of runs/fires in the span of that 9X6 tour. Since many of you folks on this sight are retired or still on the job, I was wondering if you had any stories from working the July 4th 9X6 tour that you would like to share with the rest of us...
 
25-30 runs on the night tour not unheard of....small rubbish fires to multiple alarms.  I remember catching a great job in 75 engines area while they were out at another fire.  Listening to the scanner was a trip in itself.  Giuliani became the mayor and it all changed....in one year
 
Chinatown was not immune either. They couldn't use firecrackers during their new year celebration.

The busiest day of the year now is the day before Passover, and even that's not as hectic as it used to be.

 
July 4th, 1986, the Statue of Liberty Celebration. Huge fireworks on the Hudson 2100-2130 that night.  Most of the staff were staging at Pier A for any problems during the tour.  Around 2030 a second alarm came in for 48th or 49th and 10th Avenue (if I remember right). This area of Manhattan is the "florist" area where flowers etc. are sold to stores throughout the city, easy shopping in one few block area. The second was for a 5 story fully occupied tenement, fire on all floors, apartments exposure, 2 side. Next to the building was a large corner lot where artificial (plastic) plants, trees etc. were sold. Against the exposure 2 side of the tenement a large number of plastic trees were stored.  Someone had set the trees on fire and the fire climbed and auto-exposed the ex. 2 side of the tenement. There was some extension to the exposure 4 side apartments. Fire was extinguished and all hands took up around 2200. The building was completely empty of occupants on our arrival and when we left. Every person in the building had left early in the evening to claim a spot along the Hudson to watch the show. I still think of those poor people who returned home later that night and found themselves burned out, tired around midnight with no home.
 
Bulldog said:
enginecap said:
Giuliani became the mayor and it all changed....in one year
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What did he do that made such a drastic change?
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Instead of issuing a summons for illegal fireworks he had the NYPD put any violators "thru the system" meaning spending the night in the particular BCB (Boro Central Booking) along w/any other criminal arrested in the Boro that night & then to arraignment the next day (if lucky) .... an eye opener for the average law abiding citizen who got caught ....it made an impression .
 
and he didn't exempt the Howard Beach / Bensonhurst mob families that had their own displays over the years. 
 
I worked many 4th of July's through the years......they were the busiest from around '76 to around '95 then things became relatively calm which i would attribute to both increased enforcement as well as the changing Demographic of many neighborhoods now populated by people who do not really celebrate OUR Country's Birthday as was done in the past....i worked the 7-4-86 night when the Statue Of Liberty Celebration took place....i was in R*2 & were sent to standby at the water in Red Hook BKLYN....after the Celebration almost everyone tried to leave the area at once cars were even going the wrong way on streets resulting in total gridlock .....we encountered a vacant bldg Fire which luckily had a hydrant right in front of it....we used our rolled up lengths off the hydrant & had it UC by the time other Units arrived which was at least 15 minutes later due to the gridlock.....another 4th the NYPD had a large fireworks confiscation & someone in the crowd fired a roman candle into a fully loaded RMP resulting in the destruction of the car.
 
I had a few ridiculous runs on July Fourths. A special call for a single engine from Bushwick to 165 Ave. in Howard Beach for ten cents worth of brush. We once were taking up from a fire in Ridgewood and were sent down to Utica Ave. near Flatbush Ave., first and only engine for a lumber yard. There was one engine and one truck responding, the truck being 137 from Rockaway Park. A tower ladder was added, Ladder 105. We normally wouldn't go on a postcard to either of those locations.
 
******* said:
July 4th, 1986, the Statue of Liberty Celebration. Huge fireworks on the Hudson 2100-2130 that night.  Most of the staff were staging at Pier A for any problems during the tour.  Around 2030 a second alarm came in for 48th or 49th and 10th Avenue (if I remember right). This area of Manhattan is the "florist" area where flowers etc. are sold to stores throughout the city, easy shopping in one few block area. The second was for a 5 story fully occupied tenement, fire on all floors, apartments exposure, 2 side. Next to the building was a large corner lot where artificial (plastic) plants, trees etc. were sold. Against the exposure 2 side of the tenement a large number of plastic trees were stored.  Someone had set the trees on fire and the fire climbed and auto-exposed the ex. 2 side of the tenement. There was some extension to the exposure 4 side apartments. Fire was extinguished and all hands took up around 2200. The building was completely empty of occupants on our arrival and when we left. Every person in the building had left early in the evening to claim a spot along the Hudson to watch the show. I still think of those poor people who returned home later that night and found themselves burned out, tired around midnight with no home.
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Actually, the Flower District was on Sixth Avenue from about 25th Street up to the low 30's.  Most of them were cleared out by the developers over the past 10 or so years and that whole corridor is now soulless, glass high-rise residentials.  The remaining florists  - and there are relatively few - are all located on side streets.  It's another case of small businesses being forced out by real estate interests with the attendant loss of jobs and sense of neighborhood.  I remember very well that there were at least hundreds of Christmas trees and walking along Sixth Avenue during Christmas season was like going through a pine forest right in Manhattan.  Before Palm Sunday hundreds of boxes and bales of palm were being readied for distribution to churches and the following week there would by beautiful lilies lining the avenue.
 
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