sfrd18

Date:10/23/13
Time:1732hrs
Incident Type:Working fire
Location:999Wilmot rd. Jewish Community Center
District:Station 5 Co. District
Units:E 25,23,21,22 L13,L12,TL 11, 2302, 2301, MSU

Description: E25,23,21 L13,L12 2302 dispatched for fire in the sauna area.
E25 on scene with light smoke from the roof.
2302 Req. E22 as 4th engine respond 10/20
E25 reporting active fire in the building stretching off the back step. E22 now coming in emergency mode.
2302 on scene calling 10/75
Visible fire in the sauna area knocked down. Still have fire in the walls,using all hands.
2302 requesting TL 11 to the scene to come in off Baraud rd.and bring mutual aid into the city.
Sq 11,L75 Batt 2 relocating St.1 will join E24.
Fire placed U/C approx. 1900 hrs.

Each department has a number designation. I'm from Briarcliff Manor, we are department number 205. Therefore our Chief is 2051, the Assistants are 2052 and 2053 and our Deputy Chiefs are 2054, 2055 etc.

The repair crew must love doing work to this Diaphone!

For many years the City of Peekskill had Gamewell Fire Alarm Boxes including
Gamewell Tape Registers and Gong Bells in every Firehouse that would tap out the
rounds when a box when pulled.
We also had Gamewell Diaphone Horns. One was on top of the NYS Armory on Washington St.
and the other on top of the Peekskill Fire Patrol on Highland Ave.
The system was taken out of service in the mid 1990's.
I have a large collection of Gamewell Fire Alarm Boxes, a Bell and a Tape Register.
Some of my boxes date back to the late 1880's (Yes, I said 1880's) I have a lot of
newer ones too 1980's and 1990's.
Any fans on here of Gamewell Fire Alarm Boxes?
Please "Like" or Join my Facebook groups. A lot of photos and information.
https://www.facebook...ellFireAlarmBox
https://www.facebook...llfirealarmbox/
Here is two YouTube videos of Gamewell Fire Alarm equipment in use.
Box, Tape Register (aka Tapper) and Bell.

(one of our EMTBravo members)
ENJOY!

I'm going to agree with M on the necessity of maintaining the pull box system for inner city areas. Like Dennis Smith wrote about; if somebody pulls a box they KNOW a fire engine is coming. Sure it's a different system now, ERS, push to talk, take a look at JBE's profile photo to see one.
We had a pull box system in the Eastchester Fire District. It connected three school systems, a college, a hospital, public buildings, private schools, and public streets directly to every firehouse. Inside each house had a reel-to-reel tape at the watch desk, and bells on the wall of the apparatus floor, and whistles on the roofs. The tapes and bells were spring loaded, and had to be wound at the start of every day tour. As soon as a box was pulled, it would activate four rounds of the box number through all five houses and simultaneously activate all five fire whistles.
The schools, hospital, public buildings all had box numbers like 83..or 881. You had to hear all five whistles going in the district at the same time to believe it. Back in the day, this was the only way to notify the volunteers...they would count the number of blasts on the whistle to figure out the location of the alarm. There was a pocket-sized box location reference guide; I think there were at least a couple hundred boxes in the district.
Back in the day, the Alarm Bureau was staffed with one or two career guys. The district eventually put the maintenance of the system under the purview of the department mechanic. The system was pretty durable, but over the decades the underground cables connecting it all needed more and more maintenance/replacement.
The general public was getting pretty fed up with the incredibly loud whistles that would go off at all hours, so the department installed kill switches for them, and we began shutting them down at 2300 hrs every night.
The invention of the Plectron probably had the most impact on smaller municipal alarm box systems like ours. With the volunteers now getting toned out, the days of the fire whistle were rapidly coming to an end.
And that day did come, with a Resolution by the Board of Fire Commissioners, they pulled the plug on the pull box system, and another part of fire department history went the way of the horse drawn steamer.
The 1800 hr system test was for decades, the way by which many a resident would set their pocket-watch....pulling it out using the fob, double checking the time and then catching the trolley car for a ride home. Career firemen in Eastchester were required to come and go from work in their Class A uniforms. They could ride the trolley for a nickel, but they were not allowed to smoke while wearing their Class A's.
So they did away with the pull boxes, they did away with the whistles, eventually firemen didn't have to wear their Class A's to work anymore.....and the trolley cars came to a halt....they paved asphalt over the tracks at some point. But through it all some things endured the test of time; the design of the New Yorker...and the Halligan Tool!

The street pull-box has not become obsolete. Not one bit. Unless you can show me a fool-proof, never fail method of reporting an emergency, there will be a place for the street pull box. Oh, remember that this device has to be available to everyone. How many people don't have cell-phones, or home phones? Not many in Dobbs Ferry, but in some inner-city neighborhoods, there are still some without.
How about a child? That same group of kids who maliciously pulls the box after school might actually have an emergency to report and no phone.
How about a catastrophic event? I don't know about you, but on 9/11 or the 2003 black-out, I couldn't make a phone call on my cell for hours.
Dispatch has taken steps to reduce malicious false alarms. Almost all pull-type boxes have been replaced with an intercom style. The person pushes a button and speaks with a dispatcher. Between the hours of 7am and 11pm, if no contact is received by the dispatcher, no units respond. If a "no-contact" box is received after 11pm, one single engine responds to investigate.
It doesn't happen often, but I have responded to more than one "ERS" (intercom pull-box) alarm that turned out to be an all hands fire. While the alarm was phoned in as well, it was the ERS report that had us out the door 30 seconds earlier.
The street alarm box still has a functional place in many areas. Cost? It is an almost invisible line item on this city's budget. It is a small price to pay for a tried and true system. This is a great example of positive redundancy.
Lastly, in light of the recently introduced "UCT 911" system and it's many shortcomings and failures, it's nice to know that there is still as system out there that will put the public in direct contact with Fire or Police dispatchers and not some low-rent, ineffectively trained call-taker.

Harrison Seagrave.

Lake Mohegan Young Crusader. My Dept had a Snorkel with this cab. Ahead of its time for the 60's in window design and visibility.

North Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow another classic Mack C Glen Vincent photo

All turnouts purchased by WCDES used to have 60 Control on them, whether for Deputy Coordinators, instructors, etc.
As to the helmet, when I first started as an instructor 10 years ago, most of us used our own helmets. I am assuming that that instructor was from FDNR and assigned to E23.

Westchester Co. Training Center early 1980's.

I use to know actually how many Code 3's I have. If memory serves me correctly it's around 130. I use to keep them all in their domes, or the display cases that the newer ones came in. Since moving into my brand new house last year, I've bought three glass cases from IKEA. I have been slowly removing my Code 3's from their domes and placing them into the glass cases. My pride would be the three Fort Worth models with Truck 8 being my favorite. I know these aren't 100% accurate, but since I had a small hand in getting them released, they're special to me. I also have 4 TWH models.

it should be noted that Engine 16 and Ladder 7 still do a mass and small ceremony each year. They truly don't forget and are a class act.

I remember reading somewhere that the floor of the store was covered in concrete and tile, and that the members may not have known that the wooden floor beams that supported it had burned through.
A tragedy, may they all rest in peace.

You are correct the terrazo floor provided an insulating effect. Additionally the seat of the fire was in the basement that extended under the rear of the store from the building around the corner and was not accessible from 23rd St. so the members were having great difficulty accessing the fire which allowed it to burn unchecked and ultimatly bring the beams to failure.

Went to the funeral at St.Patrick's and to see the Avenue packed with people and the endless sea of blue representing Fire Fighters from seemly all over the world was amazing, the unforgettable sight of the coffins coming down Fifth Ave in formation on brand new Mack pumpers has stayed with me to this day.
For students of Firefighting much can be learned from this fire. There is a book out "23rd Street Fire " well worth the read

I have never sat down and taken inventory, but off hand I would say that I have about one hundred or so Code 3's. Not all of them were bought for display, probably half were picked up cheap as parts donors for kitbash projects. I never limited myself to Code 3's, I also like Corgi and Matchbox, and I have a lot of older diecast from the 1960's in my collection. The only thing I limit myself to is size or scale. I have nothing larger than 1:43, and nothing smaller than 1:64. Right now, my entire collection is packed away.
I also have a lot of lesser-known makes in my collection, such as Tekno (Danish), Conrad (German), Dinky (British), Replex (French), Solido (French), Minichamps (German), Siku (German), Tomica (Japanese), RAF (Russian), Lledo (British), and Ashton (American). Here are a couple of pictures of my wall cabinet. As you might be able to see, there are very few Code 3's displayed. These were taken ten years ago in my old house:

A very interesting issue/website
Read more: http://jclivesmatter.org/about-the-contract/

I have around 45 in my collection, including the Diamond Plate FDNY Engine 21. I also have the model of FDNY's 10 House.
My collection (1/64th scale) includes:
FDNY Engine's 1, 7, 10, 46, 59, 75; Ladder's 24, 26, 120(FWD Aerialscope), 174; Rescue's 3(HME) & 4(E-One Saulsbury); Squad's 18 & 61(Flag Design)
Boston, MA FD Engine 30 & Ladder 23
Yonkers, NY FD Engine 306 & Tower Ladder 71
Bayonne, NJ FD Truck 1
Hartford, CT FD Engine 7
Detroit, MI FD Ladder 1 & Engine 49(Mack C)
San Francisco, CA FD Truck 4(Open-Cab Tiller) & Truck 15(Seagrave Tiller from The Towering Inferno)
LACoFD, CA Engine 16(Ward La France), Engine 51(Emergency! Ward LaFrance) & Squad 51(Emergency!)
LAFD, CA Engine 88, Pump 80(Open-Cab Yellow Crown)
Hoffman Estates, IL FD Engine 22
Wichita, KS FD Engine 12
Houston, TX FD Engine 78
Clark County, NV FD Engine 19
Cedar Hill, TX FD Engine 211
Plainfield, IN FD Engine 121
Jacksonville, FL FD Rescue 32
Portland, OR FD Engine 9
PAPD, NY/NJ ESU Truck
Long Beach, CA FD Rescue 14
Code 3 Collector's Club Ladder 1
Mesa, AZ Engine
Louisville, KY Engine
Newark, NJ Battalion Chief's SUV

Fit's gotta be the problem. I've never had much trouble with this, usually the face piece is clear once air is flowing. Take the advice that was already listed and try a different fit.
I wouldn't be too concerned with perfect clarity, however. When you've got your face-piece on, how optimal is visibility anyway? Usually, not very.

My 12 year old daughter runs that far in school for fitness testing.
In 8 minutes.
Just throwing that out there.

The academy loses 10% as a general rule. Take a class of full of candidates who are MUCH older and in poorer physical condition, add a lot of people who couldn't get on because they didn't meet the qualifications 14 years ago and you have trouble. Who's surprised at the drop out rate?
On top of that you have EMS promotees who have a job to go back to if they don't feel the academy is working out for them. I'm not taking a shot at EMS promotees by the way, I work with a bunch and they're good.
2 of 20 open competitive candidates failing is in line with the 10% drop.
Topping off everything is the rhetoric from FIREFIGHTER Coombs. Academy instructors are a hard working lot who, I can assure you, do not single out anyone for anything other than their abilities as candidates. If candidates are failing out of the academy it is because they're not fit for this job and the academy is doing its part to protect people who don't belong from entering a dangerous job and also protecting those of us who work here by insuring that we are surrounded by similarly capable firemen.
If only groups like the Vulcan's would advocate for improved preparation and quality of candidates instead of making excuses for those who can't hack it. When they do this, they undermine and short-change the achievements of those who gave it their all and made it through.

Of course he did. That's the problem, they're being OVERTRAINED. They're not UNDERQUALIFIED!