Out and About...Missouri Style!

[JBE 328]

For those of you who know me well, I hate flying. And in some cases, driving is better. So what's a guy to do when he's got 4 weeks of vacation with a few mutuals thrown in. You guessed it, it's Out and About time!!!!

I packed up the Rock Box and headed on out to see some kinfolk down in Caledonia, Missouri. It's about 80 miles southwest of St. Louis. Population, 158. After meeting up with my cousin, I went up to St. Louis to shoot a few of their rigs.

First up, Engine 11. Depending on who you ask, these guys are first due at the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

It's a 2000 Spartan Smeal. St Louis presently runs a total quint concept department, meaning the second due engine is actually going in as first due truck.

Here's Foam Unit 2. 1987 Pierce Arrow with a 50 foot Telesqurt.

I headed over to Station 1, to get some pix and do a little T-shirt shopping. Depending on who you ask, these guys are first due at the Brewery. Rescue Squad 1 is also quartered here, but they were at a fire in a recycling plant across town.

They directed me to the dispatchers office, and on my way there, I hit the JACKPOT!!!!

They had a third alarm going, along with one or two other working fires when I rolled up on this one heading up Jefferson Avenue.

This was the equivalent of an All Hands... The fire started on the roof and dropped down into the storage area.

More coming...

[JBE 328]

Continuing with the job...

Looking up Engine 7's Aerial

Engine 2 putting up their stick.

[JBE 328]

Ladder 4 and Engine 23 pulling for RIT.

[JBE 328]

Here's a better shot of Engine 1.

Battalion 4 and unit 821. I'm not sure what these guys do.

After I got my fill of this, I went over to St. Louis Fire and EMS Dispatch. 1 Supervisor and 3 Dispatchers for the whole city, on either side.

Here's a beautiful statue of St. Florian.

Next Stop, the Brewery and Busch Stadium..

[JBE 328]

Since the dispatchers were quite busy, I decided to leave them the donuts and get outta Dodge. I headed back to my cousins and headed up to the Brewery the next day. After seeing how beer is made and massed produced, the scent reminded me of my days at the Waldbaums (now A n P) in Carmel, cleaning out the can crusher. Or, my friends back yard after one of his infamous birthday party keggers in Queens. Scored some pint glasses for my brother and some Clydesdale pictures and some Nascar related apparel photos, it was back to get more shirts and shots at Engine 1. This time the Rescue was in.

After a little loving cajoling of my cousin, I got her to call the Caledonia Fire Chief, and he obliged me rather kindly.

Here's a tanker they are going to strip and use to replace the tank on the current tanker. Being a town with a population of 158, and maybe 2 dozen active members, it's automatic aid on everything.

This is their new engine, a 2005 Freightliner with a Rosenbauer body.

Wasn't sure if it was taking the place of this.

Next stop, Busch Stadium, and the Downtown Divas???

[JBE 328]

So after thanking the Chief for his time, I headed up to Busch Stadium for a tour. Felt kind of strange waltzing through enemy territory like that, and my cousins kid extolling the name of Yadier Molina.

Here we find Engine 2. They are Quartered with Tower Ladder 6, Engine 23, Foam Truck 4, and Medic 2.

Here's Medic 2. I am still stunned that St. Louis only has like 12 or 13 Medic units in the entire city. I forgot to ask if they contract out for transports, etc.

And last but not least, we have Sarah and Patricia, the Downtown Divas of Medic 2 B Shift. They were kind enough to pose, and I got my cousin into the act with a picture of him sitting between them. Pretty fun for an 11 year old, I would hope.

Almost forgot the St. Louis Radio Car, sorry no assuming the position pix here.

Edited August 24, 2008 by JBE

[JBE 328]

We headed back towards the middle of nowhere and stopped at Valle EMS in Jefferson County.

After saying my see ya laters the following morning, it was off to Arizona...Enjoy!!!

[texastom791 31]

Nice pics so all that saint louis has is quints i'm a little confused about that and no shots of Anheuser-Busch brewery or Busch Stadium all that talking about them and no pics.And did you get to see the Cardinals play a game or did you just take a tour.

[JBE 328]

Just a tour and since this is a Fire/EMS/LE oriented site, why bother with the Baseball pictures?? St. Louis went to this Total Quint Concept a number of years back. From what I was told, they are going to go back to just engines and ladders, and keep one quint per battalion. The one thing I found interesting is that on a structural assignment there, the second due engine acts as a first due truck.

Edited August 25, 2008 by JBE

[texastom791 31]

Oh that's pretty cool thanks for clearing that up.

[DOC22 1]

More GREAT Shots!!! Once again, thanks for sharing!!!

[RescueKujo 130]

Greats shots, Jimmy. Always wanted to get to Saint Loo for some photos. Thanks for sharing.

[JRS2817 1]

great pictures

[wcr20 17]

A question - How much different is the H&L 4 from the quints - it looks like it has a pump... (at least to my untrained eye)

[TL2L31 8]

It looks like the quints were single axle with a 75 ft aerial. The rear mounts were dual axle and probably 100 or 105 ft.

[JBE 328]

TL2 nailed it, longer stick.

[JetPhoto 626]

Nice Shots and a great catch with the fire. What was actually burning?

[JBE 328]

Not exaclty sure. It started on the roof, and dropped down into that open area in the front of the building. They were getting water on it just as I was pulling up.