History
January 31st in the FDNY
FF Arthur J Renk & FF Christopher Dressel, Engine 138(238). January 31st, 1904 FF Peter J Gaffeney Injured January 31st, died February 1st, 1904 Box 493 2-50 Noble Street Brooklyn. 3 members of Engine 138 ( Now 238) were killed at a fire in the American Manufacturing Company plant at the foot of Noble Street.…
Read MoreJanuary 29th in the FDNY
Lt James T Brown, Ladder 45. January 29th, 1922 Injured January 27th, 1922 – Died January 29th, 1922 Box 509 – Washington Bridge – Bronx Lt James T Brown died 3 day safter receiving a crushing leg while responding to box 509 in the Bronx. The truck hit a trolley pole on the Washington Bridge,…
Read MoreObituary: Dennis Smith
Dennis Smith, Firefighter Who Wrote Best Sellers, Dies at 81 “Report From Engine Co. 82” was the first of his 16 books. He also started Firehouse magazine and was the founding chairman of the New York City Fire Museum. Dennis Smith, a teenage hellion and high school dropout who transformed himself into a famed New…
Read MoreHISTORY OF THE FIRE SERVICE IN NYC
The history of the Fire Service in New York began in 1648 during the administration of Governor Peter Stuyvesant, when the first fire ordinance was adopted by the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. The act required that funds received from fines levied for dirty chimneys should be used for the maintenance of buckets, hooks &…
Read MoreEngine 27 originally North River Engine Company
Among the volunteer fire companies that protected New Yorkers in the first half of the 19th century was the North River Engine Company. Like the rest of the city’s volunteer force, the “laddies” at 173 Franklin Street were replaced in 1865. The devastating fire that destroyed Barnum’s Museum that year along with pressure on the State Assembly by reformers…
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