Brooklyn Fire Department

[SixbyFire]

I'm starting a new thread on the Brooklyn Fire Department since the other thread seems to be gone now. Brooklyn is a small city surrounded on three sides by the City of Cleveland, and it shares it's southern border, Brookpark Road, with Parma. Brooklyn is just under 5 square miles in size and has about 12,000 residents. The Fire Department operates from a single station at 8400 Memphis Avenue at Westbrook Drive. This station is only a few years old and is much larger, and more modern, when compared to their old fire station which was built into the city hall at 7619 Memphis Avenue.

In 2010 the Brooklyn Fire Department ran 2068 calls for service, most of which were medical related. They operate 3 engines, a tower, 3 medic units, and various support vehicles. Their staffing consists of roughly 25 full time paid firefighters and 10 part time firefighters.

Here is their current roster:
Engine 1 - 1989 ALF Century 2000 1500/500
Engine 2 - 1999 E-One 1500/500?
Engine 3 - 1981 ALF Century 54' Squrt 1500/500
Tower 1 - 2006 E-One 100' Bronto Skylift 2000/300
Car 1 - 2002 Ford Crown Vic
Car 2 - 1997 Ford F-150 Pickup
Car 3 - 2006 Ford Crown Vic
Rescue 1 - 1999 Freightliner/?
Rescue 2 - 2000 Freightliner/?
Rescue 3 - 2010 Freightliner/Horton

I will post some pictures of some current and past apparatus used by the Brooklyn Fire Department. Feel free to add any photos you might have of any of their apparatus in this thread. As a reminder, this is Brooklyn, Ohio.

Jeff

[SixbyFire]

Brooklyn's somewhat new fire station seen below. Note the architect's plans show the support vehicles and medic units parked somewhat oddly off to the side. The times I've gone by the station (keep in mind I live in California now) they don't seem to be doing this.

[SixbyFire]

Brooklyn Engine 2 (the 1999 E-One) with some of their firefighters.

[SixbyFire]

Brooklyn's Tower 1. It was reported when this was delivered that it was only the 2nd Bronto Skylift in the state of Ohio, but I have no way to verify that. Top photo from the E-One web site, bottom photo by me.

[SixbyFire]

Brooklyn's current Engine 1. Note that Brooklyn was one of the holdouts using the term Pumper for their apparatus, a practice which didn't change until the late 90's, around the time their E-One Engine was delivered. Engine 1 (and Engine 3 - the 54' squrt) were rebuilt/repainted, both now sport white over red paint schemes and were reletterd from Pumper to Engine. Also Brooklyn was all ALF for many years although they did operate a Seagrave pumper and a Seagrave mid-mount ladder back in the day.

[SixbyFire]

Tower 1 replaced Ladder 1 a 1980 ALF Century 100' Water Chief Quint 1250/300. I think this truck also received some work before it was retired, but my memory isn't as good as it used to be...

[SixbyFire]

Engine 2 (the E-One) replaced Pumper 2, a 1972 ALF (900/1000 series?)  1250/500. Photo taken many years ago from a used fire apparatus dealer. This rig's last assignment in Brooklyn was sort of a Haz-Mat response type unit. It carried extra equipment for dealing with Haz-Mat incidents and could still be used as a reserve pumper if needed.

[SixbyFire]

Now, going way back into the 1950's. Brooklyn operated this GMC/Central engine as featured in this B.F. Goodrich hose ad. Kudos to those who ID'd this rig in the old Brooklyn thread.

[SixbyFire]

That's it for now. Brooklyn firefighters are also rebuilding (at no cost to the city) their 2nd motorized fire apparatus, the only ID I have on it as of now is a 1941 engine. I wasn't able to get a good picture of it from the pdf newsletter that the city sends out. As a side note, Brooklyn's old station (can be seen in the photo of Tower 1 above) was rebuilt from 4 bays to 5 in the 70's or 80's.

Below is a grab from an old map showing the City of Brooklyn's firefighting capabilities from 1953. It says they have 2 Combination Pumper/Hose/Booster trucks. I would imagine the 50's GMC/Central (seen above) would be one of them, maybe this 1941 engine they're working on was the other one?

I hope to get more photos when I'm in Brooklyn on vacation this July. We'll see!

Jeff

[SixbyFire]

Here is a picture of the old Seagrave ladder with some of the crew from the Brooklyn Firefighter's Union Facebook page. Looks like the markings on the ladder say either 65' or 85', and this rig also had a pump, something I didn't remember, but would make sense given at the time they had this rig in service, they only operated two other engines, one of which was the 1972 ALF, the other a Seagrave. Both Seagraves were cab forwards, unlike Parma's Anniversary Series Ladder and Engines they operated. I think both Seagraves were replaced some time around the delivery of their ALF Squrt and Water Chief rigs in the early 80's. This was when Brooklyn became all ALF, which lasted until the delivery of the E-One Engine in 1999. I don't recall what kind of rig their ALF Century 2000 replaced, but it was another, older, ALF.

[SixbyFire]

Here are some pictures of the rig the firefigthers are restoring. I got these from the Brooklyn Firefighter's Union Facebook page. The rig is a 1941 Chevy/Darley and was formerly maintained by the Brooklyn Historical Society. It was in many parades in the 70's, and probably into the 80's. I'll have to check to see if my parents have any pictures of it in any of the parades, but I do remember seeing it myself more then once.

[SixbyFire]

I'm in Brooklyn on vacation now so I took a few more shots of the station. Unlike my previous post in regards to them not storing vehicles off to the side of the one bay, it appears they are in fact doing that as can barely be seen in the one photo. From left to right are Engine 2, two of the Rescues both parked facing forward, Tower 1, and in the last bay, the old 1941 Chevy/Darley up front with Engine 3 (the squrt) parked behind it facing forward, and Engine 1 parked behind that facing the rear door. There is an add'l rescue parked to the left of Engine 2 off to the side, I couldn't see if any other vehicles were also parked off to the side behind the rescue.

Jeff

[SixbyFire]

This fire at Forest City Lumber (now a Home Depot location, albeit heavily modified) in February of 1965 in Brooklyn on Brookpark Road near Tiedeman Road required a large mutual aid response from Cleveland who sent a chief and six engines, and Parma who sent two engines. The Plain Dealer reported it was the largest fire in the area since the 1944 East Ohio Gas Explosion & Fire. I don't know too much about the history of large fires in Brooklyn, however, my family has had roots here dating back to before the time of this fire, and I haven't heard of anything larger then this.

The damage estimate was reportedly $7 million, and that's in 1965 dollars!

Sorry for the poor quality of the newspaper scan, it was that way when I got it. I was unable to find any "action" shots that may have been taken during the fire.

Jeff

[SixbyFire]

Bought this ad on eBay, its an unusual one being it shows, in one shot, two of Brooklyn's old apparatus, the old mid mount Seagrave quint and their old pumper. Both are shown in front of Brooklyn's fire station before it was rebuild/remodeled since the front is different in this photo then it looked in later years. The ad wasn't dated, but was reportedly from the early 60's. Sadly the ad lacks any specific details on either apparatus, but its still a great find.

I kept both scans, the complete ad and the cropped version of the trucks only, quite large to try to bring out the most detail.

Jeff

[Box 2565]

Bought this ad on eBay, its an unusual one being it shows, in one shot, two of Brooklyn's old apparatus, the old mid mount Seagrave quint and their old pumper. Both are shown in front of Brooklyn's fire station before it was rebuild/remodeled since the front is different in this photo then it looked in later years. The ad wasn't dated, but was reportedly from the early 60's. Sadly the ad lacks any specific details on either apparatus, but its still a great find.

I kept both scans, the complete ad and the cropped version of the trucks only, quite large to try to bring out the most detail.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I can fill in some blanks.  The listing I have doesn't provide tank sizes, and in some cases pump size, but here is the delivery data that is available:
L 4755 1960 65' Quint Model: 900 KAB
M 2330 1961 1000 GPM Model: 900 KB

Steve