2-11 Fire Buffs Association

The 2-11 Fire Buffs Association started around 1958. They met the first Wednesday of every month at John C. Lincoln Hospital. They later acquired old station 18.
The above picture was taken around October 1962. The people in the picture are from left to right: Bill Kivet, David Branch, Pete Lucas, Matt Kells, Bob Walls and Bob Guildig. Bob Joined the Fire Buffs around 1960. Bob and Matt Kells would Incorporate the 2-11 Fire Buffs Association on June 19th 1967 (bet ya wonder how I know that). They are standing in front of Engine 21, a 1961 Seagrave sporting a 1250 gpm pump, and a 935 cid Hall-Scott gasoline engine. The engine was not yet in service and was being shown off at various locations as part of "Fire Prevention Week".
The above picture was taken in 1963 by an unknown Republic & Gazette photographer. The man on the left is Pete Lucas and Bob Guildig is on the right. This had to do with the remodeling an addition at old Fire Station 9. The rig is a 1961 Seagrave 85 foot tillered 935 cid Hall-Scott. Bob does not remember why they were there.The above picture was taken just after a 2-11 fire at a Yates surplus store (used to be about 2 blocks south of Camelback on 7 ave.). The men in the picture are from left to right: Pete Lucas. Jim Parks and an unknown. Mr. Unknown was later "asked" to resign because of an incident where he passed Ladder 9 going north on 7th Ave from Camelback. At Missouri and 7th Ave he stood in the middle of the street and stopped traffic while Ladder 9 went through (he had done something like this on several occasions). Back then the fire buffs would help clean up after a fire and on many occasions even help fight fires, and act as messengers at fire scenes. Fire buffs could be identified by their red hardhats. You can see this in the picture below of David Branch at another 2-11 fire.
Or this picture taken of Bob from old 8mm film.
Back then Fire Buffs had unprecedented access to a fire scene that just doesn't happen today. Here we see a picture taken by an unknown Republic and Gazette photographer of a group of firemen attempting to resuscitate a victim at a fire that took place on 01-11-1967 at 4231 w. Citrus. The man on the right with the helmet and black camera bag is of course Bob Guildig.
They often appeared in parades.
As in this case once again of Bob Guildig. The picture was taken by Gerald Rachwitz. Bob is on a Glendale crash rig. Below is a picture of Bob (doing a Captain Morgan imitation) next to Engine 21 (same rig in the first pic of this post) on the day it was delivered. It had just been unloaded from the train it arrived on.
Bob last attended a Fire Buffs meeting at what used to be old Station 18 in 1992. It is unknown if the association is still active. They are still listed at this site. Between 1960 and sometime before the 1980's was the golden age of Fire Buffs in Phoenix. It is unfortunate that the Phoenix Fire Department is no longer as friendly to such organizations as it had been in the past.

I would appreciate any information from the past or present in regards to the Fire buffs in Phoenix Arizona.

Station 61 Dedication

Yesterday March 29th 2008 was the grand opening of the Phoenix Fire Departments Station 61. Mike, Chris, Sean and I attended. You may note in the picture below that the billboard is missing, I removed it digitally.
The new station is 10500 square feet, and instead of the barracks style sleeping arrangement of many older stations, this fire house has 9 individual dorm style sleeping rooms.

This fire house also has a separate entertainment room. With recliners and a wide screen HDTV.

hmmm... Looks like their favorite program is on now.
There is a second HDTV in the dining area.
This station boast an awesome kitchen, with 3 refrigerators.

There is even a complete weight room.

Strangely though there are only 4 bathrooms. All of them have 1 shower and 1 toilet, even though there is room for several stalls in each, limiting the number of people who can use a bathroom at one time, and each of the bathrooms is labeled differently. One is labeled as "restroom" one as "toilet" and one as "bathroom" I don't remember what the fourth one was called. There is a room just off the bay where the turnout gear is kept.
The bay has room for 3 apparatus. The front doors fold open horizontally. They can open electrically or manually. The open very fast, and they have infrared light sensors to prevent the doors closing on an apparatus.
When we arrived we had missed the landing of "Firebird 10". They landed the helicopter right in front of the station.

There were some little turnout coats, pants and boots on the front of Engine 61. These were for kids to dress up in and get their picture taken.
Here is an interesting comparison. On the left of the pictures below is the radio from a PFD station taken in the late fifties/early sixties. The cabinet on the right side of the left picture "is" the radio and had one frequency.

Contrast that with this station. The radio is a tiny little unit in the center of this cabinet, and has (I believe) at least 10 channels. This cabinet also contains an LCD monitor and a Dell 1U rack mounted server at the bottom.

Quite a lot of people showed up and there was even an unlucky fireman who was dressed up in an inflatable smoke detector costume.

Because of the way the costume is made the guy inside walked in a bizarre 1950's robot looking way. Maybe Mike will post the video on his website. One of the firemen even brought a Dalmation.
Mike and I took the opportunity to take a few HDR pics, here are mine:


OH MY GOD!!! another Humat valve!!!

Here are some Misc. equipment and apparatus pics.



And some pics of wildlife.


There was food and trinkets available but at about the time all of the "dignitaries" arrived and were giving their speeches we decided to leave and have Mexican food at Carlos O'Brien's. Of course the food at the station was not served until "after" the speeches (you have to pay for your meal somehow). Here is the dedication plague for the station.

What's My Engine Company Number?

This article was written by my father "Bob Guildig" and published in the Phoenix Fire Department book "Up From The Ashes" written by Harold Shell in 1986.

What's My Engine Company Number?

Can you imagine coaching a football team when all the players had the same number or no number at all on their jerseys? WELL... before 1969 the Phoenix Fire Department had a lot of fire companies in service with just that problem. Either the same number, the wrong number, or no number at all. You were required to have ESP or something just to be able to identify the companies.

There were times we fire buffs were asked by a captain or chief officer what company was parked a block away from the fire scene. The engine in question was unidentifiable because... Well let me give you a few examples.

Engine Company 1 and 6 were both numbered 6. Engine company 3 and 8 were both numbered 3. At another time Engine company 8 was numbered 34, and Engine company 5 was numbered 12, and at another time 28. Engine company 7 was numbered 4, and so was Engine company 4. Engine Company 14 went in service using a Tanker as their engine but lettered Tanker-Pumper 2. There was a Ladder Company in Phoenix that was lettered Ladder Company 4 on the doors and Truck 2 on the hoods. (It really was Ladder 4).

Can you imagine a "booter" that got assigned to one of the following stations? If he was lucky or maybe if he put a secret mark on the engine he was assigned too, he went home on the right rig because.... Engine Company 9 was numbered 10 and Engine Company 10 was numbered 9 with very similar looking Pirsch pumpers. Part of the problem was solved when the rig of Engine Company 9 was given to Engine Company 10. But when the old rig of Engine Company 10 was repainted and given to Engine Company 15 a new problem developed. Engine Company 12 had a identical rig and both were now in service without any company numbers on the doors.

When Engine Company 9 received a new Van Pelt, the rig was numbered 18 and Engine Company 18 went in service with a twin sister numbered 17. Now Engine Company 17 was lucky they went in service with a new Central rig numbered 17.

Now if this doesn't confuse you, I have a couple more. Engine company 11 was numbered 13 and Engine company 13 was numbered 2 on one side and blank on the other and to top that off both rigs were almost identical. There was also a time when some companies didn't have any numbers. Those being Engine companies 5, 6, 7, 12, 15, 16, 19, 22 and 23. In the early 50's, station 1 ran a Squad company 1 and Engine company 9 ran the old Squad as their engine, BOTH were numbered Squad company 1.

How about a new TV program for the command officers? "What's my Engine Number"?

One last comment. Let's not forget the alarm room. Before 1965 the alarm response cards called for dispatching Ladder Co's 1, 2, 3, and 4. But the in service Ladder Companies were Ladder 1, 4 (2) 9 (4) and 10 (3).

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Truck fire

Today I was heading home from a client, and as I was getting ready to get on the 202 heading west at priest, I looked to the east and saw a column of smoke. I zipped out of the left hand turn lane and headed that way. As I got closer I saw a flatbed truck loaded up with some kind of material that was burning (I later learned it was cardboard). There was a front end loader attempting to dump something on top of the burning debris. and engine 602 behind it. I drove until I found an area north of the freeway where I climbed halfway up a mountain to get pictures. The scanner traffic indicated that there was a large metal box on the front of the truck that had 2 propane tanks in it. There was concern that these would explode until later it was reported by the truck driver that they were empty. I could not stay long as I had to take care of clients for my work. The fire was still burning long after I left. Scanner traffic indicated they were having problems getting enough water on the fire. Eventually a Tempe tanker was dispatched and an engine company may have run a vertical standpipe and hand jacked a line to a fire hydrant below the freeway. About this time I was to far away to hear more. Here are the pics:



Of course the freeway was a parking lot during this whole time.

Humat Valves

I see a lot of searches for pictures of Humat valves that come to my site. So here are two:
Enjoy