Engine 12 Crew

CORRECTION
This is not Engine 6 crew it is Engine 12 taken out in front of old Station 12.
The date this picture was taken in unknown, probably sometime in the early sixties. The Rig is a 1957 Pirsch 1000 gpm pumper.
The crewman are from left to right:
Captain Larry Norton (Best man at Bob's wedding), Bill Yowell, Unknown, and Engineer Gene Adams.

Pumper Practice Using a "Blake Line"

In June of 1971 my dad took some pictures of Engine 1 and Hose 1 practicing laying a line using a Blake Valve. It took me a while to locate where these pictures were taken, because the street is no longer there and the pictures show no street names on the poles. It was on the west side of the 7th st. overpass. Chase field is now at this location.
I was 5 and Kathleen (my sister) was 3. When I scanned these slides in (a year or so ago), they were out of order and somehow I scanned them in twice. I spent a few minutes putting them in order today. I will use the notes Bob sent me for what is going on:

"The rig is Engine 1 a 1952 Mack "L" model with a 1250 gpm pump, a 200 gallon tank and a 935 cid Hall-Scott (The first Hall-Scott in Phoenix) Now owned by retired Fire Chief Alan Brunacini."

"The engine has laid a "Blake" line (similar to a Humat valve but only uses 2 1/2 inch fittings) The rig would stop at a hydrant and the plugman would step off the rig and loop a line around the hydrant-

while the rig would continue to the fire."

"Once on the scene the crew would make "pullbacks" and extend the line into the fire."

"Then the engine would return to the hydrant and connect the hard suction with a 4" to 2 1/2" reducer to the Blake."

"(All the time water would be flowing through the line just like the Humat valve)"

"once the hard suction was hooked up a "short length" of 2 1/2 would be connected between the blake and a pumper 2 1/2 outlet and the blake would be-

"changed over" to turn the hydrant line into a line being pumped by the engine."

"NOTE: using a Blake valve the engine could only supply a max of two 2 1/2 inch lines through the blake valve."

"The Humat has no limit."

"On a large working fire, if an engine laid a Blake line either the plugman was instructed to not use the Blake, the engine would be making a steamer connection (Using a hard suction hose like in the pixs only connected to the steamer port) or once the engine returned to the hydrant it was removed or could be bypassed which took time."

At this time I do not have information as to the identity of the firemen in the pictures.

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.