Bronx New Deal - Photo #573 - City Island Firehouse

▶   ◀   ▲ Enlarge
engine70a
Photo:  Frank da Cruz, 19 July 2018.
New York City fire house housing Engine Company 70 and Hook & Ladder Company 53 at 169-171 Schofield Street, City Island, Bronx NY, Found by Evan Kalish on a list of NYC fire company locations[1], which gives the locations and construction dates of each city firehouse. Those built during the New Deal must be visited to see if there is a confirming plaque or cornerstone. This firehouse has one. The building houses two fire companies and two trucks, for the reason explained in [5] by a firefighter, Ed Sadler, who got his start in this building in 1939 when it was new. This is one of at least four firehouses constructed in New York City by the New Deal.
References
  1. Fire Company Locations of New City, Mike Boucher BXCO, for F.D.N.Y. Home page, last modified 4 Aug 2011 (accessed 20 July 2018).
  2. Somervell, Brehon (NYC Works Projects Administrator), The Record for 1939: "Notable Achievements: FIRE - 2 new houses erected"
  3. City Island firehouse stays open despite budget's plan for shutdown, Bill Egbert, New York Daily News, 1 July 2009.
  4. A Little-Used Fire Company, Rescued Annually, Winnie Hu, New York Times, 29 May 2019. Nobody seems to mention the real reason the firehouse should not be closed, which is that there are multi-hour traffic jams of cars trying to get into City Island from mainland Bronx on summer weekends.
  5. Captain Ed Sadler honored, Patrick Ricchio, Bronx Times, 8 Oct 2013: "In the height of the controversy over the possible closure of Ladder 53, Ed Sadler recalled something his trainer had told him when he was a probationary firefigher in 1939. He repeated it a numerous meetings, saying, in effect, that the no engine company is worth its salt unless the ladder company that proceeds it does the forcible entry and search & rescue while the engine company does the pumping and spraying of water." His son said that his father was arguing that breaking up Engine Company 70 and Ladder 53 would be like breaking up a team and would diminish the effectiveness of fire fighting on City Island.