"Your Fire Department" (1949)

[Shangas]

[video=youtube;JkSc0-NLi7Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkSc0-NLi7Y[/video]

The Los Angeles Fire Department as it existed during the postwar years, during the late 1940s.

 

[pompier]

Neat film. Thanks for posting. Spent 18 years of my career working out of Fire Station 10 in El Paso, TX. Nice little Engine House built in 1930.

 

[Renault]

I remember when Austin Fire Dept used to bring in their only line throwing gun for us to occasionally work on. Was in a long wooden case. Built on a cut down Trapdoor Springfield! LOL! This was like 1980!!!! I believe they utilize a bit more modern equipment now!

 

[pompier]

...Most fire dept.s in the U.S. have 120+ years of tradition completely unimpeded by progress . The EPFD had a couple of old H&R topper line throwing guns in service into the '80's. .45-70 as I recall. Also had some old (and I mean old) Bangalore shaped charges on some of the rigs downtown for breaching walls of some the larger warehouse/ manufacturing plants as needed. Removed them from the rigs right about the time I came on the job ('91). The PD bomb squad about wet their pants when they saw what had been on our rigs all those years.:eeek:

 

[Renault]

That's too dawg gone funny. Hauling Bangalores around on your rig! Timeless!!!

 

[Matt Crunk]

I remember going on a field trip to the local fire station when I was in grade school. It was in a nice old two-story brick building downtown. Living/sleeping quarters upstairs, firetrucks downstairs with the obligatory fireman's pole, which we kids were all allowed to slide down supervised. Now I hear the poles have mostly been phased out all over the country due to safety/liability concerns. Anyway, that building was later turned into the police station and eventually demoted into a lowly city hall annex, while the fire dept. was divided up into new modern one-story brick and steel buildings all across town. No sense or historic preservation whatsoever.

 

[Shangas]

Using bangalore torpedoes to blast in walls is hilarious! What was the reasoning behind that??

"Hell it's already on fire. Who cares!?"

Fire-poles are fun. I remember sliding on one when I was in school. We had it in the playground. I think you can still have fire-poles, but they come with extra safety-things now. Like padded landings and so-forth.

 

[Stearmen]

Imagine playing on the fun slide every day? What do you tell your kids? I know Daddy has a slide at the fire station, but that's for work, not play!

 

[Shangas]

Slides are for wimps! You want a fireman's pole! Must be fun on those things...

 

[pompier]

The shaped charges were on rigs in the older part of town adjacent to the rail yards with large concrete industrial buildings. In the days before power saws with composite blades were in common use the large steel overhead rolling doors were tough to get through. I think there may actually have been some thought given to using them to get through concrete wall adjacent to trapped workers if need be. I wouldn't have wanted to be on the other side of that! / The new slides look like fun but I think I prefer the slide pole. Though there were a few times I woke up at the bottom of pole at 3 a.m. wondering just where we were going!

 

[Stearmen]

Slides are for wimps! You want a fireman's pole! Must be fun on those things...

That statement just sounds so wrong!

 

[pompier]

^^^:rofl:

 

[Shangas]

Oooh Christ...*facepalm*