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In Firehouse, Fastest Way Down Is on Its Way Out |
| Name: |
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Brenna |
| Date Posted: |
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Jul 13, 05 - 9:30 AM |
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In Firehouse, Fastest Way Down Is on Its Way Out
Of all the tools associated with the dangerous but sometimes romantic world of firefighting, few capture the spirit of the job quite like the shiny firehouse pole, that simple brass delivery system that relies on little more than gravity to get a fireman to his truck a few seconds faster.
In New York City's firehouses, veterans have a deep affection, even a zealous sense of protection, for their poles. But now, the department has begun shrinking their number sharply as it builds new firehouses and remodels old ones to bring them up to current building codes. In many cases, ventilation systems have been installed where the poles and their surrounding holes used to be.
The trend is no different around the country, as cities build one-story firehouses and update older firehouses. "It certainly is without any question that firehouse poles are becoming, with each new firehouse, a thing of the past," said Harold A. Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters. "The new firehouse or station would be built with stairways and no poles."
A new firehouse in the Rockaways in Queens was built without any poles at all. A vast firehouse on Staten Island opened in the spring with a single cast aluminum pole tucked into a corner. (On a recent visit, firefighters, momentarily forgetting it was there, said they did not have one.)
Firehouses under renovation in Brooklyn and Manhattan have had many of their poles removed. And the fire academy stopped teaching new recruits to slide down poles some years ago.
The removal has also coincided with the department's heightened concerns about safety in recent years. Every firefighter seems to tell stories of pole-related broken ankles, sprains, blown-out knees, friction burns, concussions, twisted and broken backs. News accounts described one pole-related paralysis, in 1969, and one civilian death, in 1929.
"It's the first thing I do when I work somewhere else: find out where the pole is," said Lt. Jeff Monsen of Engine Company 23 on West 58th Street in Manhattan.
"It's an expressway," said Firefighter Louis Trazino of Engine Company 33 in Greenwich Village, where the pole connecting the second and third floors spans a 28-foot drop, the longest of any in the city.
Keep in mind that before hopping on a fire truck and driving away in the middle of the night, a firefighter must leap into a dark hole with what seems like a two-story drop and slide. Descent requires as much bravado as a mastery of physical technique. There is no safety platform, no remedy for sweaty palms, and the constant danger of striking one's head on the perimeter of the hole or against the swinging doors that might enclose it.
"You know how many times that's happened?" asked Firefighter Dan Cintron of Engine 23 with a laugh as he launched into another terrifying demonstration, banging open the doors enclosing the pole and, without even glancing to prepare for his leap across the hole, grabbing the pole and spinning downward 20 feet to the ground. He reached it in two seconds.
In time, should the poles remain, the young firefighters might become part of one of the most extraordinary and underappreciated bits of choreography in town. |
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