City Island Firehouse – Bronx NY

Description

The building housing FDNY Engine 70, Ladder 53 on City Island was constructed in 1939 by the Work Projects Administration.

This firehouse has a plaque confirming its New Deal origin. This is one of the few New Deal plaques in New York. The City Island Firehouse plaque reads.

CITY OF NEW YORK
F. H. LA GUARDIA
MAYOR

FIRE DEPARTMENT
JOHN J. McELLIGOTT
FIRE CHIEF & COMMISSIONER

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
UNDER THE SUPOERVSION OF THE
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS
IRVING V. A. HUIE
COMMISSIONER

ERECTED BY
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
1939

The building is still in service and houses two fire companies and two trucks. In 2012, the firehouse was proposed for closure, as part of Mayor Bloomberg’s budget cuts. As explained by firefighter, Ed Sadler, who got his start in this building in 1939 when it was new, “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 (cited in Ricchio, Bronx Times, 2013).” His son said that his father was arguing that breaking up the team of Engine Company 70 and Ladder 53 because it would be like breaking up a team and would diminish the effectiveness of fire fighting on City Island.