Pleasantville_165

I came across this article in the New York Times archive a while back. It gives an interesting history of mutual aid in Westchester in its early days, and about the dispatch center that became 60-Control. Some things never seem to change...
May 24, 1953
_______________________________
PLAN FOR FIRE AID NOW 25 YEARS OLD

Westchester System Has 750 Paid and 9,000 Volunteer Firemen for Emergencies

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

MAMARONECK, N. Y., May 23

No longer do Westchester County firemen of one district sit stolidly by while a house burns fifty feet away- in an adjoining district.

In 1921, a man died in an apartment house fire because Scarsdale and Yonkers fire officials, after a jurisdictional dispute, responded belatedly to a boundary-line blaze. A year later came the organization of the Westchester Fire Chiefs Emergency Plan, under which the 750 paid firemen and 9,000 volunteers of sixty-one districts are organized for mutual aid in the event of an emergency-a conflagration, flood, hurricane, train wreck, building collapse, explosion or war.

The plan celebrated its silver anniversary this week with a dinner and installation of officers at Lawrence Inn on Boston Post Road here. Chief Edward J. MacDonald of White Plains succeeded Chief Joseph Carroll of Montrose as president. Roi B. Woolley of Larchmont, is coordinator of the plan which has served as a model for similar cooperatives throughout the United States.

Also Aids Routing Calls

Although a major purpose of the plan is to give aid in major disasters, it has become equally important in assuring that no fire district- rural or urban- is without adequate protection while dealing with routine calls for assistance. A summons from any one of Westchester's six cities, twenty-one villages or eighteen towns is recorded in the plan's control center at White Plains Fire Headquarters and, within minutes. the manpower and equipment of all other units can be dispatched or held ready on a stand-by basis.

If, for instance, a building should collapse in' Mount Vernon, the control center dispatcher at White Plains could determine immediately from' his "major disaster operations manual" where to obtain additional men and firefighting equipment, ambulances, bulldozers, floodlights, gas masks, doctors and nurses--or emergency housing. In wartime, if roads were blocked. he could arrange by previous agreement for the transportation of heavy equipment on flatcars of the New York Central or New Haven Railroads.

Cooperation Is Illustrated

In the event of fire at a children's boarding school in rural Hawthorne, file cards at the control center would indicate that additional fire engines should first be dispatched from Valhalla, secondly from Thornwood and thirdly from Pleasantville. Special rescue equipment would be obtained from Ossining, an electric generator from Thornwood and masks or an acetylene torch from White Plains.

Under a reciprocal agreement, Westchester and New York City are prepared to send as many as forty-five engine companies to the other's territory if needed.

Available in Westchester are 177 engine companies, fifty-one hook and ladder companies, seventeen rescue companies, eight fire patrols, four high-pressure fog units, nine fire department ambulances, ten hose companies and two foam companies. The county's equipment includes adapters so that hose lines from any district can be 'connected-with either "National Standard" or '''Metropolitan" threads.

To protect Westchester's 625,000 residents and property with an assessed valuation of $2,000,000,000 in an area of 448 square miles, the control center is manned twenty-four hours a day by paid firemen of White Plains and by members of volunteer companies throughout the county.

I came across this article in the New York Times archive a while back. It gives an interesting history of mutual aid in Westchester in its early days, and about the dispatch center that became 60-Control. Some things never seem to change...
May 24, 1953
_______________________________
PLAN FOR FIRE AID NOW 25 YEARS OLD

Westchester System Has 750 Paid and 9,000 Volunteer Firemen for Emergencies

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES

MAMARONECK, N. Y., May 23

No longer do Westchester County firemen of one district sit stolidly by while a house burns fifty feet away- in an adjoining district.

In 1921, a man died in an apartment house fire because Scarsdale and Yonkers fire officials, after a jurisdictional dispute, responded belatedly to a boundary-line blaze. A year later came the organization of the Westchester Fire Chiefs Emergency Plan, under which the 750 paid firemen and 9,000 volunteers of sixty-one districts are organized for mutual aid in the event of an emergency-a conflagration, flood, hurricane, train wreck, building collapse, explosion or war.

The plan celebrated its silver anniversary this week with a dinner and installation of officers at Lawrence Inn on Boston Post Road here. Chief Edward J. MacDonald of White Plains succeeded Chief Joseph Carroll of Montrose as president. Roi B. Woolley of Larchmont, is coordinator of the plan which has served as a model for similar cooperatives throughout the United States.

Also Aids Routing Calls

Although a major purpose of the plan is to give aid in major disasters, it has become equally important in assuring that no fire district- rural or urban- is without adequate protection while dealing with routine calls for assistance. A summons from any one of Westchester's six cities, twenty-one villages or eighteen towns is recorded in the plan's control center at White Plains Fire Headquarters and, within minutes. the manpower and equipment of all other units can be dispatched or held ready on a stand-by basis.

If, for instance, a building should collapse in' Mount Vernon, the control center dispatcher at White Plains could determine immediately from' his "major disaster operations manual" where to obtain additional men and firefighting equipment, ambulances, bulldozers, floodlights, gas masks, doctors and nurses--or emergency housing. In wartime, if roads were blocked. he could arrange by previous agreement for the transportation of heavy equipment on flatcars of the New York Central or New Haven Railroads.

Cooperation Is Illustrated

In the event of fire at a children's boarding school in rural Hawthorne, file cards at the control center would indicate that additional fire engines should first be dispatched from Valhalla, secondly from Thornwood and thirdly from Pleasantville. Special rescue equipment would be obtained from Ossining, an electric generator from Thornwood and masks or an acetylene torch from White Plains.

Under a reciprocal agreement, Westchester and New York City are prepared to send as many as forty-five engine companies to the other's territory if needed.

Available in Westchester are 177 engine companies, fifty-one hook and ladder companies, seventeen rescue companies, eight fire patrols, four high-pressure fog units, nine fire department ambulances, ten hose companies and two foam companies. The county's equipment includes adapters so that hose lines from any district can be 'connected-with either "National Standard" or '''Metropolitan" threads.

To protect Westchester's 625,000 residents and property with an assessed valuation of $2,000,000,000 in an area of 448 square miles, the control center is manned twenty-four hours a day by paid firemen of White Plains and by members of volunteer companies throughout the county.

The year on the stone is 1957, but I think that is the year that the 75 Washington Avenue HQ was built. However, in the Commissioners Room, there is an architect's rendition of the firehouse remodeling that added the Ladder Bay.

The year on the stone is 1957, but I think that is the year that the 75 Washington Avenue HQ was built. However, in the Commissioners Room, there is an architect's rendition of the firehouse remodeling that added the Ladder Bay.

The year on the stone is 1957, but I think that is the year that the 75 Washington Avenue HQ was built. However, in the Commissioners Room, there is an architect's rendition of the firehouse remodeling that added the Ladder Bay.

Before Pleasantville acquired Tower Ladder 5 in 1995, what did they operate? I found this photo of a Mack/Baker Aerialscope on eBay, but can't seem to find any more info. A friend thinks they operated an American Lafrance stick. Anybody have more info?
(Photo credit: Unknown)

Pleasantville's Daniel P Hays Engine followed by Pioneer Hook and Ladder during the Mamaroneck fire parade in 1988. Photo by Ron Frehm