Seattle Firehouses

[rlukas1]

Fire station 39 looks complete and ready to be moved into, in this shot taken one week ago. The dedication date has not been announced as far as I know. This will be the home of Seattle's north end rescue if it ever gets organized. Oh, no poles were installed here either.



Bob Lukas Photo

[rlukas1]

Here's another view, showing E39's old hose tower, and the mandatory art piece.



Bob Lukas Photo

[rlukas1]

Here's E39's present quarters, shared with a reserve E\-One engine. Their sign has already been removed from the hose tower in anticipation of the move.



Bob Lukas Photo

[firepost]

[quote name='TransverseRoad' date='17 March 2010 - 08:27 PM' timestamp='1268874473' post='370672']

You are correct, Station 17 houses a reserve Aid Car. I believe it runs as Aid 86 when activated, but can run out of any station. I've seen it assigned out of

Station 5 several times. As far as Medic 16 moving to 17's, that may have been speculation around the fact that every time the city is looking to save money

Station 16 is mentioned to be expendable.



When Station 14 first opened on Jan 12, 1927, Engine 19, Ladder 7 and Battalion 1 were the first units assigned. Engine 19 and 14 were assigned there together

from May 4, 1931, until April 14, 1933 when E 19 was disbanded for the first time. Engine 14 was disbanded on June 1, 1972, to organize ATTACK 10.

[/quote]

Transverse what's the story on "Attack 10"? When did it go in service and when was it taken out of service?

Tell me if I'm right or not on this. Wasn't Attack 10 a Kenworth Triple combination Engine that ran as a manpower Squad on working fires from Headquarters (Engine 10's station)? When Attack 10 was in service was Engine 10 also in service or did Attack 10 replace Engine 10? Were there any other Attack units in service besides Attack 10?

Can you tell me about the program when sometime in the 1980's there were several Engine companies that ran with a few more men on them and were designated to respond as a "third" Engine on working fires? When was that program put in service and taken out of service?

Thanks in advance.

[rlukas1]

[quote name='firepost' date='06 April 2010 - 08:45 PM' timestamp='1270610745' post='374666']

Transverse what's the story on "Attack 10"? When did it go in service and when was it taken out of service?

Tell me if I'm right or not on this. Wasn't Attack 10 a Kenworth Triple combination Engine that ran as a manpower Squad on working fires from Headquarters (Engine 10's station)? When Attack 10 was in service was Engine 10 also in service or did Attack 10 replace Engine 10? Were there any other Attack units in service besides Attack 10?

Can you tell me about the program when sometime in the 1980's there were several Engine companies that ran with a few more men on them and were designated to respond as a "third" Engine on working fires? When was that program put in service and taken out of service?

Thanks in advance.

[/quote]

Firepost,



Attack 10 was organized at the headquarters station, 301 2nd Ave S at Engine 10 on June 1, 1972. Your right in that it served as a squad type manpower unit, five firefighters and an officer. It ran independently of Engine 10. They say it was quite the scene when that big KW roared past with four firefighters across the back step.

Attack 10 was relocated to X Eng 19's quarters on S Spokane Street on Jan 1, 1977, and remained there until being disbanded to organize Attack 19 on Jan 1, 1979.



Attack 16 was organized at 6846 Oswego Place at the quarters of X Engine 16 on Jan 1, 1977. On Jan 1, 1980 it was disbanded to reorganize E16.



Attack 19's existence gets a little fuzzy. I'll have to do some checking because I show some conflicting dates of when and where it went into service, but I'm sure it was disbanded to reorganize Engine 19 on July 1, 1980.



At this time I can't help you with your question about man power staffing in the 80's, but I'll try to find some info.

[Bryce]

I can probably answer some of firepost's questions. Sometime in the 70's (I think) SFD had staffing cut. They decided to have what they called ERS (Expanded Response System) engines throughout the city to try and make up for lost manpower on fire scenes. I think these were all known as "Attack" units. They were staffed with 6, while all of the other engines in the city were staffed with 3. At least one of the first three engines on a first alarm would be an ERS engine. Ladders were all staffed with 5. Eventually the system evolved to having the ERS engines staffed with 5. When I moved here in '89, the ERS engines were 2, 9, 10, 13, 25, and 36. There may be more that I'm forgetting or didn't know about. They were all staffed with 5 and all of the other engines were staffed with 3. Typically you'd have the first 2 engines at a fire staffed with 3, then the third engine coming from a long way away staffed with 5. As you might imagine this didn't make a whole lot of sense.



Then in the '90's the city made a concerted effort to get staffing up to 4 on all companies. They dropped staffing on the ladders to 4 and began gradually increasing staffing on all of the engines to 4. For awhile, there were some engines that were still staffed with 3. These were known as "attack" companies to differentiate them from engines staffed with 4. Eventually sometime around 2000 every fire company in the city was staffed with 4, as they continue to be today.



Hope this helps!

[firepost]

[quote name='Bryce' date='07 April 2010 - 11:13 PM' timestamp='1270698830' post='374859']

I can probably answer some of firepost's questions. Sometime in the 70's (I think) SFD had staffing cut. They decided to have what they called ERS (Expanded Response System) engines throughout the city to try and make up for lost manpower on fire scenes. I think these were all known as "Attack" units. They were staffed with 6, while all of the other engines in the city were staffed with 3. At least one of the first three engines on a first alarm would be an ERS engine. Ladders were all staffed with 5. Eventually the system evolved to having the ERS engines staffed with 5. When I moved here in '89, the ERS engines were 2, 9, 10, 13, 25, and 36. There may be more that I'm forgetting or didn't know about. They were all staffed with 5 and all of the other engines were staffed with 3. Typically you'd have the first 2 engines at a fire staffed with 3, then the third engine coming from a long way away staffed with 5. As you might imagine this didn't make a whole lot of sense.



Then in the '90's the city made a concerted effort to get staffing up to 4 on all companies. They dropped staffing on the ladders to 4 and began gradually increasing staffing on all of the engines to 4. For awhile, there were some engines that were still staffed with 3. These were known as "attack" companies to differentiate them from engines staffed with 4. Eventually sometime around 2000 every fire company in the city was staffed with 4, as they continue to be today.



Yes that does help Bryce. I recall reading an article about a fire in Seattle in Firehouse magazine where it mentioned that one of the "extra manpower" Engines had responded to a fire somewhere near the water in West Seattle.I was in Seattle for the first time in 1974 and I had visited the Old Engine 10 headquarters and I saw Attack 10 with their huge Kenworth and Truck 1's huge Kenworth as well. Thank alot!

[rlukas1]

Well it's finally move in day at Seattle Fire Station 2. Engine 2, Ladder 4 and Aid Unit 2 will be responding from their newly renovated house tonight.

[rlukas1]

And at the new construction site of Station 35, another move in should take place soon.

[rlukas1]

Station 17's move was delayed until June 22nd because someone forgot to have the traffic lights reconfigured at the intersection. The pole shafts in the original section of the station have been plugged. Not sure at this time if this will be permanent.

[rlukas1]

Things are finally moving at Fire Station 21. The present building is slated for demolition, and the new station will be constructed on the same site, with an additional lot addition on the east side.

[rlukas1]

Things got started yesterday morning when the moving trucks arrived.

[rlukas1]

The temporary buildings are in place on the site of a former service station about 5 blocks south of their present station. These buildings were formally used as station 17's temporary quarters.

[rlukas1]

A different view.

[rlukas1]

Today excavators were already on site preparing for the demolition work. The home down hill, on the right side of the photo will also be demolished to allow for site expansion.

[rlukas1]

Here's an update on Engine 37's new station, located in West Seattle. The apparatus floor has been poured, as of one week ago.

[rlukas1]

And as it looked today, with windows going in, and construction shanty relocated.

[Roto-Ray]

As we're getting ready to break ground on our new station for our VFD, I really enjoy seeing the many approaches that Seattle is taking on their fire station approaches. I've always enjoyed stuff that's different (a non-traditionalist in the fire service? gasp!), so these new houses are really somethintg.



Thanks for continuing to post these images, hope to see more.

[Roto-Ray]

[quote name='hank' date='28 March 2010 - 09:51 PM' timestamp='1269826301' post='372957']

Most communities are not spending monies on upgrades of existing stations or

building new ones. Seattle seems to be the exception.

[/quote]



Just caught this note. We're pretty lucky at work in this regard.

• Last year: tore down and re-built Station 5.
  
  
• This year: tear down and re-build Station 8 (demo of the station occured last week); double the size of Station 12.
  
  
• Next year: build new Station 9, then demo the old station; tear down and re-build Station 7; build new Station 3 about two miles from it's existing location.
  
  
• Following year: Double the size of Station 10.
  
  

We're lucky to have very strong community support!

[rlukas1]

Thanks for the interest Taylor. Seattle has a few more stations in progress, with all new ones for 9's, 20's, 32's and 6's which haven't been started yet. Station 20 and 6 will each be built on a new site. Station 9 will reuse the same site for their new house. Station 32 is scheduled for a rebuild on the same site, but there has been some talk about building at a new location.

I'll start with some progress pics of station 38. Their present single bay house is shown in post #9.