Omaha, NE - Working Fire - September 20, 2014

[MFD76]

Keep up the great photos love seeing the Omaha Fire Divison OFD.

Yes it is an insane numbering system. It does not make sense to me. It is designed to be numbered by Battalion. Battalion 1 is 1-5 Battalion 2 is 20-29 Battalion 3 30-39 ect. They have around Twenty Four Engines, Nine Trucks, Three Rescues, six Battalions. I have found members can't even remember how many companies they have due to the numbers. OFD used to be traditionally numbered some of the older fire houses still have original numbers on them. The other fire houses have the original lettering with a new number in different font. I know Station 31 was originally Fire House 5. The OFD 5 is in the stone above the bay doors. The best I can tell the system changed some time in the 1970's or 1980's. They started moving back to red ten or eleven years ago. Although OFD used to have beautiful dark solid red machines as their historically accurate color. The new red is very bright but much better then cream over yellow. They moved back to traditional helmets ten years ago. However it was decided the leather front or device would be not included. I have seen some members have removed the brass finial and wear the helmet derby style. I have also seen a number of members still wearing salad bowl helmets. They do great truck work and have successfully fought off the dysfunctional quint invasion and have maintained dry trucks. The tried and true engine and truck concept works well for them. Truck 31 at old Fire House 5 is a Dry Sutphen 70+ mini tower, pretty interesting and neat.