All photos taken by Ira Hoffman 1969-1971.

Almost all photos show units of the 44th Battalion - Engines 231, 232, Ladder 120.

These photos MAY be in a forthcoming book.

If you can identify the firefighters in any photo, please send email with picture number and firefighter's name to: support@fire-police-ems.com

KEY:

• "75" preceding the box number (such as 75-1643) indicates an "all hands" a/k/a "first alarm". In Brownsville this usually meant 3 engines, 2 trucks, Squad 4 (a pumper that carried extra truck tools). In the "war years" Rescue 2 would not respond to a Brownsville all-hands. All Brownsville units ran "heavy" - 5 or 6 firemen + the officer.
• "22" preceding the box number (such as 22-1643) indicates a second alarm which would bring an additional 3 engines, one additional truck, Rescue 2 and a bunch of support units. There weren't many 2nd or higher alarms in Brownsville then. The guys were very good at what they did - they had lots of fires to put out and did it very efficiently. It was rare for a night tour NOT to have an all-hands.
• sometimes a fire didn't require a full first alarm assignment. In those cases the numbers preceding the box number indicates engines & trucks. e.g. "2&1 - 2084" indicates that 2 engines and 1 truck worked at this fire at box 2084.

This is a work-in-progress. Please check back frequently. Thanks! Ira