Salvage Corp

[John_Ford]

OK, other then the Fire Patrol in NY, are there ANY full time responding Salvage Companys out there? I'm not talking about private companys that come when the insurance guys call but an in house going out the door with the bells crew.

[Happy2bhere]

As far as I know, there are none in NY. Salvage was started as a model cities program many years ago and was finally disbanded and never replaced. The workers or Coreman as they were called were kind of like CETA workers. They were civilians. Each rig had a Firefighter as a driver and an FDNY officer as a supervisor. They worked a similar chart and were stationed in old firehouses or seperate bays of existing firehouses. They performed salvage work in residential occupencies only.

The New York Fire Patrol has been around longer then the FDNY. I think 1865 but I might be wrong. It was the first organized and paid fire service in New York city. I believe at one time there were nine Patrol companies in NYC. As the years went by, patrols were closed and now there are only three left in NYC. I was in the Fire patrol for 3 years prior to becoming a NYFD firefighter.

The New York Fire Patrol is the only one left in the nation. They are funded by a % of your insurance premium thru the New york Board of Fire Underwriters. All other insurance funded Fire Patrols have been disbanded. There was a Fire Patrol in New Jersey that was absorbed by a paid Dept. Many Fire patrolman had hoped this would happen in NYC but it never did. Many prominent members of the FDNY were former members of the Fire Patrol. Many members of the Fire Patrol have been killed in the line of duty. If you need any info, I still have some old books about the history of the patrol.

Getting back to salvage, Im not sure if other Depts in the nation still have salvage cores. I think frisco had a salvage core and many other paid depts did at one time. The Fire Patrol has a web site and that might give you a contact or some direction in finding out about salvage companies. There was some animosity between the two because the Fire Patrol held a charter for the right to respond and perform salvage at all fires, commercial or residential.They resented salvage taking work away. The fire Patrol members were in the IAFF when I was a member and the salvage core was none union.

[firemangeorge]

Cincinnati's Underwriters Slavage Corps was started in 1886. There were two companies. They primarily did the same things as most salvage companies, but also did some ventilating and rescue when they were first in. They were not part of the CFD, but they were connected to the alarm system and responded just like the CFD. There was an interesting book written about them in the 1950's called "Underwriters Salvage Corps Cincinnati History". They were eventually absorbed by the CFD and renamed Squads (they were disbanded in the 1970's). It is said that they (the squads) were a good place to be assigned because they made all downtown fires and all extra alarmers. If there was no salvage to be done, they went to work as fire companies. While they were still seperate, they had better equipment than the CFD because they were privately funded. I know that at least three members were killed in the line of duty. Some info can be found here CFDHistory.com.

[Box2565]

I'm not 100% on this, but I thought Rochester NY has a functional salvage company. As it was explained to me it has a full time Rochester FF driving the rig, but thee guys on the company are volunteers. If anyone has any information about this unit I would like to read it. Also, there is a very nice book that was written about Salvage Corps in the U.S. titles "While The Flames Raged". Lots of photos and information. You can occasionally find a copy on eBay or at the fire flea markets. It was published about 10 years ago.