1ST Responder Newspaper - NY
Firemen of the Bronx VIDEO REVIEW
Video reviews by John Malecky
Firemen of the Bronx By Monarch Films Available from: FSP Books & Videos 118 Central Street, Suite #4 Hudson, MA 01749-1330 1-800-522-8528 e-mail: support@fire-policeems.com www.fire-police-ems.com Price: $14.99 (DVD) This is a short, 35 minute video of a two week period in which the producers rode with two fire marshals in the Bronx. These events took place before 9/11. Marshals are essentially arson investigators. In New York, they call them “criminal fires” and most of the fires in the Bronx at the time were from arson. The boro has 65 fire stations, at least during the time of this video. Though the title has “of” on the jacket, the actual movie is entitled “in” (Firemen in the Bronx). This is a quick moving video which is narrated. The viewer can also hear the voices of the firefighters up close. Most all of the fires are in vacant or occupied multiple dwellings, which the fire department describes as “brick” construction, while textbooks describe the category as “ordinary” construction. The description of the video states that nine firefighters died while fighting what was deemed as arson fires. There is no location given for any of the fires and the camera jumps around. In one case, a child was rescued by a firefighter and some time is devoted to that story. Another incident involved a rescue company (I suppose), reporting to the emergency room of a hospital to load a man of over 1400pounds into an ambulance for transfer. There is plenty of truck work and stream operations to see. Also, the apparatus can be seen from the past, such as solid red Mack CF/Ward pumpers, Seagrave rear mounted aerials and Mack tower ladders. In one scene, a flashover can be observed coming out of the upper story of a multi-storied building. A tribute is made for FF Peter McLaughlin, who died in the line-of-duty. In another scene, the use of a thermal imaging camera is briefly demonstrated. During the brief stay with the marshals, they explain the reasons why arson is not as prevalent today as in the past. It is the "Bronx of yesteryear" in a nutshell, and it is presented well!
January, 2017
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