Is AVFD the ones with no hose on their Engine? Basically a buff group driving around in trucks with red lights?
Yep and stirred up a lot of trouble.
Now here is what I know, granted there are some inconsistencies and what not.
The original Aviation Hose Co. 3 disbanded a few years after 9/11.
Some time before or after 9/11 their firehouse which was in the neighborhood common building was condemned and plans were made to erect a new building for the neighborhood, minus the fire company, so basically they got kicked out.
Their ALF Century (ex FDNY rig) they ran was damaged at WTC. They had a E-One donated to them from a VA department and had a new Luverne (now Spartan ERV) purchased for them by a bunch of business owners. They had a bunch of other donations given to them as well. Somewhere along the line the the ALF was "refurbished" and the E-One and Luverne "went missing", but in actually were sold off along with some other equipment. Aviation was dead broke and the chief at the time was brought up on fraud charges. They were formally disbanded shortly after this and the old ALF is up at Andy Leder's place.
The Bronx Fire Patrol (as they called themselves) started showing up around 2008 / 2009 with personal vehicles with their name on them, and I had heard they ran around with lights though it was not confirmed to me. By the sounds of it, they were a nuances rather than being true buffs. I know they tried once before to get into FASNY as it was discussed elsewhere. I'm not sure if they are actually a responding group, nor do I think they are recognized by the city or FDNY.
A year or two ago it seemed that this group along with others tried to start up Aviation again and purchased a ALF Century 2000 pumper and started responding to calls out of the blue. They parked their rigs (pumper, ambulance and another rig, can't remember what it was) outside of some business in or around their old neighborhood. Obviously they were not trained and lacked equipment (aka hose on the truck as well as other things). Needless to say they way they went about it FDNY's brass did not like this and the group was forced to disband. They were more of a hindrance to public safety. I remember see a news article with a picture of them at a car fire (may have been the Cross Bronx Expressway) unable to do anything because they had no equipment, just the truck as it was told (sounded like the truth but who knows).
