As a man who was born in Newark, these places have a warm spot in my heart because I used to listen to N.P.D./F.D. on my Lafayette tunable radio in the late 1960's. My dad and I would be listening to the P.D. and hear the F.D. being monitored in the dispatch background. So, I'd tune the radio to the F.D.'s 150.?? freq and we would listen.
Many "Signal 11's" back in those days, probably more now. My dad knew Chief Caufield, just on a friendly basis, tho. My dad grew up in Clinton Hill in the 1920's thru the 1940's, so when we would hear a call in Clinton Hill, dad knew exactly where it was, i.e. "That's on the corner of West Runyon and Osborne Terrace...and he was always right.
I know that this thread is not Joe Franklin's "Memory Lane", so forgive me, but I get so few chances to talk about the wonderful city that I invested 23 years growing up in from the late 40's thru 1972. I can recall being just a boy of 5 or 6 and my dad taking me to the firehouse on Clinton Avenue. I got to sit up in the tiller man's seat on the ladder truck! Somewhere, I've still got the picture of that day; can it really be 70+ years ago? Dang, the years go by in a flash, don't they?
Then there was the largest fire in Newark's history, [at least back then] on April 20, 1968; you could see the large smoke plumes billowing in the wind, and smell it all the way from 17th Street and Springfield Avenue where we lived. Four or five square blocks [off Avon Avenue] of old, broken down tenements in the area, up and flames. Think of it!
I had a link to the newspaper article but it's a dead link now...no info that I could find on the www. :-(
Thanks again for letting me ramble on!
Alain
P.S. Whoa, just found this from the Newark Public Library site...https://knowingnewark.npl.org/high-street-inferno-took-27-lives-but-helped-bring-reform/
"Many of us tend to remember the fires for what they destroyed. For me, the memory lingers of a major gas tank explosion along the New Jersey Turnpike, hotel blazes, church conflagrations and toxic or environmental emergencies. Great flashy fires include the inferno that occurred April 20, 1968, with the destruction of 35 buildings in a five-block area of the Central Ward. According to The Star-Ledger, 'The flames danced toward the sky, ballooned around, darting out shafts of purple, red and orange and electric cables made loud cracking noises as they snapped, sending sparks and embers into the air.' That year, there were 195 fires, taxing the resources of the Newark Fire Department, which had 550 men on duty, aided by 115 men from 16 other communities. In 1972, three Newark firemen were killed in a Lincoln Park fire started by two juveniles. According to Newark's chief firefighter, this was one of the 'darkest and saddest and most tragic in the entire history of the fire department.' Twelve Newark residents also were killed in a blaze on December 7, 1978, in a tenement. As in other cases, fire officials said the problems of fighting fires in Newark centered on the huge number of deteriorating houses built before 1940."
