Established 1955 Engines 1 | Employees 25 | |
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Stations 788 Union St Brooklyn, NY 11215 | ||
New York City Fire Department (FDNY) Squad Company 1 is one of seven Squads in the FDNY Special Operations Command (SOC). Other SOC units include Rescue, HazMat and Marine. Squad 1 responds to fires and other emergencies throughout New York City, operating primarily in Brooklyn from their station in the Park Slope neighborhood. They are a single company which operates a Seagrave Pumper, 1000 g.p.m. with a 500-gallon tank. As of September 2007, four officers and twenty-five men were assigned to the company.
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History
Squad 1 was organized in Harlem at Engine 59 in 1955, moved to the Bronx at Ladder 58 in 1972, then to Engine 45 in 1975 and then disbanded in 1976. Squad 1 was re-established in 1977 in Brooklyn at 788 Union Street, the former quarters of Engine 269; which had been closed during the budget crisis. The local community had placed great pressure on the city to reopen the former house of Engine 269 and the city responded by reopening it and making it the new quarters for Squad 1.
The new Squad 1 was assigned a fully equipped pumper with ladder company hand and power tools. Squad 1’s responses included the former “first due” boxes of Engine 269 and working fires within a designated area. In 1998 New York City recognized the need to have more specialized units that could handle hazardous material incidents as well as increased readiness for incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Six more engines were then designated as Squad Companies. Engine Company 41 was already an enhanced engine company but was redesigned as a Squad Company. Squad 1 responds as an engine in its first, second and third due assignments and as a Squad Company to working fires, high angle, collapse, confined space, subway emergencies and hazardous material emergencies in Brooklyn and throughout the city as needed.
September 11 attacks
Squad 1 lost half of its squad at the World Trade Center in the September 11 attacks. The squad would be the most devastated FDNY unit impacted by the collapse of the Twin Towers losing 12 members, which included:
Squad 1 crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to respond to the attacks and was last seen in the South Tower. The door of their pumper engine was recovered and is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
At the National 9/11 Memorial, the names of Squad Company 1 members killed in the attacks are located at the South Pool, on Panels S-6 and S-7.