Ellwood City Firefighters
You can’t tell by all of the trucks, but this trailer fire on South Second Street on July 27, 1957 was actually very small. Firefighters did not carry pagers twenty four hours a day, instead relied solely on the fire siren. The number of blasts told the firemen where the fire was, one blast for the first ward, two blasts for the second ward and so on. Without any operators relaying information back and forth between the men on the scene and the guys at the station, the firemen brought everything. For this small fire, they brought out the Fire Chiefs car (52 Chevy), a ladder truck, 1954 American LaFrance pumper, 57 mercury rescue squad vehicle, 49 pumper.
This was before men wore all the current firefighting gear. Towards the middle of the picture are five of the firemen on the scene, all just wearing street clothes. One firefighter is wearing a white suit but is hard to make out. We were told that the men didn’t wear a lot of gear then. They would get to the fire as fast as possible, try to get inside if they could and try to attack the fire at the point of origin. When it got to bad inside, they fought it from outside the house. The firefighter walking towards the photographer is Bob Henry, one of three full time paid firemen. The other two paid firefighters in Ellwood City were Bob Dambaugh & Chuck West.
The second photograph is another example of the firemen bringing everything they have or may need. You can see the towns first American Lafrance, the 49 LaFrance, the 54 LaFrance in the background, the chiefs car, the rescue squad car and more. All of these vehicles were rolled out for this small fire at Dr Painters house on Pittsburgh Circle by the end of Second Street back on Feb 16, 1960 (notice the fancy street light).
In the third picture we see the other two paid firefighters at a small shack fire on Aiken Avenue. Police Officer Tom Magnifico shines a flashlight for firefighter Bob Dambach as he pulls a mattress from the ruins as fellow firefighter Chuck West continues to hit the “hot” spots. The picture was taken Nov 18, 1956.
If you would like to share a story you have of any of these firefighters or even memories you have of any of these vehicles, please email us or leave a comment below.
The vehicles are fabulous. Seems like the 1952 Chevy spanned the years and earned its keep. Thanks to Ben for all of this nostalgia. What caught my eye is the uniform of Police Officer Tom Magnifico. Seems to me there were uniformed police officers on walking patrol along Lawrence Avenue in the 1950′s. It’s a recollection I have. Firefighters and police officers photographed in unison in the days when public safety was funded and fueled with citizenship, not politics.
Policeman Tommy Magnifico was a favorite of mine – when he patrolled the corner of 5th Street and Lawrence Avenue at Christmas time, I used to visit with him.
I remember seeing the photo with Officer Magnifico like it was yesterday. I also remember the name of Bud Dimeo from the EC Ledger. Some officers came into the barber shop and would take their gun holster off and put it by the cash register and those guns looked so big and scared me especially if I was sitting by the cash register. I didn’t know the EC firefighters, but the police were always nice.
The second picture has a picture of a 1936 pumper not the 1949 pumper. It may have been the one on the back but I vaguely remember the 1936 one because of it’s 3 spinning light on the top
Bob Dambach will always be remembered as the firefighter that saved the life of my uncle Frank “Jim” Garwig at the Garwig family home at 516 1/2 Spring Avenue. “Jim” Garwig as he was known was afflicted in his right arm and right leg due to polio as a child. As a result, he was denied the education other children received, as back then you were not permitted to attend school for fear of the disease. My grandfather, Mr. Edward A. Garwig worked at one of the factories in town, I believe it was the iron and wire works near the old RR frieght station. Jim, due to his limited abilities also worked there as the “night watchman”. Jim smoked all of his life and arrived home from the shift early in the morning. It is believed that the fire was caused by discarded smoking materials left behind in the side entrance room of the home where the men changed out of their work clothes before coming in the house. In any event, the fire started in this area and burned up thru the floor, into the kitchen. By this time Jim was in bed on the second floor as the home filled with smoke. Bob Dambach was driving the first arriving unit on scene. During search and rescue, Mr. Dambach found Jim and got him out of the second floor. Iva Garwig, my grandmother, was startled by the fire and managed to get out but could not reach Jim upstairs. There was severe damage to the home as the fire ravaged thru the basement and kitchen before being put out by the Ellwood City Volunteers. This occurred in the early 50′s as I remember viewing the damage with my parents and looking into the basement thru the large hole in the kitchen floor.
Subsequent to this event I attended bingo on Friday evenings at the Fire Department with Grandmother Garwig as she was an avid Bingo Player. Bob Dambach allowed me to “hang out” downstairs in the dispatch office during bingo. He often allowed me to go into the engine bay and look at the various apparatus in there.
In the office there was a large oak box on the wall that was the control mechanism that activated the siren system in the fire house and the other remote sirens, one of which was on Line Avenue. The old assembly contained numerous dials and levers and a lever that was pulled to activate the siren. There were a number of brass, notched rings that representated each ward and the number of times the siren would blow for the various wards. There was also a special ring that was used for the Air Raid warning along with the one for blowing the siren every day at noon. So many Ellwoodians could guage their days activities and check their watches based on the blowing of the noon siren. Anyone who grew up in Ellwood City certainly lives with this memory.
I had the distinct privilage, assisted by Mr. Dambach, to put the ring in place and pull the activation lever for a fire call one Friday evening many, many years ago. I then went outisde to the sidewalk and waited for the appartus to leave the station, sirens wailing, heading for the call. This was the greatest thrill a 12 year old could ever hope for.
After the devestating fire and rescue of Uncle Jim, Mr. Dambach’s name was commonplace in our family circles as the man that saved Uncle “Jims” life.
Bob Dambach, as he was known, no Mr. Dambach, no formality, just a friendly, “call me Bob attitude” was a True Hero of the time, and will always be loved and admired by the Garwig family and its decendents.