By Daniel P. Sheridan
We received a call ONE DAY at around 1700 hours from one of our Fire Department of New York (FDNY) members who was just getting off shift. He advised us that there was a fire under the bridge that traverses the Bronx River on Interstate 278 (The Bruckner Expressway), a major artery connecting the Bronx with the rest of New England. We get rubbish fires all the time in such places-usually people trying to burn the plastic off wires to sell the copper as scrap. It didn't sound like a big deal. I was about to notify the dispatcher when the tones went off. The Bronx borough dispatcher was sending us the box assignment: one engine, one ladder, a fireboat, and the battalion chief.
As we left quarters, I didn't give the call much thought-probably nothing more than a minor rubbish fire near the water. We had a similar call not too long ago, and it wasn't much more than a part of the wooden bulkhead burning (photo 1). My only concern was whether the 500-gallon booster tank would be adequate to address the rubbish fire. This was probably going to be more of a nuisance than anything else. We had a similar fire recently, and our biggest headache was gaining access to get water on the fire. I was happy to see that the fireboat was responding because that would solve our water problem.
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