Engines 43 and 44, along with Truck I, and the Water Tower were organized on October 10, 1894 at 2110-12 Market Street. Truck I became Truck 9 on July 11, 1900. During 1908, Engine 44 moved to a new firehouse at 3420 Haverford Avenue. Rescue 1A moved to Engine 43’s station on July 19, 1954 from Engine 17’s firehouse. The rescue’s designation was changed from 1A to 7 during 1956.
On March 11, 1963 Engine 43 was disbanded and Truck 9 and Rescue 7 moved to Engine 17’s station. These actions were taken in order to raze the old station and build a new one at the same location. Engine 43 was reorganized on January 20, 1964 when the new station was completed. Ladder 9, Rescue 7 and Deputy 1 moved into the new station on the same day. Deputy 1 would move to Engine 47’s firehouse and Battalion 5 would move to Engine 43 on March 24, 1975. Battalion 5 was deactivated on July 1, 1993.
Twenty department members completed paramedic training during 1973. Rescue 7 was selected to be the test unit for the new paramedic program. Beginning October 22, 1973 Rescue 7 responded from Philadelphia General Hospital with a doctor on board from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM Monday through Friday. They responded with Rescues 1, 3, 9, and 14 on all responses for heart attacks, severe bleeding, and trauma. On October 8, 1973 responses with the selected rescues was amended to the area bounded by Girard Avenue on the north, Snyder Avenue on the south, Broad Street on the east, and 52nd Street on the west. At the end of the trial period, the paired responses were discontinued and Rescue 7 no longer responded with a doctor on board. Prior to implementation of the Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) program, the members staffing the rescues were firefighters detailed into the unit whose only training was basic first aid and CPR.
Today, Squrt 43, Ladder 9 and Medic 7 continue to respond from the firehouse at 2110-12 Market Street. Engine 44 is still operating from the firehouse they moved to in 1908 on Haverford Avenue.
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The “Big House”. As a kid hanging in the Fire Alarm Room in City Hall in the late 50s, a visiting Battalion Chief Vivian wanted to test my PFD knowledge. So, he asked me which fire station was known as the Big House. Right away I said Engine 7 because it also had Ladder 10, Rescue 2, and Battalion 10, the most companies of any station. “Good guess”, he said, “but it’s Engine 43”. At that time, Engine 43 was still in its original station, and you can see by the photo above that with 3 apparatus bays, it was a “big house”. I’m guessing the only 3 bay early station ever built. in the city.
Shortly after midnight on October 27, 1957, the Fire Alarm Room received a phone call from police radio reporting a shack on fire at 22nd & Wood Sts.. At that time, responses for shacks or sheds( think of a tool shed) received a response of one engine. So, Engine 43 was dispatched for the shack. However, upon their arrival the “shack” turned out to be a vacant 2 story industrial building about 75′ X 100′ fully involved in fire. Naturally, Engine 43 requested a box be struck out and Box 732 at 22nd & Vine Sts. was transmitted. This building had been the former Haden Bolt Works in an industrial and warehouse section just south of the Parkway and 3-alarms were struck for this fire. These blocks had numerous buildings soon to be razed for construction of the first leg of the Vine St. Expressway which extended from the Schuylkill Expressway over the River and coming above ground at 16th St. and onto Vine St.
on March 10, 1960 at 11:07pm, a 5-alarm fire struck the Bethany Temple Presbyterian Church on the northwest corner of 53rd & Spruce Sts.. Ladder 9, responding on the 2nd alarm, set up an aerial ladder pipe in the rear of the church on Irving St. west of 53rd. Narrow Irving St. had been covered with snow from a previous storm, and now, the snow had packed down to ice in most spots. Temperatures were below freezing, when sometime after 11:30 with 2 men on the aerial, the stabilizer jacks gave way or slipped on the ice tipping over the whole body of the 1950 American LaFrance 100′ ladder truck. The extended aerial ladder also tipped over scraping the church wall. The 2 men on the aerial, Capt. Rainsford, and Fireman Gleason were injured, the former more seriously than the later, but didn’t succumb to their injuries. Earlier in the day, Lt. Wm. Agee of Engine 54 had been killed in a 5-alarm fire at the Overbook School for the Blind about 25 blocks away in West Philly. Had this fire not occurred, Ladder 9 probably wouldn’t have been sent on the 2nd alarm and probably wouldn’t have been positioned on Irving St. saving injury to Ladder 9 members.
As dawn was breaking on July 24, 1962, I was returning in my car from watching a 4-alarm fire at 804 Sansom St. in Center City when I heard on my Heathkit portable tunable high-band radio, Engine 43, Ladder 9, and Battalion 5 being dispatched on a local alarm to an apartment at 118 N. 19th St.. Being only a few blocks away, I knew I’d arrive about the same time as the companies. As I parked at 19th & Cherry and walked south on 19th, I could see medium smoke coming from the 3rd floor of the row apt.. About the same moment I heard a woman urgently yelling, finally spotting her leaning out the window of an upper floor of the old high-rise Bell Telephone Bldg. across the street on the northeast corner of 19th & Arch Sts.. She was yelling to the arriving Ladder 9 that she had seen a man in the window where the smoke was coming from. Immediately, the driver raised the main of the 1960 Seagrave 100 ft. Aerial. He extended the main causing the tip of it to bust out the top of the window releasing heavier smoke. Shortly afterward, Engine 43 was able to contain and extinguish the fire. The man had exited the apt. on his own. This was the first time I had seen the use of the tip of the Aerial main as a ventilation tool. Later, I was to learn that this maneuver was not an uncommon practice of the PFD whether sanctioned or not.