1972: The BRONX is Burning - NYC FIREFIGHTERS | Man Alive | Classic BBC Documentaries | BBC Archive

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  • Опубликовано: 26 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 131

  • @Mllghguard
    @Mllghguard Год назад +90

    The Deputy Chief talking with the Battalion Chief about the kids at 1:49 and safety at 2:56 was my father, Bernard Wynne. He joined the Department in 1938 and retired in 1973. One of my vivid memories as a kid was my father lying on his back asleep on the bed after a particularly rough night. Every time he exhaled, his breath expelled what looked like a dark cloud. An unbelievably challenging job which stays with you for all of your life!

    • @paulgleave5779
      @paulgleave5779 Год назад +4

      Wow,I bet he had some incredible stories to tell.From this clip you could see he had the safety of his men as a priority.Huge admiration for these guys.

    • @elviraguadalupe6325
      @elviraguadalupe6325 10 месяцев назад +2

      🙏💝amen con cristo

    • @MrWolfSnack
      @MrWolfSnack 9 месяцев назад +3

      black lung. I hope he lived a full life. He seen so much change in the NYFD from all that time. Just 20 years before he joined they were just phasing out the horse and wagons,

    • @rgbwr
      @rgbwr 5 месяцев назад +2

      Respect from the UK to your father.

  • @johnomahony7364
    @johnomahony7364 2 года назад +57

    Dennis Smith..FDNY LEGEND!!! ITS so crazy to watch those guys go into the fire and they don't even have tanks on.

    • @bigphilnyc
      @bigphilnyc 24 дня назад +1

      Wild, reading his books, and getting to see a different angle (or, video documentation) of him speaking back then.

    • @GregD-d3s
      @GregD-d3s 5 дней назад

      They used to go in no matter what ,to save lives,They said we are not like the Westchester guys who stand outside and play the house on it😂

  • @280StJohnsPl
    @280StJohnsPl Год назад +39

    The War Years Veterans....I came OTJ in 1978 and these guys taught us the job......they were cool, calm and had a lot of experience at fires. Good officers and good firemen........the backbone of the job

  • @stevej7763
    @stevej7763 10 месяцев назад +13

    1:35 there’s kids playing on the roof while they’re venting, wild.

    • @bpd231martinko9
      @bpd231martinko9 3 месяца назад

      Yes I saw that too, I chuckled when the Chief was getting reamed out because the kids were climbing on the truck.

  • @marcel1372
    @marcel1372 2 года назад +85

    no respirators? these archival clips are so thorough. really feels like a time machine with how much they show the (few)safety standards of the time

    • @rick-dy7mt
      @rick-dy7mt Год назад +15

      Smoke eaters

    • @MsGorteck
      @MsGorteck Год назад +13

      And did you see how the firefighters were sitting on the pivot point of the tiller as it was going down the street? And the chief was complaining that the children climbing on the ladder was not safe.
      True Leather Lungs.
      Tip of the hat!

    • @LeopoldMaysonet
      @LeopoldMaysonet Год назад +6

      @@rick-dy7mt Best in the business!! God Bless those guys if they're still alive! Always used my SCBA when I fought fires. (1997-2017)

    • @elenaarman-tang7811
      @elenaarman-tang7811 Год назад +3

      ​@@LeopoldMaysonetThank you for saving lives 🙏 Were you a fireman based in New York City?

    • @LeopoldMaysonet
      @LeopoldMaysonet 10 месяцев назад

      Philadelphia @@elenaarman-tang7811

  • @BodymechanicsUK
    @BodymechanicsUK 2 года назад +50

    I'm amazed at how the kids are just allowed to be on the fire engine and chilling along side working firemen.

    • @trinab9612
      @trinab9612 2 года назад +14

      I don’t it’s so much they are allowed to do it, there’s just no way to stop them

    • @Eric-sn4qz
      @Eric-sn4qz Год назад +7

      Unfortunately there really wasn’t a way to stop this. There was a time during the war years that cops were on the apparatus for security because of the airmail the was being directed at the trucks. You had fireman getting hit by bricks responding to calls.

    • @Eric-sn4qz
      @Eric-sn4qz Год назад +7

      In the 1990’s there was a fire company in Upper Manhattan that had a firebomb thrown into a responding Engine company. Several brothers were severely burned.

    • @slackjawedyokel1
      @slackjawedyokel1 Год назад +10

      and good chance some were inspired to become fireman themselves

    • @Jimtom933
      @Jimtom933 Год назад +3

      A lot different times back then

  • @joed9491
    @joed9491 Год назад +31

    RIP Dennis Smith who passed away in January 2022. Seen in this video, he wrote the famous book "Report from Engine Company 82" which came out in January 1972 which is why I suspect the BBC decided to do this documentary.

    • @bpd231martinko9
      @bpd231martinko9 Год назад +3

      He was also the publisher of Fire House Magazine....

    • @user-si9fx4xb6v
      @user-si9fx4xb6v Год назад +3

      RIP Dennis Smith and thank you for all of your amazing books about Firefighters. My grandmother read me "The Little Fire Engine That Saved The City " as a boy and then as an adult I read "Report From Engine Co #82, Firefighters: Their Lives In Their Own Words and Report From Ground Zero. Been a firefighting buff my whole life.

    • @davidbehrend7054
      @davidbehrend7054 Год назад +3

      He was a legend. I was unaware that he had passed away. He is back from the old “smoke eater” days. I wonder what his experiences would have been like today, with all the changes in firefighting and technology.

  • @owensweetland342
    @owensweetland342 Год назад +9

    Dennis Smith's famous book was the spark that flared into a fascination with fire photography. Plus Jill's book.

  • @thunderbird66613
    @thunderbird66613 2 года назад +17

    This whole documentary is amazing as it is a time capsule of the state New York was in, in the mid 70's. Try to find the full documentary as it a very good watch

  • @tecnicodeprevencaoecombate5407
    @tecnicodeprevencaoecombate5407 Год назад +18

    I worked in the 80's until 2012 in São Paulo in Brazil. These scenes are very common in our daily lives. Only in 1994 did appropriate personal protective equipment and respiratory protection arrive for all firefighters. Our vehicles were very common without much technology. We faced these situations from the vide of 1972 in the 90's still. Difficult days for the Brazilian firefighters in the city of São Paulo, the fourth metropolis in the world with 15 million inhabitants today. We are much better today with more advanced technologies and techniques.
    Lieutenant Castro 1984 to 2012 military firefighter

  • @Eric-sn4qz
    @Eric-sn4qz 2 года назад +7

    Love the clear
    Picture. Hopefully
    They’ll remaster the entire Doc.

  • @luv2luv720
    @luv2luv720 Год назад +8

    The kids playing on the firetruck while they're fighting a fire was too funny 😊

  • @eldiablo3794
    @eldiablo3794 5 месяцев назад +6

    Firefighters were awesome and hardcore back then. Literally, all they wore was a helmet, rain slicker coat, and hip high folded boots. An oldschool Chicago firefighter told me that he never had his ears covered with a protective hood like they wear today because that was his way of telling if it was too hot. If his ears started burning and he couldn't take it anymore, that's when he knew it was time to pull him and his men out of the building, lol.

  • @Cashcrop54
    @Cashcrop54 7 месяцев назад +5

    The book written by Dennis Smith "Report From Engine Company 82" is one of my favorite books. Dennis has a plain and simple style and I'm going to be getting the others he wrote.

    • @thedevilwearstartan
      @thedevilwearstartan 6 месяцев назад +2

      I'm reading it now after seeing this comment! An amazing book!

  • @Alabama2534
    @Alabama2534 4 месяца назад +6

    New York City ( 1972 ). I love the 1970’s era so much as much as I love the 1980’s and 1990’s era

  • @matthewnorman7878
    @matthewnorman7878 Год назад +14

    I was born in 72. It's a big difference from the fire scene then compared to now with all the regulations. It's crazy that there's kids on the roof right beside the firefighters and all over the apparatus. I heard the firefighters mention that and the NYPD said it was the firefighters problem. My uncle worked with the NYPD during that time. I'm sure today's fire scene would seem alien to him. That whole area would've been blocked off nowadays.

    • @wandaritter5704
      @wandaritter5704 Год назад +1

      We were allowed on the roofs and fire escapes gurl! No regulations!

  • @scottprendergast5262
    @scottprendergast5262 Год назад +2

    When in London during Christmas years ago, I decided to make a surprise Christmas visit and spread yuletide cheer and brotherly love to the Fire Brigade boys

  • @elmcityslim
    @elmcityslim Год назад +6

    It's pretty cool to see some of the men and the scenes from Dennis Smith's book.

    • @emt5330
      @emt5330 Год назад

      Buy the book " They Saved New York". Several of them are interviewed

  • @ronaldrobertson2332
    @ronaldrobertson2332 6 месяцев назад +2

    Dennis Smith, author of "Report from Engine Co. 82" and "The Final Fire".

  • @JLSULev
    @JLSULev 2 месяца назад +1

    These guys had balls of brass! Very little protection compared to modern equipment. Hats off to all firefighters past and present!

  • @kenb.8596
    @kenb.8596 Год назад +5

    I lived up there during this time frame, I remember coming from Jersey over the GWB & remembering all the building boarded up, stolen cars on the CBX & Webster Ave, was like a war zone, felt really sorry for naive folks that broke down in that area, was a jungle baby.

  • @fdny3526
    @fdny3526 Год назад +4

    Battalion 27 is now with Engine 79 and Ladder 37 in Bedford Park and no longer with Engine 82 and Ladder 31

  • @crusinclassicslucas6218
    @crusinclassicslucas6218 2 года назад +7

    The siren model on the fire engines
    Is known as the Federal Signal model 28

    • @owensweetland342
      @owensweetland342 Год назад +1

      Yup. Can't use the Q nowadays. Noise pollution. What a effin joke. Look around at the actual pollution.

  • @kas9653
    @kas9653 11 месяцев назад +2

    Fantastic documentary. I can't even imagine how wild it must have been back in the day. I know that firefighting is still wild now! I work in concrete and masonry, non-union, so extra special... I think that my job is hard, and then I watch these videos. I do wish that respirators were used back then.

  • @swaneknoctic9555
    @swaneknoctic9555 2 года назад +20

    This was around the same time New York had the highest murder rate on this planet. You can understand from this short recording it wasn’t a pleasant place to be back then, although very interesting to watch.

  • @matthewbulger5876
    @matthewbulger5876 2 года назад +8

    Do you have the full remastered version of this 1972 documentary? I await your reply.

    • @CaucasiansSuck
      @CaucasiansSuck Год назад +1

      You still waiting for that reply 😂

    • @benfrewin9926
      @benfrewin9926 Год назад +1

      How's that wait going for you?

    • @CedrickTudge
      @CedrickTudge Год назад

      A weighty wait

    • @stevej7763
      @stevej7763 10 месяцев назад

      ruclips.net/video/Dc3a2R_YYyU/видео.htmlsi=8dMZJcJw_vINZJ_Z

  • @louisep4805
    @louisep4805 2 года назад +24

    Amazing accent I can really hear the English influences

    • @aidy6000
      @aidy6000 2 года назад +7

      yes. a lot of old or rural accents in the us are like a window into 18th century pronunciation!!

    • @MichaelRe-c7q
      @MichaelRe-c7q 9 месяцев назад +3

      Yea, east Coast US cities are heavily influenced by English accents especially NYC and Boston

  • @nzfirephotography
    @nzfirephotography Год назад +2

    FDNY 1970s Mack CF Engine Pumper And 1970s Amercain Lafrance Ladder Company feature in this video.

  • @lawrencemazel9182
    @lawrencemazel9182 Год назад +1

    I started in my department in 1987 I remember those days on long Island...🚒 and the city

  • @albertnevaras3465
    @albertnevaras3465 Год назад +1

    Thank You

  • @jemmajones6013
    @jemmajones6013 2 года назад +6

    Love their accents

  • @remigirl996
    @remigirl996 Год назад +2

    This is cool, I've seen this video before but not such good quality.

  • @HarshChikkara-r5t
    @HarshChikkara-r5t 2 месяца назад +1

    Anyone have the full version in this same quality? Other ones on yt are not this good.

    • @NotraceOfRay
      @NotraceOfRay 2 месяца назад

      I was gonna ask the same question and I don't understand why the BBC does not make their whole archive accessible to the public in a digitalised form.
      But probably it's for the better because otherwise I would not have time for anything but for the archive xD

  • @urbantraxx3756
    @urbantraxx3756 2 года назад +1

    Tiller ladder 31 , just before they got asigned the tower ladder en nov..72

  • @nooyorcste
    @nooyorcste 10 месяцев назад +1

    my dad was on like engine 83 or 84 or 82 les Goldberg

  • @Thatweirduncle
    @Thatweirduncle Год назад +2

    anyone know if this was during or after Dennis wrote his book?

    • @johnhill4964
      @johnhill4964 Год назад +4

      This video was from '72, same year the book was published.

  • @sheldonhchambliss1385
    @sheldonhchambliss1385 6 месяцев назад +1

    Great film

  • @SirJohnKnight
    @SirJohnKnight 9 месяцев назад +1

    make a series about this issue then

  • @bennymashfilms
    @bennymashfilms Год назад +1

    Is there a website where I can contact someone about licensing enquiries?

    • @liamcragin
      @liamcragin 3 месяца назад

      I’m sure bbc has licensing - maybe through the bbc archives

  • @glenncaraballoso1470
    @glenncaraballoso1470 Год назад +2

    A lot has changed.

  • @robertafierro5592
    @robertafierro5592 Год назад +3

    See how candid the Firefighters were back then?

    • @Stargazzer811
      @Stargazzer811 Год назад +1

      We're still candid, just professionally so.

  • @wandaritter5704
    @wandaritter5704 Год назад +3

    These were some brave mofos God bless these brave, tough ass bros! Now they are older or even gone, and I love hearing that NY accent! Slumlords would set their bldgs on fire for insurance money! I wonder if they were ever prosecuted!😢❤

  • @Wolffmann77
    @Wolffmann77 14 дней назад

    I can’t believe these guys can climb ladders like that with 1000lbs balls hanging between their legs

  • @Kylefassbinderful
    @Kylefassbinderful 2 года назад +3

    They should've interviewed KRS-ONE for his philosophy on this situation. "what where why or when"

  • @slackjawedyokel1
    @slackjawedyokel1 Год назад +2

    check out the sideburns

    • @owensweetland342
      @owensweetland342 Год назад +1

      I know. I laughed at them chops.

    • @azul8811
      @azul8811 Год назад +1

      In 51 years from now, it’s likely that people will be laughing at those in our current society who are all “tatted-up.” Seeing young beautiful women with a sleeve of tattoos might puzzle them.

  • @Upstatefire15
    @Upstatefire15 9 месяцев назад +1

    Did I see civilians on the roof?

  • @bottleandscrap7626
    @bottleandscrap7626 10 месяцев назад +1

    Das bawd

  • @robertsontirado4478
    @robertsontirado4478 Год назад +3

    I was born in Manhattan in 1972. My childhood in this video.

  • @BURNINGRYZEN112
    @BURNINGRYZEN112 10 месяцев назад +1

    4:15

  • @libertycabbagemusic
    @libertycabbagemusic Год назад

    I can't believe that these guys didn't have respirators or anything else to help them breathe in the smoke.

  • @sheldonhchambliss1385
    @sheldonhchambliss1385 6 месяцев назад +1

    Look like they didn't care about they safety

  • @colshythecomedian
    @colshythecomedian 2 года назад +5

    …And they all died of respiratory diseases.

    • @AWM05
      @AWM05 2 года назад

      Except for the MPO of course.

  • @reidbiden6712
    @reidbiden6712 Год назад +4

    The south Bronx is worse today then back in the 70s, if you can believe it….

    • @jasonwilson8671
      @jasonwilson8671 4 месяца назад +1

      Say what where. Have you seen Jerome Ave lately

    • @liamcragin
      @liamcragin 3 месяца назад +1

      Is half the neighborhood burned down? Then no it isn’t.

  • @agy234
    @agy234 4 месяца назад +2

    Instead of renovating their building, kosher slumlords just torched them for the insurance money

    • @Machia52612
      @Machia52612 4 месяца назад +2

      Same thing happened in Newark.

  • @TheBalls55
    @TheBalls55 2 года назад +1

    Is L31 American Lafrance?

  • @Jok-g9i
    @Jok-g9i Год назад

    Cancer was not an issue then😭🙏🙏🙏🙏

    • @phangirlable
      @phangirlable Год назад

      What? I know people who had cancer in the 70s. You know the explorer Alexander von Humboldt? Is mother died from breast cancer in the late 18th century. I collect books from the 19th century and even back then there were campaigns against smoking because it was cancerous. But if you mean not an issue then as in people died "from old age" which was actually colon, prostate or other common cancer then yes, not an issue back then.

    • @liamcragin
      @liamcragin 3 месяца назад

      People have always had cancer

  • @xaviert.123
    @xaviert.123 Год назад

    Good god, no BA at all?? Not even the UK Fire Brigades of the same era were that reckless..

  • @noka79
    @noka79 2 года назад +1

    I wonder why there was so many murders and fires

    • @stephenowens3687
      @stephenowens3687 2 года назад +5

      I read that the slumblords would pay gangs to set these places on fire, for the insurance money.

    • @davidpurpleartist8125
      @davidpurpleartist8125 2 года назад +2

      I've seen a documentary about the Bronx being burned that the landlords would just collect the rent and go and let the buildings be derelict and the tenents to fill the boilers and fend for themselves. Also gangs and the landlords would also pay the gangs to set fires for an insurance payout.

    • @MR1977.
      @MR1977. 2 года назад +2

      @@davidpurpleartist8125 that slumlord arson for hire operation was known as Jewish lighting.

  • @SpadesWinner
    @SpadesWinner Год назад +1

    So entertaining how that particular fire department had no blacks but managed to capture one climbing a ladder after the cameraman went first. This was not a real fire as it appeared to be thats why parents send their young one to see what's going on. Ironically no one had a "bronx accent".

  • @2prize
    @2prize 4 месяца назад

    BANKRUPT

  • @johnny5805
    @johnny5805 2 года назад +2

    Back in the days when firemen weren't just part time strippers moonlighting as firemen.

  • @miketritsas1050
    @miketritsas1050 2 года назад +2

    My father was a ff.in.ladder.38.eng.88

  • @Bond.girl.007
    @Bond.girl.007 Год назад

    Salute FDNY 🫡 saving lives and always working hard. ❤