There were 2 slides of sugar hoppers that I'd seen down on Delaware Ave, in Philadelphia on the water front, I have pictures of them but can't get them uploaded here, as soon as I figure out how I'll post them, I didn't win either of these slides on ebay, but I kept a picture of the low res slide. One is a Jack Frost 3 bay car with that neat Blue and white paint, the other id a Domino Airslide. The Jack Frost car is especially dear to me, as I used to see them down at the Readings Port Richmond yard when I was young. Also, when I became a firefighter, my buddies Bill Kennedy and Pete Trendler and I volunteered to work a Saturday morning overtime, so that members of the department who were taking the promotional test for Lieutenant and Captain would be covered. We arrived about a half hour before the shift started and we were all NEW PROBYS, we didn't know anything. We just left the Fire Academy about a month earlier and we were raw. So the guys who were taking the test left, and in came an old, leather lunged Captain from a station in South Philly, he put a piece of paper on the table, told us to write down our names and companies and he disappeared into the Office. We wrote our names down (the ONLY thing we got right) finished our coffee and started to clean the station. The Captain came out and asked which one was from Engine 5, Bill said I am, Cap said you're driving. Bill said, Cap I'm not qualified to drive yet. Captains eyes bulged out of his head and asked Who's from Engine 65, Pete says I am but I'm not qualified either, the Captain says You're from Ladder 6 can you drive and I said no sir we're all out of the last class. The Captain ran back in the office and called the Battalion Chief and was screaming What the hell are trying to do to me, I got 3 rookies who can't drive, can't get water and don't know the local (Engine 3s assigned area). So they sent down a driver from another company, which took a half hour. Meanwhile we continued to do the housework, cleaning all the things we we're allowed to do at our own stations, when the driver walks in. We call the Captain, he comes out tells the driver we don't know anything you're the driver. The guy looks out on the apparatus floor and says Cap I don't know how to drive that model of engine, which caused the Captain to go ballistic, and he screamed, get the hell out there and learn to drive it and get me water. We are now in low profile mode, trying to stay out of way of the Cap. AT 9 o'clock the alarm at the watch desk goes off (the watch desk is where a man sits and listen the radio and loud speaker system for jobs in your area.), Billy dutifully writes it all down and looks in up the flip file (flip file has all the Fire runs you're responsible for in your area), and says we don't go. so we go back to mopping the floors, when the Cap comes running out pulling up his pants and says where was that run to? Bill says we don't go Cap, )it's somewhere on Delaware Avenue, and I thought the Captain just had a heart attack. He hits the alarm bells turned on the lights for the driver to know we have a run and screams at us that we are first in Engine. (Billy and I were in the same station, we had 3 apparatus, a Battalion Chief, an Engine Co. and a Ladder Co. and our flip file was different, we didn't know any better. We got dressed, got on the truck and out the door we go. Nobody remembered to shut the apparatus floor door. We made a right hand turn onto Washington Ave., heading for the river, went under the I95 overpass and the Caps is frantically pointing out the window to the right. I turned and looked out the window and saw a huge column of heavy black smoke pouring out of either the Jack Frost or Domino Sugar House on the river side. Cap is giving a report over the radio and asks for a 2nd alarm and we're still 4 or 5 blocks away. When we pull up he starts to assign jobs to each of us and tells me to get a line and follow him in. I grabbed the smallest line on the truck, we called it the booster line, used for car fires and grass and rubbish. Wrong size line to take into a 5 story factory with that much smoke! I follow him in and just missed being hit by a guy on fork lift who was getting out of the building. We were crawling in and there was slippery stuff all over the floor, the Cap said stay close don't want to get lost in here. I heard on his radio that the Battalion Chief had struck out a 3rd alarm when the Cap said, kid can you feel that heat i said yeah, he said jump up real quick and see if you can knock it down, (put it out). I jumped up, pulled the handle on the nozzle and slid backwards all the way out of the building. I shot off the loading dock that we had gone in on and right on my a$$ in front of the BC. He said where's the Captain, I said he's still in there, the BC strikes out a 4th alarm and tells me do I remember where I saw him last. I said straight in, I had no clue. He told me to grab a bigger hose and back in we went. In the meantime the Deputy Chief, next command level up is on his way and he strikes out a 5th alarm. We get to where I saw the Captain last and he's not there. I heard over the radio that Fire Boat 1, which was stationed right below the Ben Franklin bridge had the Captain, I don't know if he jumped in the river next to the building or jumped on the boat as it pulled in, but he was safe. From then on until about 1 PM we were fighting the fire until we were relieved and headed back to their station and then back to our own station. Billy suggested we send our OT money to the Captain but we didn't want to see him ever again. the whole time we were fighting that fire the Reading RR was moving cars out of the yard, so I love those cars. i think that very car was made by AHM in N scale. Should get me one so I won't lose that memory.
