Baltimore's other "Iron Man"...

[Beemerguy53]

Retired Oriole Cal Ripken ain't the only Iron Man in Baltimore...

Baltimore City Fire Department Lieutenant Ed Moreau, of Truck Company 8 in West Baltimore, retired recently after an amazing 50 years of service. It was my great honor to work with Ed back in the 1980s, and you won't find a nicer guy...or a tougher one! Seventy-one years old, serving in a unit that gets 2500+ calls per year, with fires almost daily...and I thought I was good sticking it out for 30 years!

Fox45 News in Baltimore did a great story about Ed tonight...enjoy!

After five decades of service, Baltimore City firefighter prepares to retire | WBFF

 

[Chuck24]

Spent the first week of my honeymoon at the Holiday Inn at inner harbor. It overlooked a fire station with a big clock tower, seemed like something was on fire 24/7.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Spent the first week of my honeymoon at the Holiday Inn at inner harbor. It overlooked a fire station with a big clock tower, seemed like something was on fire 24/7.

That is the John F. Steadman Fire Station, named after a beloved former Deputy Chief.

Known informally as the Superhouse, it was opened in 1973 on the site of Engine 15's station, and consolidated a number of century-old single unit downtown stations into one centrally-located facility.

When it opened, the Superhouse was home to 3 engines, a ladder truck, a snorkel, a rescue truck, air unit (which refills breathing apparatus on a fireground), ambulance, and a Battalion Chief. With downsizing and changing priorities nowadays, there are an engine, rescue, air unit, Battalion Chief, two medic units, plus specialized units: the dive team, collapse unit, HazMat truck, etc. It's one of the busiest fire stations in the United States, its units responding to about 30,000 calls per year. (Thanks to Baltimore's intractable violence and crime problem, the two medic units account for about half those calls.)

In 1979 I was the tillerman on a ladder truck there...it was insanely busy then, and even moreso now. One link below is to a Baltimore Sun article on the Superhouse, the other link is to a YouTube video of what you would have seen from your hotel across the street...

Downtown's Steadman station is busiest in the country - tribunedigital-baltimoresun

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9o7cp3jAY[/ame]

 

[Skeet 028]

In the late 60's I got transferred in to a couple of those old roach motels during the riots. By the time they built that house we had been moved to the State system. many people in the city I remember..and of course the great Ed Heckrotte

 

[Beemerguy53]

In the late 60's I got transferred in to a couple of those old roach motels during the riots. By the time they built that house we had been moved to the State system. many people in the city I remember..and of course the great Ed Heckrotte

Porky is still around! I last saw him about a year ago, at the funeral for Dr. Frank Barranco, who had been the BCFD physician way back when.

You mentioned being moved to the State system...were you one of the airport firefighters who got transferred there when the State of Maryland took over Friendship International Airport and renamed it Baltimore-Washington International?

 

[Skeet 028]

Yep I started in early 68. The state stole...er... bought the airport from the city. We kinda had a choice to move to the city...but most of our training was in aircraft and liquid fuel firefighting so we would have had to go through some more structural training. And the city was on 10-14s...we worked 24s which I preferred. And heck I lived on the shore near Chestertown. Haven't talked to Porky in a long time. He helped us with retirement system problems. I think Dr Barranco gave me my hiring physical. Long time . Different back then. Do you remember Pudie Johnson?

 

[Beemerguy53]

Yep I started in early 68. The state stole...er... bought the airport from the city. We kinda had a choice to move to the city...but most of our training was in aircraft and liquid fuel firefighting so we would have had to go through some more structural training. And the city was on 10-14s...we worked 24s which I preferred. And heck I lived on the shore near Chestertown. Haven't talked to Porky in a long time. He helped us with retirement system problems. I think Dr Barranco gave me my hiring physical. Long time . Different back then. Do you remember Pudie Johnson?

No, Johnson doesn't ring a bell. Yeah, Porky is an expert on the pension system...helped us out a lot over the years. Back in '68, when you started (and in '74, when I started) the BCFD chief physician was Dr. Kirk Moore...that was when the BCFD Infirmary was on Gay Street, on the 2nd floor of 32 Engine's station. The Police Department Infirmary absorbed the BCFD Infirmary in the early 1980s, and Dr. Barranco became the department doctor for both the BCFD and the BPD. He was a saint!

Yeah, it was very different back then...from time to time I bump into an old comrade, and after even a brief conversation, my reaction is: I'm glad I'm out!

 

[shouldazagged]

Here's a salute for Lt.Moreau. Obviously one hell of a man and firefighter.

I ate just enough smoke 1966-69 (we only made 600 runs a year in a small all-volunteer department) to be awed by those of you for whom it has been a career.

 

[Skeet 028]

When I got in some in the city prided themselves on not using air masks so much..you went in ate smoke till ya couldn't do it anymore..came out took a short break smoked a cigarette and went back to it. Lucky we lived through most of it. Many of the guys I worked with passed at a young age from cancer and other related diseases. I was hired during the D'Allesandro(Tommy the third) administration.

 

[Beemerguy53]

Here's a salute for Lt.Moreau. Obviously one hell of a man and firefighter.

I ate just enough smoke 1966-69 (we only made 600 runs a year in a small all-volunteer department) to be awed by those of you for whom it has been a career.

Thanks for your kind words. I tell folks all the time that I had the best job in the world: I got paid to make noise, squirt water, and break things! Every little boy's dream...

 

[Beemerguy53]

When I got in some in the city prided themselves on not using air masks so much..you went in ate smoke till ya couldn't do it anymore..came out took a short break smoked a cigarette and went back to it. Lucky we lived through most of it. Many of the guys I worked with passed at a young age from cancer and other related diseases. I was hired during the D'Allesandro(Tommy the third) administration.

I was 21 when I graduated from the Fire Academy, and I was assigned to a single engine house in East Baltimore. My Captain was in his 50s (older than my Dad!) and he was a tough, old-school firefighter.

My first day in the company, he sat me down and explained his expectations...

Captain: "Now then, they taught you how to do things their way at the Fire Academy, but here we do things MY way!"

Me: "Yes, sir."

Captain: "Now about those gas masks..."

Me: "Yes, sir."

Captain: "...I can't order you not to wear one...but I'm gonna tell ya that no REAL man needs one!"

Me: "Yes, sir!"

So we ate smoke...and we coughed and choked, and the old guys would pat us on the back and congratulate us on being able to "take a beatin' like a man"...and on my 38th birthday I had my first cancer operation.

Thankfully, things have changed...

 

[rcnixon]

Retired Oriole Cal Ripken ain't the only Iron Man in Baltimore...

Baltimore City Fire Department Lieutenant Ed Moreau, of Truck Company 8 in West Baltimore, retired recently after an amazing 50 years of service. It was my great honor to work with Ed back in the 1980s, and you won't find a nicer guy...or a tougher one! Seventy-one years old, serving in a unit that gets 2500+ calls per year, with fires almost daily...and I thought I was good sticking it out for 30 years!

Fox45 News in Baltimore did a great story about Ed tonight...enjoy!

After five decades of service, Baltimore City firefighter prepares to retire | WBFF

My late former next-door-neighbor, favorite uncle and thirty-six year firefighter was a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit over mandatory retirement age; is there none in BCFD? Plaintiffs lost in NJ.

See you later Uncle Bill...

Russ

 

[Beemerguy53]

My late former next-door-neighbor, favorite uncle and thirty-six year firefighter was a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit over mandatory retirement age; is there none in BCFD? Plaintiffs lost in NJ.

See you later Uncle Bill...

Russ

Up until the early 1980s, the BCFD had a mandatory retirement age of 60. A couple of guys who wanted to keep working sued and won, and there is now no age at which you must retire; you can work as long as you want. In Ed's case, he loved his job, and simply wanted to be able to say that he did it for 50 years.

For the last decade, he has basically been paying the City of Baltimore so he could come to work. Here's why: Under the pension system, you pay 7% of your salary into the system, so you're actually working for 93% of your nominal salary. If you work for 41-1/2 years, you would retire on 93% of your salary...so he could have pulled the plug a long time ago and not lost a penny in income. Clearly, he wasn't working for the money!

 

[snake803]

"In 1979 I was the tillerman on a ladder truck "


I was born and raised in Baltimore..My mom's cousin..My "uncle Al" was also a tillerman..If alive now he'd be close to 100 years old..Been so long ago I can't recall his last name..
JIM...............

 

[august1410]

I'm a Baltimore boy originally, now enjoying coastal NC. It seems that no matter where I lived in the city as a young adult, my apartment was always within walking distance of a firehouse. I never tired of hearing the sirens and the trucks.

I'd always offer the men and women outside the houses a cheerful "Good Morning" on my way to work. It was a simple gesture, but it meant something to me.