Rocky
Mountain News
This
excerpt was taken from an article published in
the Rocky
Mountain
News the year Station 22 opened. A retired fire
fighter, Miles Dwyer, visited the station to check
out what a new station was like. Dwyer was 82
years old at the time and had served the Denver
Fire Department from 1900-1957.
“Specially invited to visit the gleaming station
at 3530 S. Monaco
bldv. was Miles Dwyer…a retired captain, who gave
the ultra-modern 1-story brick and glass structure
an experienced once-over…
“A concept believed unique with the new Denver
station (Station 22), the private rooms are actually
a series of alcoves off a long hallway which is
near but separated by a doorway from the giant
pumper and aerial ladder trucks parked up front.
“We always lived as a herd before,” observed K.L.
Neville, assistant chief of the division. “The
rooms now give the men a greater sense of individuality.”
Each alcove has two beds, one for the day-shift
man and one for the night-shift man, two closets
and individual reading lights. The beds
are on legs approximately 24 inches high so a
fireman scrambling to answer an alarm can hop
right into his boots. Brick tile floors
and walls are set off with tan wallpaper and painted
turquoise accents.
“We used to have big white metal-frame beds,”
Dwyer recalled, stretching out atop a dark-blue
spread on one of the new Hollywood versions.
“We used to all sleep in a big dormitory bedroom…and
slide down the pole.”
The traditional brass pole is conspicuous by its
absence in the ranch-style structure.
The pole was fast in getting from the upstairs
sleeping room down to the rolling stock, but it
also was dangerous, explained Lt. Michael Vecchio,
a 30-year department veteran who, with Captain
William Smith, alternates as officer in charge
at the new station.
Firemen are awakened by a harsh buzzer followed
by three repeats of the fire location issued over
a loudspeaker by the man at the control panel
up front.
“I started out in 1907 at Engine House 6 down
at the old City Hall at 14th and Market,” Dwyer
recalled as he crawled down from the cab of a
towering white aerial ladder truck.
“We lived upstairs and they kept the horses stationed
right beside the equipment: Four for a ladder
rig, three on a steam engine pumper and two no
a hose wagon.”
A horse always had one bridle and the harness
was suspended above, so with the pull of a lever
it dropped into place on the horse’s back, Dwyer
explained.
…The new station looks, as one wag put it, like
a giant 3-car garage without the house. Neville
said it “preserves the architectural integrity
of the neighborhood.”
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