Philip DePaolo

When an air raid siren went off at Engine Company 212 on Thanksgiving Day 1975, alarmed residents poured into the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn to find out what was going on. Paul Veneski recalls how their confusion turned to anger after a firefighter showed up to explain. A group of city officials had just arrived at the local firehouse unannounced. They had come to shut down Engine Company 212.

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Within hours three hundred angry residents had gathered in front of the Williamsburg Engine Company to block the city from removing the fire truck. That night a handful of protestors packed their bags and moved in to the two-story firehouse at 136 Wythe Avenue, refusing to leave until the city agreed to keep the Engine Company open. Many stayed for the next sixteen months, prompting a journalist to dub 212 "the People's Firehouse."

The city finally relented in 1977 and the firehouse survived. But the city closed Engine Company 212 again in May 2003 and now they want to sell the firehouse.

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In Williamsburg, Engine 212 was a beloved neighborhood fixture, and is known as "the people's firehouse". It had a long history of community involvement, with a very active local group of people who worked closely with the firehouse, and worked on many, many social, environmental and community programs. How many other firehouses in the city have such close ties to the community? Most firefighters do not live anywhere near the communities they work in, for various reasons, and to have had such a good rapport with a community is rare, and also is what being a "civil servant" should be about, something that takes a concerted effort on both sides. 212 had this, and it is being destroyed. Engine 212 was built in 1869, and was one of the original Engines when the FDNY was formed.

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Kurt Hill ( PFI Director of Outreach)

"The fiscal crisis came down quite hard, like a ton of bricks on the people of New York under Mayor Abe Beame. The federal government refused to help the city. Remember that famous Daily News headline, 'Ford to City: Drop Dead.' That basically was the attitude of the federal government in terms of helping out the largest city in the country during that period. Many services in Brooklyn were eliminated. All kinds of services -- police precincts, clinics, extra-curricular programs in schools. And, of course, firehouses, and Engine company 212 -- two twelve -- was one that was scheduled to be eliminated. Now, in North Brooklyn, we have a lot of wood frame buildings. And when they go up, they go up like tinder boxes. And response time is very, very important. The fire apparatus needs to get there to put the fire out, otherwise lives can be lost. And that’s what was happening. The city basically closed down fire service.

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Excerpt from PLACES THAT MATTER Engine Company 212 by Jennifer Scott October 2006