Bushwick '77: The All Hands Fire

Brooklyn, NY - upfromflames - Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 : goo

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The All Hands Fire was something that you remember. Prior to 9/11, it was the biggest fire ever fought by the modern FDNY. It took 55 units of firefighters from Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn to put out the fire started by three kids playing in an old abandoned knitting factory.

When the fire was over, 23 buildings were destroyed across 7 blocks, leaving a flattened wasteland at this central intersection.

But in Bushwick, they know how to make success from tragedy. CB4 chairwoman Chineda Carter, and CB4 district manager John Derezewski , seeing the open land, knew just what should go there

The NYPD needed a new headquarters to replace their historic but cramped headquarters on Wilson and Dekalb Aves. They convinced the NYPD to relocate here, and ideally central location that has served them well to this day.

Its tempting to look at the All Hands Fire was a positive turning point for Bushwick, since it brought the city and world recognize the desperate straits things were in here—remember, this fire came just 3 days after the NYC Blackout 0f 1977, when rioting and looting had destroyed Broadway.

And money did flow in after that. And there were changes in policy that led to the Bushwick of today, 30 years later.

But I remember what Rick Casuso, a long time resident, told me: “The fire was not the beginning of the rebirth it caused a lot of people to leave, scared a way a lot of good people that were willing to stay”.

Different people remember it differently. But the point is: remember it. What it took to make this place you see today.

(special props to Randy Barron and the photo archive crew at FDNY for releasing these photos to me. Its been 30 years since some of these negatives have seen the light of day. Wish I could tell you more about who took them, but he sure had a great eye!)

For more, visit www.upfromflames.com after June 1st. And check us out at the Brooklyn Historical Society this summer!

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upfromflames: Joey: remember who took them.

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