Newark Fire Department
Engine Companies 30 and 31 History

On November 7, 1922, Squad Companies 2 and 3 were disbanded, but reorganized as engine companies. This was mainly due to the fact that the “squad concept” was not quite the success that it first appeared it would be for the City of Newark. It was felt that one squad was sufficient to cover the city.

Squad 2 was reorganized and designated as Engine 30. They remained in their quarters at 44 Mount Prospect Avenue, near 6th Avenue, along with Engine 23. They continued to use the 1918 South Bend squad wagon that was formerly assigned to Squad 1, which was equipped with a 35-gallon chemical tank and hose reel.

Squad 3 was reorganized and designated as Engine 31. They remained in their quarters at 69 Vesey Street, at McWhorter Street, along with Engine 14. They continued to use the 1922 Ahrens-Fox “I-K-3” 750-GPM pumper they had been assigned in March.

While the exact role of these companies is unknown today, it is felt they probably acted as engine/squads, having a larger district to cover that the two engine companies they were quartered with. They probably maintained most of their squad equipment and served to back up Squad 1 when necessary.

This theory is largely supported by comparing the total runs made by the four companies for the period from 1922 through 1929 (there are no run totals available for the year 1928).

For the seven year period, Engine 30 answered 2,639 alarms, as opposed to Engine 23, who they were quartered with, answering 1,837 runs. The 44% increase in runs by Engine 30, over Engine 23, would show they had a greater alarm response area, even though the two companies shared the same quarters.

Even more dramatic is the comparison between Engines 14 and 31. During the period in question, Engine 14 answered 2,052 alarms, while Engine 31 answered a whopping 4,308 alarms - more than double the amount of the company they were housed with! Not only was Engine 31 the busiest engine company in the city, they trailed Squad 1, who was the busiest company at the time, by only a thousand runs for the same period of time.

These alarm response totals for the two companies clearly indicate that they responded as more than just standard engine companies.

On December 24, 1924, Engine 30 was assigned a new Ahrens-Fox “K-S-4” 1000-GPM pumper, equipped with a 63-gallon chemical tank. The rig was purchased at a cost of $13,500.

On a side historical note, Firefighter Harry Steinich, of Engine 31, received a Commendation for actions he took while operating at a fire.

On January 7, 1932, Engine 31’s 1922 Ahrens-Fox pumper was reassigned to Engine 21, and they were apparently relegated to using spare apparatus until February 18, 1932, when they were reassigned Engine 21’s 1925 Maxim “M-3” 750-GPM pumper.

With the city’s economy failing during the early part of 1933, it was decided that on April 1, 1933, Engine 30 would be disbanded along with Engine 25. In addition, Engine 16 was moved to Truck 8’s quarters, the fireboat “Newarker’s” services were by special call only, and 100 firefighters were laid off. Among the 100 men were four firefighters from Engine 30. While Engine 31 escaped disbandment, they lost seven men to the lay-offs.

Engine 30’s 1924 Ahrens-Fox pumper was placed in reserve as a spare, not seeing front line service again until three years later, when it was reassigned to Engine 11.

With the formation of the new Police Emergency Bureau, Engine 31 and Squad 1 were disbanded on July 24, 1935, at 08:00 hours. Engine 31's 1925 Maxim pumper was placed in reserve as a spare, where it remained until being reassigned to Chemical 1 ten months later.

I hope you have found this report to be of interest, and that it has helped answer some of the questions one might have about these two little-known companies.

Unfortunately, this is all we basically know of these two companies at this time, and all we probably will know. Due to the trend of recent past NFD administrations being more concerned with acquiring a few measly bucks for scrap paper rather than keeping the history of the department alive, most of the records that would show more exact and detailed information - mainly department orders and executive orders - have been sold as scrap. Even when requests from museum and NFDHA personnel were made to the powers-that-were, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Tons of valuable and historical NFD records were emptied into dumpsters and carted off to local landfills, much to the chagrin of NFD historians.

The information for this report, compiled on May 31, 2006, was taken from the NFD historical records of Hank Przybylowicz (NFD, Ret’d) and the excellent NFD historical records of Captain Joseph Sperli (NFD).