Josh’s Photo Blog

For the past few weeks, I have been photographing the firefighters down the street as part of my “On My Block” series.  The next group for my series are the people at St. Paul’s Church, which is located across the street from me.  Last night they celebrated Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Ash Wednesday (you can read about it at Wikipedia here: Shrove Tuesday).

Below, the Reverend John Negrotto is burning the palms from last year for ashes used on Ash Wednesday.

Last week I spent seven hours with A Group to capture more images of life at the Engine 9 firehouse down the block.  Here is a selection of the best photographs.

Captain Melfa

Henriquez

Allen

A group responding to smoke in an apartment

Henriquez riding to the call

Firefighters from different companies in Jersey City arrive at the scene of the call

After the call turns out to be someone burning food on the stove, A group returns to the truck

Captain Melfa in the firehouse

Henriquez on his computer

Henriquez and Allen watching TV

Captain Melfa and Allen making pizza

Captain Melfa’s first attempt at pizza in the firehouse

A dinner of pizza and soda

Allen on the back of the fire truck

Henriquez on top of the fire truck with the water cannon, one of the two most powerful in Jersey City

Engine 9

The equipment lockers for all four groups of Engine 9

I have lived in Jersey City since last March, and every day I pass the fire station at the foot of my street.  After nine months, I decided it was time to drop in and say I wanted to photograph them.  At Engine 9, there are four groups of firefighters that rotate every 24 hours: A group, B group, C group, and D group.  Each group consists of three firefighters and a captain.  The battalion chief also resides in their station.  He is in charge of the fourth battalion, which consists of four fire stations including Engine 9.

Their fire truck is a pumper, which means it carries 500 gallons of water and has the technical capability to route water to other trucks.  For every call to a fire, a combination of ladder and pumper trucks respond.  The number of them depend on the city and how large the fire is.

Over the last two weeks I photographed each group in a different part of the station.  For two of the groups, they had to run out the door in the middle of the shoot to answer a call, but came back within 30 minutes to finish the photo.  I had the opportunity to ride with B group to a hit a run during the day, and to a fire alarm with D group at night.

And now, the slide show!

A Group in front of the fire truck

B Group in the kitchen

C Group on the roof of the fire station minus their chief (he was out)

D Group by the equipment lockers

The Engine 9 fire truck

The back of the fire station with the equipment lockers and the battalion chief’s SUV.  The battalion chief never rides on the fire truck, always in his SUV.  As the head of the 4th battalion, he needs the flexibility to stop by any of the four fire stations in his jurisdiction.

Laundry machines in the back of the fire station

The kitchen

Firefighters of D group at night

Firefighters of D group watching tv and making coffee

Firefighters of D group watching tv

The captain of C group in his office upstairs

B group responding to a hit and run

B group responding to a hit and run

Hit and run down the street.  The woman suffered minor injuries

A firefighter from D group suits up on the way to a fire alarm

D group responding to a fire alarm

A firefighter from another company with his fire truck in the background

Engine 9 backing up into the station after a call

Photo from my friend’s vacation home in Tannersville, New York over the first weekend in 2010, shot with my point and shoot.