All information and photographs are courtesy of Bill Noonan.

February 1 is the 30th anniversary for the Plant Shoe Fire in the Jamaica Plain section of Boston...one of the largest fires I ever saw........I went on the 3rd alarm from home in Newton, the weather was rain with temps above freezing, this changed during the early morning when the temps dropped...the alarm was sounded from Box 2411 at 2129 hours, the additional alarms were sounded at 2136, 2153, 2240, and 2258 hours..numerous Special Calls brought the following apparatus:

Engine Companies 14, 12, 28, 37, 24, 42, 26, 3, 53, 9, 43, 21, 34, 2, 55, 8, 51, 32, 10, 25, 20, 18, 30, 50, 40, 49, 33, 16, 29, 22, 52, 7, Brookline Engine 7, 17, 45, 11, 5, Malden Tower, Cambridge Tower, 36, 4, 56, 48, Newton Engine 3 and Cambridge Engine 4, Ladder Companies 10, Aerial Tower 2 (running a spare truck), 30, 4, 18, Aerial Tower 1, 23, 11, 29 and 13 along with Rescue Co. 2...( I hope I got everybody that responded, you will note that E-39 did not respond, they covered at E-25 in the High Pressure area, E-54 and the fireboats did not respond)

DFC Leo McElaney was in Dist 9, James Leo McGrath in Dist 13, Charlie Buchanan in Dist 5, Frank Lang in Dist 7, Acting Deputy Chief John Clougherty was in Division 2, Chief of Department George Paul (C-2) who was also Acting Fire Commissioner responded and assumed overall command...........the operations lasted here for days......damage was over $ 1 million.

On further research on the PLANT SHOE Fire on Feb 1, 1976, Boston E-1 covered E-14, E-41 covered E-28 and E-39 covered E-25, all Boston Engines were at the fire except E-1,39, 41, 54 (Long Island Hospital) and of course the two Fireboats, Engines 31 and 47.

The all out for Box 2411 was sounded at 2304 hours, Feb 3, 1976......Box 2411 was re-transmitted at 1734 hours on Feb 4, 1976 and remained in effect until the all out was sounded at 2238 hours on Thursday, Feb 5, 1976....the detail remained until Sat, Feb 7, 1976 at 1100 hours when it was finally terminated.

The staff at Fire Alarm working the night of the fire was:
Principal Operator...........Thomas Osborne..deceased
Senior Operator.............Albert K. Bowers..retired
Senior Operator.............Frank Whalen..retired
Operator......................William Ventura...retired
CETA Operator.............John Henderson (Now Chief Operator)
They were assisted by Superintendent John Murphy (deceased) and Chief Operator Charles Francis Connors (deceased) who responded from home after the 4th alarm.

A total of 43 engines responded to the fire, this included Brookline E-1, Newton E-3 and Chelsea E-4.

The following M/A engines were in the city:
District 1....Winthrop E-1 at E-11, Lynn E-1 at E-9, Massport E-1 at E-40 and Revere E-3 at E-56
District 2....Melrose E-1 at E-32, Medford E-4 at E-50
District 3....Everett E-3 at E-4, Somerville E-2 at E-8, Cambridge E-2 at E-10, Boston E-39 at E-25 Chelsea L-2 at L-8
District 4...Cambridge E- at E-7, Cambridge E-9 at E-22, Somerville L-2 at L-13 and Arlington E-3 at E-33, no one at E-3
District 5...Boston E-1 at E-14, L-8 at L-4, Belmont E-2 at E-37, Boston L-15 at L-26
District 6...Quincy E "B" at E-1, Chelsea E-5 at E-43,
District 7...Waltham E-2 at E-17,Boston L-6 at L-23 with no engine,
District 8...Newton E-1 and Milton E-1 at E-16,Boston L-25 at L-6 and District 12 covering
District 9...Boston E-41 at E-28, Brookline L-2 at L-10,Westwood E-1 at E-42,
District 10..Needham E-3 at E-30, no one at E-49, Dedham E-1 at E-55.
District 11..Brookline E-3 at E-29, Watertown E-2 at E-34, Malden E-4 at E-41, Newton E-8 at E51
District 12..Malden E-6 at E45, Wellesley E-3 at E-48, Braintree E-4 at E-52

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