About us
Engine Company 219 and Ladder Company 105 are located at 494 Dean Street in the Prospect 
Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. We are assigned to the 57 Battalion within the 11th Division. Some of the areas we respond to include: Prospect Heights, Prospect Park, Park Slope, Downtown Brooklyn, and Forte Greene, as well as parts of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant. We are first due to the third largest transportation hub in New York City, the Atlantic Terminal, where numerous subway lines, as well as the Long Island Railroad, converge. Although the vast majority of our area is comprised of Brownstones, we have a variety of other types of construction, including, non-fireproof multiple dwellings (tenements or “walk-ups”), fire-proof multiple dwellings (projects), light commercial tenements (commercial occupancies on the first floor with, typically, 2 – 3 floors of apartments above), one story taxpayers (stores), high-rise buildings (commercial and residential), as well as an occasional private dwelling.
Engine 219 is a 2003 Seagrave Pumper with a 1000gpm pump and a 500 gallon tank. It carries the typical cache of equipment, hose, fittings, and nozzles, that an Engine Company uses to complete its task; getting hose lines, of all types and sizes (depending on the situation), in position and extinguishing the fire. Engine 219 operates with four firefighters and one officer. The firefighter positions include: the chauffeur (responsible for positioning the apparatus as well as getting water into the pumps and through the hose lines), the nozzle-man (first on the line, responsible for operating the nozzle), the back-up man (second on the line, responsible for backing-up the nozzle-man), and the control man (last on the line, responsible for controlling the stretching of the hose line to the seat of the fire).
Ladder 105 is a 2003 Seagrave 75’ Tower Ladder. It carries a compliment of ground ladders as well as various types of manual, hydraulic, and pneumatic forcible entry tools. These tools include,but are not limited to, the hydra-ram, air bags, the Hurst tool with spreaders, cutters, and various size rams, the Wizzer tool and hammer drill, partner saws, with an assortment of blades, and the lobster tool (used in various applications including cutting window bars and fences). As a truck company, the members of Ladder 105 are responsible for gaining entry into the fire area, searching for and rescuing victims, and venting to make the attack on the fire easier and safer. Ladder 105 operates with five firefighters and one officer. The firefighter positions are split into two groups, the outside team and the inside team. The outside team is comprised of the chauffeur (responsible for positioning the apparatus and operating the tower ladder), the roof-man (responsible for vertical ventilation), and the outside vent man or OVM (responsible for horizontal ventilation opposite the fire). As always, life is a firefighter’s number one priority, therefore, the outside team members will vent, enter, and search for victims (VES) as well as complete their other tasks. The inside team consists of the officer (responsible for the overall company operation as well as search), the can-man (responsible for confining the fire until a charged hose line is in place and searching for victims), and the irons man or forcible entry man, FE, (responsible for gaining access to the fire area as well as searching for victims).
