A firefighter from Upstate New York gave us the heads up of something unique happening in Albany. The City of Albany has a new approach to boarding up vacant structures. It’s called Artistic Board Up, the idea is to make the vacants appear less abandoned. It’s something to keep an eye on incase it becomes popular and starts happening elsewhere. Check out this video that describe what they are doing, and what it looks like when they are complete. The video is from Albany News 10 (WTEN.)
[flv]http://www.vententersearch.com/videos/flv/artboardup2.flv[/flv]
Make sure you take a second look before giving that initial on scene report.
A simple placarding system would probably help here. I wonder how long ’til some “artist/mayor/genius” starts painting people into these…I can see it now…”L-93 on scene, heavy smoke from the floors 2 & 3 with victims in the windows…er…uh…nevermind.”
Jesus, I dont even know where to start! Ill just leave it that Nate999 hit the nail on the head. Of course the Democrat assholes cant make them put a placard on the building, that would make it look bad! I gotta wonder if the fire department made an issue out of this. Anybody?
They did something similar to this in the south bronx NYC back in the day…….
Awesome! Cleaning up the streets one fallen brother at a time… I’m sure Mayor Picasso would love to give a press conference like the mayor of Buffalo did this week. I’m sure it sounded like a good idea when it was first pitched, but man… people gotta think things through!
It just further reinforces to us that we need to know our districts.
How about raze the buildings and call it a day? A dirt lot is a lot harder to break into and burn down! you know what they say, if you polish a turd, in the end its still a turd…
That reminds me of a little story from a few years back;
Upon arrival Capt Stan C radioed, “We have security on scene.”
‘Security’ turned out to be a cardboard cutout, kind of like the Maytag repairman guy.
🙂
temporary and simple (also dangerous) solutions for large problems.. no good.
Did they camouflage the electic meter too?
Did they camouflage the electric* meter too?
*corrected spelling
In the Bronx, tin used on vacant building had curtains, shutters and even flower pots painted on them. Pretty comical to us. Seriously, you have to be out in you area all the time to see what going on that may effect our operations i.e construction, demolition, illegal occupancies, locking devices, etc. Not everything will appear as a local news story. Stay safe
Also if we conduct a search on this building and conditions begin to go south it will take us longer to find a window (Due to a black board in black smoke) and it will be a little harder to break a board rather than glass.
If statistics hold true from the report, the breakins went to zero, almost totally eliminating the first step in how house fires start. Looks like a tradeoff to me, and maybe it’s just me but if you actually look at the boards they’re pretty easy to tell they’re not windows.
Even more of a reason to have a marking system for vacant buildings. Does anyone currently use or know of a system to mark and id hazards in these buildings? The department I work for has hundreds of builidngs that are boarded up and abandoned. We currently dont have a marking system. Just wondering what others do. If remember right didnt NYC use a system during the war years to mark builidngs?
Agreed that this is a terrible idea. However the real issue here is knowing your territory. If you know that 129 Your St. is vacant, then they can paint a party on the boards. It’s still vacant and you’ll know about it.
As far as this being a problem during a fire in terms of egress, the members had better be removing these things upon arrival. Painted or not, they have to be removed for interior operations.
David.. in Massachusetts , we use signage that marks building with either a half slash for limited interior ops ( quick search, etc) or a full X for no interior ops at all.
Here’s a link to the regulation.. 527 CMR 10.13 section 7
http://www.mass.gov/Eeops/docs/dfs/osfm/cmr/cmr_secured/527010.pdf
David,
Buffalo FD has a pretty easy system as well. It’s on pages 14-15 of the below pdf link.
http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us/files/1_2_1/Mayor/CitiStat/Fire/4-11-08/BFD.pdf
…Sorry for the scrolling, I’ll try to find a better link in the meantime.
Also, to the brothers in Buffalo, our thoughts are with you…RIP brothers.
Nate that is exactly what i was looking for cheap and easy. Thanks
Wow Mayor Jennings got fat, but he still has his Fort Orange Club tan! The building in question is on a main road entering the City from I-90. trust me, none of us would live there, it is pretty much right there in the North side of the ghetto of Albany. The AFD has a good idea of what to expect in most of these buildings, as they have always occupied a portion of the City. This is a good attempt at making the City look better. If you are not noticing PLYWOOD PAINTED windows on the front of a building you are not taking the time to really take it all in and are going to get hurt. Remember, we are number 1! As for building markings, in NYC we use a system of a lime green painted box 18″ x 18″ with an x painted in it if its not to be entered and an RO if the roof has been opened. It is always painted up high so it can not be graffiti painted over.
Tony is right. In the south bronx back in the war years the HUD Windows use to have flower pots painted on them. Gotta love it!
I am not as worried about the “look” of the board up as most. If it’s vacant, it will probably be boarded anyway. Fire Department’s is urban areas can easily consider some sort of marking system.
My issue, is more with the price-tag… are the owners really the ones paying for this or is the City? Is the City paying people to drive around and enforce this? Does the FD budget have any cuts that could be funded with money being spent on this program?
WOW!!!
A simular program was in place in NYC back in the 1970’s
Except they used tin to cover the window & then a decal of sorts over the tin. They even had flowers in the window or a person at the window. Worked for a while then they started burning them down. IMHO it will not take long before the bad guys have this figured out … if not already
Hell, why stop at the windows, just put up a veneer to cover the whole damn building! I’d hope the city wasn’t paying for this or for anyone to enforce it. This idea must have come from the same people in charge of the “Obama-Care” health plan. Hmmmmm, what will they think of next?
Better yet, get a “REAL ARTIST” to come in and paint firefighters rescuing people in the “windows” and down ladders. Paint a fire station door, open, with an engine inside. The house next door paint “cops and robbers” in the windows, get some real action going. How about Acme Moving Company hoisting a piano in the window or my best idea, paint hookers hanging out the windows, i.e., “Green Street” in the 50’s.
Get the guy who paints live scenes on buildings and streets to do his magic on the old houses. He’s the one who paints stuff that looks real but really isn’t there like big holes in the street, etc.
These artistic boards are already/ were already used in Boston. I will try and get a picture of one. When the city here had tons of abandoned building in the 70s and 80s, they did the same thing. Thanks for putting this out there.