Greater Astoria Historial Society 35-20 Broadway, 4th Floor | L.I.C., NY 11106 718.278.0700 | www.astorialic.org Gallery Hours: Mondays & Wednesdays 2-5 PM Saturdays 12-5 PM Exhibits ~ Lectures ~ Documentaries ~ Books Walking Tours ~ Historical Research Unique & Creative Content For more information visit us on the web at www.astorialic.org This image adapted from an invitation to the Long Island City Athletics 33rd Annual Masque Ball, 1909. 32 NOVEMBER 2016 i LIC COURIER i www.qns.com Legends LAST of the VAMPS The professional Long Island City Fire Department was formed in the early 1890s. When Queens County joined Greater New York in 1898, it was the only force in the borough accepted as full professionals by the New York Fire Department – the borough’s other companies were regarded ‘volunteer companies,’ or more commonly ‘vamps,’ an expression from olden times which meant to ‘tramp’ or ‘walk.’ Volunteer firemen generally went to fires on foot dragging their equipment with long ropes. Emile A. Tissot, who is profiled in this piece, was a member (in the 1880s) of Long Island City’s earlier volunteer force. He sat down, at 93, for this interview in 1954. He lived 72 years on one block in Astoria before moving into his son’s house in Flushing. Mr. Tissot was the last living Long Island City Volunteer Fireman. The reporter wrote that the old gent started with a twinkle in his eye: “When I was a lad we boys herded the cows out to pasture every morning – and drove them back every night. There were dirt roads then and no law against keeping cows in Long Island City.” Mr. Tissot continued, “I started out in the hardware business when I was 15 – at $2 a week. In 1883 I joined the Astoria Hook and Ladder Company Number 1 of the Long Island City Fire Department. My mother didn’t like me to go to the fires at night. When the alarm sounded she wouldn’t wake me up if I was sleeping. But any fireman who didn’t answer it was fined - $ 1 for a real fire and 50 cents for a false alarm – so I managed to get to most of them. He downplayed the risks of firefighting: “We didn’t have many fires during the five years I was on active duty in the department because Astoria was very small. But you should have seen us when there was one … we’d run to the firehouse just as fast as we knew how. When there, we grabbed the hook and ladder truck and started pulling with the rest of them following along behind. Didn’t have a horse to pull it ... too expensive to feed ’em. “Sometimes we’d have to pull that wagon as far as Bowery Bay or North Beach – a big summer resort when I was a youth. It used to be dancing pavilions and amusements – but you’d’ get run over by a jet if you tried to waltz over there now. That’s where they built LaGuardia Airport.” When the city took over the Long Island City Fire Department after the 1898 consolidation, there were 150 Members of the Veterans Firemen’s Association. About 1945 they sold their firehouse to the American Legion. The Association continued to meet until 1950 when where were only three members left. When Mr. Tissot was interviewed in 1954 he was the last person who could lay claim to have witnessed the things he shared with us. He passed away in 1958. The old volunteer firemen are all dead; their heroic deeds long forgotten. Their only memorial is a short paragraph in a newspaper announcing a death. But if magnanimous courage is human nature’s noblest quality then the day will come when the unsung hero – whether a fireman, a policeman, or soldier who risks their life to serve our nation – will inherit the immortality of fame. This is Mr. Tissot’s entry into that roster.
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