Following two incidents in recent years that highlighted the occasionally raucous atmospheres of City firehouses, the FDNY is cracking down on what it considers improper names for certain houses, like the Happy Hookers in Red Hook, Southern Comfort on Staten Island, Animal House in the Bronx, and The Nut House in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
The names and logos of these firehouses came under scrutiny following an incident on New Year's Eve 2003, when an argument over Elvis Presley's birthday at the Southern Comfort house resulted in a brawl with one firefighter getting struck in the face with a metal chair. In 2004, several firefighters at the Animal House in the Bronx were accused of having sex with a woman in the house and trying to cover it up.
In the wake of those incidents, the FDNY now tightly regulates the size of house patches and the logos that can go on them. These restrictions also extend to the logos that are frequently featured on the doors of firehouses. Inside the firehouse as well, the atmosphere has become more regulated. Firefighters were told to remove all images and articles adorning their lockers excepted for their name plaques. This prohibition extended to stickers of the American flag.
While most houses are going along with the new rules (Southern Comfort is now the South Shore Pride), some houses like Engine 279 in Red Hook are passively resisting any calls for a change. It retains its Happy Hooker emblem on the outside of its firehouse, although the FDNY says that it will be repainting that front door.
Photo of Happy Hookers emblem from memorial page for firefighter Christian Regenhard
