Firehouse

When I heard that Highlandtown had rolled out another holiday train garden, I hailed a cab and told the driver to take me to the Conkling Street firehouse. What I found was the authentic thing. Train gardens in firehouses are a wonderful tradition. This Highlandtown version is a community-based, all-volunteer project. Donors and local businesses come up with about $3,800. A raffle and public donations allow the electric trains to keep running on the $5,000 annual budget. And there are some beauties here, acknowledging the neighborhood's industrial heritage.

The Baltimore City Fire Department created a new division two years ago in an effort to increase recruitment of minorities, specifically African-Americans, who made up 65 percent of the city's population but only half so large a share of the city's firefighters. The effort was an unqualified success; thanks to the efforts of its small staff, Baltimore amassed nearly 3,000 names of prospective firefighters, 80 percent of them minorities. The effort was also entirely ineffective; the department was 32 percent African-American when the division was created, and it's 32 percent African-American now. The problem?

An Ellicott City firehouse will be home to a train garden geared toward providing holiday gifts for needy children now through Jan. 1. The Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services is holding the free open house for the 15th year, fire officials said. Visitors may bring money and new, unwrapped toys that will go to needy children in the county. The train garden is at Ellicott City Fire Station No. 2, 4150 Montgomery Road. It is open from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekends, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Christmas Eve. The train garden is closed Mondays, Tuesdays and Christmas Day. Group tours can be arranged by calling 410-313-2036.

Baltimore County officials said Monday they no longer intend to relocate a fire station to Towson Manor Park, a plan the community had fought. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced the county now plans to build the new Towson fire station at the corner of Towsontown Boulevard and Bosley Avenue, where the county owns a gas station that's used for county vehicles. The fire station is currently located at the corner of Bosley Avenue and York Road, and plans to move it to the park sparked controversy among residents.

The Baltimore County volunteer firefighter of the year was both surprised and humbled when he was awarded the honor last week by the American Legion's Towson Post. After five years on the force, Michael McKenna is still a relative newcomer to the Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company, where generations of families have given their time since 1909. He said he has the time, energy and willingness to volunteer. "I know there are many other draws in life, especially family and job," said McKenna, 29. "But I also see this as something I want to do for the rest of my life.

THE PROBLEM : Should no stopping signs remain outside an inactive fire station in Waverly? THE BACK STORY : This Watchdog is ripped from the headlines. Last week, an article in The Baltimore Sun described the century-old Waverly firehouse, which has been closed since June because of a leaking roof, a pigeon infestation and other problems. Firefighters assigned there have been transferred to a nearby station. So, if the firehouse is closed, a Watchdog spy wants to know why city workers are still enforcing the no-stopping signs for a Fire Department driveway on Greenmount Avenue, across the street from the firehouse.

When the firehouse at the corner of Liberty Heights Avenue and Garrison Boulevard opened in 1905, the smell of oats and hay hung in the cool air of the building's brick-walled bays. When the alarm bell sounded, massive horses heaved against leather harnesses, hauling wooden fire wagons toward burning buildings.The firehouse is silent now, closed a few weeks ago as part of the city's push to consolidate firehouses and curb the soaring costs of building maintenance.Yesterday, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke was on hand to dedicate a $1.8 million replacement firehouse across the street and a short way up Liberty Heights Avenue from the old building.

The Riviera Beach volunteer fire department has outdone itself again with this year's train garden, adding on the largest new development in the ever-growing model city's 12-year Christmas tradition.Three firefighters -- volunteers George and Jim Boney and full-timer Ted Heinbuch -- ripped out a wall in the firehouse basement to find the room for expanding the 294-square-foot train garden.The garden includes eight trains, two trolleys, two subways and 50 cars.A counter at the entrance to the train room -- located under the Railroad Crossing sign behind the firehouse -- says about 2,000 visitors have come to see the exhibition since it opened during the Thanksgiving holiday.

The annual Firehouse Exposition and Muster returned to Baltimore yesterday, bringing together more than 6,000 career and volunteer firefighters, paramedics, fire buffs and their families.The weekend exhibition has been held in Baltimore for six of the last eight years.rTC Thirty of the country's newest fire engines will be on display in the city's Convention Center through Sunday as part of more than 200 displays of the latest in fire and emergency services equipment.Seminars, conducted by writers and editors from Firehouse Magazine, cover topics such as building collapse and apparatus specifications.

Hampstead's first firehouse -- a landmark at 1214 N. Main St. -- is getting a face lift.Our generation knows the place as Towne Pride Interiors. Back in 1902, it was Hampstead's firehouse, built to house a company that was formed in 1899. A generation later, it was home to "40 active and 150 volunteers," The Sun reported Jan. 16, 1939.A week ago, when workmen tore off the siding and signage of the storefront, the raised brickwork letters H.F. Co. No. 1 shone over the door like a forgotten pearl.

An Ellicott City firehouse will be home to a train garden geared toward providing holiday gifts for needy children now through Jan. 1. The Howard County Department of Fire and Rescue Services is holding the free open house for the 15th year, fire officials said. Visitors may bring money and new, unwrapped toys that will go to needy children in the county. The train garden is at Ellicott City Fire Station No. 2, 4150 Montgomery Road. It is open from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on weekends, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Christmas Eve. The train garden is closed Mondays, Tuesdays and Christmas Day. Group tours can be arranged by calling 410-313-2036.

When I heard that Highlandtown had rolled out another holiday train garden, I hailed a cab and told the driver to take me to the Conkling Street firehouse. What I found was the authentic thing. Train gardens in firehouses are a wonderful tradition. This Highlandtown version is a community-based, all-volunteer project. Donors and local businesses come up with about $3,800. A raffle and public donations allow the electric trains to keep running on the $5,000 annual budget. And there are some beauties here, acknowledging the neighborhood's industrial heritage.

Havre de Grace lost another one of its iconic residents with the passing of Jack McLhinney Tuesday. Mr. McLhinney was 85. Best known as Jack Mac, Mr. McLhinney was a long-time member not only of the Susquehanna Hose Co., but also of the Church of St. Patrick of Havre de Grace. Friends may call Sunday from 2 to 4 and from 6 to 8 p.m. at Zellman Funeral Home at 123 S. Washington St. in Havre de Grace. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Patrick. Mr. McLhinney will be missed around the number two firehouse, St. Patrick Church and the downtown of his community.

City officials hope to transform a closed firehouse in Seton Hill in downtown's west side into a cafe or shop with offices or apartments above, the Baltimore Development Corp. said Monday. The BDC, the city's economic development arm, is seeking proposals to redevelop the two-story brick building at 700 N. Eutaw St. in a neighborhood of historic rowhouses and churches centered around St. Mary's Park. "It's an attractive, stable residential neighborhood, and there are a few little pockets here and there where property could be redeveloped," said John Thompson, economic development officer for the BDC. The community has seen an uptick in development in recent years, including the conversion of the former City College, in a block adjacent to the firehouse, into the Chesapeake Commons apartments as well as the renovation of a commercial strip in the 500 block of N. Eutaw St. Construction is expected to start this year on The M on Madison, a residential rental project at Madison and Howard streets.

No one knows how many bull-and-oyster roasts they've held at the Earleigh Heights Volunteer Fire Company in Severna Park. After 92 years, it can be tough to keep track. Even Bill Weitzell scratches his head at the question, and he knows as much about this kind of thing as anybody. "To be honest, I'm not sure," says Weitzell, a Severna Park resident who joined the company when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president, gas cost 10 cents a gallon and a fireman was lucky if his rescue ladder reached the roof of a two-story house.

Have I ever encountered a Baltimore Christmas garden I didn't like? As a child, I spent my late Decembers going from one city fire company to another, from one neighbor's basement to the next, from hobby shop to sporting goods store, oohing and aahing at all those villages surrounded by all those trains. There were no favorites. They were all hits, even the bad ones. As deluxe as department store displays were, the gardens built by firefighters in real neighborhood firehouses had the benefit of authentic atmosphere.

Ever since I was little, I've known about the tradition of firehouse cooks. At home, my dad would re-create wonderful meals he'd eaten while working at firehouses in New York City -- hearty dishes like pork chops with apples and sauerkraut. Now, if he had only come across Louisiana-style shrimp. That's the house specialty of Hook, Line & Ax, a Fells Point bar with old fire helmets and photos of firetrucks on the walls. Karl Zimmerman, a lieutenant with the Baltimore City Fire Department, and his sister, Susan Campion, opened the bar in April.

North Baltimore residents are rallying to save a 107-year-old firehouse in Waverly that was closed last month when holes in the roof made the fire crew's living quarters uninhabitable. The firefighters, paramedics and apparatus of Engine 31 have been moved to a newer fire station a half-mile away, but residents want their old station back. "The firehouse is very important to the community," said City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who represents the area. "It is a mainstay of Waverly. It will reopen."

The Baltimore County volunteer firefighter of the year was both surprised and humbled when he was awarded the honor last week by the American Legion's Towson Post. After five years on the force, Michael McKenna is still a relative newcomer to the Lutherville Volunteer Fire Company, where generations of families have given their time since 1909. He said he has the time, energy and willingness to volunteer. "I know there are many other draws in life, especially family and job," said McKenna, 29. "But I also see this as something I want to do for the rest of my life.

Let me see if I have this right: The firefighting companies across the street from my house (Truck Company 6 and Engine Company 26) are going to be periodically closed, meaning the city is playing Russian roulette with my family's safety. Firefighters, police officers and others are going to be laid off. The budget for repairing our teeth-rattling roads is going to be cut, and recreation centers for our children are going to be closed wholesale. However, the Baltimore Development Corporation, an organization which greases the wheels for wealthy developers and is only under limited control of our elected officials, will gain a $755,437 increase in their budget to grow to $4.04 million ("'Main Streets' projects might be cut," March 31)