Rescuing one of their own

Firefighters transform Tampa Fire Station No. 1 into a museum.

By BEN MONTGOMERY, Times Staff Writer
Published November 2, 2007

Russ Pelletier, left, and David Arture work on a fire engine for kids to climb on at the Tampa Firefighters Museum in Tampa on Thursday. It's first big event was a reception for donors Thursday night. It's scheduled to open to the public in January.
	[Daniel Wallace | Times]

TAMPA - For six decades the old firehouse at 720 Zack St. housed the men who saved Tampa's buildings and lives.

They slept in its loft. They ate from its kitchen. They slid down its chrome-coated poles and raced from its bays to protect the city from mistakes, accidents and acts of nature.

Then, in 1977, the town built a bigger, better firehouse across the street. Tampa Fire Station 1, built in 1911, became a warehouse, then an eyesore.

Then came whispers of a parking lot for Verizon employees.

The men who worked here, lived here, would not have it.

In 1995, a group of them persuaded then-Mayor Dick Greco to donate the building to be turned into a museum. They formed a board and petitioned for a few small state grants to begin restoration.

But the state cut their preservation grant, and construction costs always outweighed the money they made at chili cookoffs and other fundraisers.

Then last year the board got a $900,000 state grant to finish the job.

Salvation.

They finally opened the new Tampa Firefighters Museum to dignitaries and guests Thursday night.

Roy "Trigger" Rogers, 78, poked around the remodeled building - the old hose rack and equipment bunker, the grooves in the concrete from a time when horses pulled fire wagons.

Rogers got his nickname here. He and another rookie had been washing dishes after supper one night when a woman who used to collect their leftovers turned to them.

"I don't recognize you boys," she said.

"I'm Roy Rogers," one of them said. "And he's Trigger."

"I've been Trigger since," Rogers said.

It's been 33 years since Rogers slid down a fire pole. He worked out of Station 1 in 1955; 24 hours on, 24 off, $283.50 a month.

They used to sit on a bench out front and watch the girls from National Telephone walk to their cars. The boys would sing: "Well, I'm standin' on the corner, watchin' all the girls go by."

Once in a while, somebody would sneak up to the roof with a 5-gallon bucket of cold water and soak the firefighters below.

They told stories Thursday night about removing the bedsprings on rookies bunks. Stephen Fredlund remembered showing up for work his first morning and shaking the hand of the chief, Nick Tedesco.

"I thought he broke my hand," Fredlund said.

They talked about the blaze that claimed the Jaudan Coffee Co. on Florida Avenue, and the one that killed A.C. Wooten, and the one they controlled before it consumed the Hillsborough Hotel.

On and on the firefighters went, inside another building they were able to save.

Ben Montgomery can be reached at bmontgomery@sptimes.com or 813 661-2443.

[Last modified November 2, 2007, 00:52:21]