FIRST DUE FIREHOUSE REPLICAS

Website by Andrew Benzie Creative Design.

About the Owner/Designer/Builder/Author

Andrew Benzie began collecting model emergency vehicles in the 1970s when his grandparents gave him his first Corgi and Dinky toy fire engines. He has an extensive collection and knowledge of Code 3 models, and has published three books on Conrad, Siku, and Tomica emergency vehicles. Andrew currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he runs a design and book publishing company, and plays bass and drums with several local bands.

First Due Firehouse Replicas

Release #2:

FDNY Rescue 2

The second release of First Due Firehouse Replicas:

FDNY’s Rescue 2

FDNY’s highly-specialized Rescue Company 2 is one of the most famous fire companies in the world. They were first organized on March 1, 1925 in the quarters of Engine Company 210 at 160 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn, New York. On July 26, 1985, they moved to 1472 Bergen Street, formerly the quarters of Engine Company 234 and later Fire Salvage 1. Rescue 2 is the second release from First Due Firehouse Replicas.

About the Firehouse

After spending 34 years at the 126-year-old building on Bergen Street, Rescue 2 moved into their brand new firehouse on November 14, 2019. The new building is a stunning $32 million, 21,414-square-foot* state-of-the-art station which was designed chiefly with training in mind, as well as housing the apparatus and firefighters assigned to the company. The new rescue station at 1815 Sterling Place is located in the Crown Heights/Weeksville/Brownsville area of Brooklyn, about a mile from their previous quarters.

Studio Gang Architects cleverly integrated red terracotta used on the city’s historic firehouses into the new station. Michaela Metcalf (director of the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s Project Excellence Program) states, “They brought that forward into a contemporary rendition on the facade, with simple, understated pre-cast concrete panels, along with the elegance of terracotta in the openings on the building.”

The firehouse is organized around a large interior void—a space that extends from the ground to roof level. This void enables the company to practice rescue scenarios common to the city. The structure contains a trench rescue training area, a manhole for confined space rescue, a simulation room that can simulate smoky conditions, a 46-foot-high training wall, a training catwalk, and a tie-back on the roof for rappelling.

The building includes a number of environmentally conscious design elements, including geothermal heating and cooling from nine wells on site, solar heated domestic water with panels for energy to power the pumps, a dimmable LED lighting system with occupancy sensors, a centrally located 20' by 40' skylight to maximize daylight, a green roof to reduce the urban heat island effect and help mitigate storm water runoff, and an underground storm water detention tank to control runoff.

*Note: In order to keep our model of FDNY Rescue 2 at a reasonable display size, the replica includes the front half of the building, with enough room to house two 1:64 scale Code 3 heavy rescues in the apparatus bays.

About the Replica

First Due Firehouse Replicas goes to great lengths to capture as much accuracy and detail as possible within each model we produce. Once the research is completed and a firehouse is chosen to replicate, the process involves taking photographs, creating an architectural building plan, assembling and editing the photos to digital 1:64 scale artwork, printing the artwork on glossy poster-quality paper and mounting the prints to foam-core board. Next the walls are cut out using a professional-quality mat cutter (to achieve 45° angle cuts for joins), and each model is then assembled by hand. Additional exterior details are added including air conditioning units, railings, exhaust vents, etc. Finally, remaining small details are hand-painted, the custom-built apparatus bay doors are installed and the raising of the flag completes each firehouse replica.

Fore more information about this product, please see our Frequently Asked Questions page. If have any further questions, please Contact Us.

Code 3 produced three versions of FDNY’s Rescue 2 (not included with firehouse purchase).

Rescue 2:

•HME/Saulsbury (#12821-0002, Battalion 44 Box Set, 1999)

About the Apparatus

How to Order

You may Place an Order for any of our products online. Once we receive your order we will contact you via email with more information about availability, payment, shipping costs, etc.

Location:

1815 Sterling Place

Brooklyn, New York, NY

Years in Service:

2019-present

Companies Quartered:

•Rescue 2 (organized 1925, quartered Nov. 2019–present)

Books:

The Last Men Out: Life on the Edge at Rescue 2 Firehouse
(Tom Downey, ISBN: 978-0805078442, 2005)

Videos:

Spotlight On: FDNY Rescue 2 (documentary, 2020)

Release Date:

• January 2022

Dimensions:

• Base width: 13 inches

• Base depth: 10 inches

• Building width: 13 inches

• Building depth: 8 inches

• Building height: 7.5 inches

• Height to tip of flagpole: 10.5 inches

Features Included:

•Black base with 2 inch apron in front
•Removable roof
•Working apparatus bay doors (slide them into any position with the touch of a finger)
•Flag/Flagpole
•4 Bollards
•Lawn, tree and ladder
•Printed firehouse fact sheet booklet

Pricing:

Our introductory price for this firehouse replica is $379 plus shipping (Note: the models of the apparatus are not included). The price covers the cost of the photo-quality prints (starting at about $50), the building materials (various paper, foam, plastic, wood and metal products), and around eight hours of time to construct (not including the many hours of preparatory research and design time spent to create each prototype model). Note: We create each or our replicas by hand—this is NOT a 3D printed or laser cut model.

Solido (France) produced a 1:60 scale model of a Mack R600 heavy rescue in the 1980s. Our Providence Rhode Island unit has been re-lettered to represent FDNY’s Rescue 2.

Rescue 2: