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Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:06 pm
by kx250rider
Several years ago, there was a thread here by Soundoff, who had gone out and verified several Thunderbolts in the old Orange County, CA system. One was on O.C. Fire Station 61 in Buena Park (across the street from Knotts Berry Farm), and it was on a pole directly behind the building. I also went down there a year or so later, and it was still there. Early this morning, the Fire Sta. 61 was totally destroyed by a huge fire (no injuries thankfully), but I thought it might have taken the siren ;( . Luckily, the Thunderbolt had evidently been removed within the past 2 years, and was not there! I checked with Google Street View, and clearly the pole was still there with no siren and no standpipe. You can see the pole through the smoke in the center of one of the photos in the news story.

Link to news story: http://www.presstelegram.com/general-ne ... -destroyed


Link back to Soundoff's thread here in 2008: https://www.thesirenboard.com/forums/vi ... php?t=3628

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:21 pm
by Brendan W
Umm, I checked streetview and as of 4/2016 5/2016 the siren is still there.

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 5:43 pm
by carexpertandy
Yeah, it can be seen in this April 2016 street view image.

https://goo.gl/maps/tSyzzQ8KFZU2

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 4:33 am
by kx250rider
More bad news but good news: I'm old and my memory is going bad, I guess, and need new glasses! I had remembered it being right butted up to the back of the building when I went down to see it in 2008 or 09, but you guys got me! So the good news is that still should absolutely be undamaged by the fire. It's right there in a cluster of trees farther behind the station. But the good news is that the fire wouldn't have gotten it so far back, as can be seen from the La Palma Ave. side. In all fairness to my screwup, the Thunderbolts at several other fire stations in Orange County were connected to, or immediately up against the buildings. At least two are gone from Buena Park or adjacent stations, as I went to meet Andrew to hear the test in '08, and we found the one we had planned to watch, had been removed and all that was there was a few cut up pieces of standpipe. Sorry for the error on this!

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 8:58 pm
by SoundOff
My co-worker lives a few blocks north of the involved station near Western and Orangethorpe and we've passed by it a couple times in the last few months while carpooling. The Thunderbolt is on the far left corner of the property so it escaped this blaze. Fire or not though, there were plans to replace the station, which was built in 1967, with a new station nearby on La Palma http://www.ocregister.com/articles/stat ... -city.html so it would have eventually be taken down.

The ones we had planned to watch back in 08' were part of Huntington Beach's old system which was upgraded to T-128's.


I have to also mention that the one in West Covina on Lark Ellen Ave and E Garvey Ave South and visible from the Interstate 10 was also taken down sometime last year for a freeway widening project. However, a person I know who works for the city told me the head is still at the public works yard.

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 2:01 am
by kx250rider
Thank you for clarifying... And that's interesting about the W. Covina T-Bolt being removed, but hopefully safe 😜. I don't have a need for it, but I bet somebody here will be very happy if it comes up for sale. Did your friend say if they have plans for it?

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:25 am
by Snowcube
Here is a video I found. The fire was nowhere near the siren.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyTD1WmA9FA

Re: Bad fire at fire station; Thunderbolt not involved!

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 9:52 pm
by Duderocks5539
I apologize for the bump ,but I wanted to say what happened to the Tbolt at OC fire authority 61. The station was bull dozed early this year and the siren was taken down afterwards. I talked to the city about possibly acquiring it but they said the head is going to be restored and put on display in the lobby of the new station. But unfortunately the blower and stand pipe were scrapped since I saw them laying in a pile of junk which is pieces from the old station ,the blower box was smashed and the stand pipe was bent and cut. And as for the headless Thunderbolt off E Garvey Ave S ,by any chance did the head go to the public works yard off of W Cameron Ave and S Sunset Ave that has the one Thunderbolt still up in the back? Like I said I apologize for the bump ,I just wanted to give you guys an update on what happened to the Tbolt that was at OCFA 61.