Posted on 10/27/2007 10:00:50 PM PDT by neverdem
KIAMESHA LAKE, N.Y. There was a time when comedians would flock to the Concord Hotel, bringing the house down every weekend with ethnic humor, one-liners and a smattering of risqué jokes. Now, firefighters come to this shuttered monstrosity once a year to burn the house down, section by section.
From around the state, firefighters arrive at the Concord not for matzo ball soup, but to tramp through its corridors setting fires and then putting them out during a training weekend arranged by the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs.
Arthur Winarick, a Russian immigrant who acquired the hotel in the late 1930s, had the foresight to use concrete and steel rather than wood when he expanded it.
Everything burns but the structure, said Glen Miller, a training instructor and fire coordinator for the Yates County Fire Service. Theres no worry that everything will crash in.
Just last weekend, 130 firefighters showed up to train and hone the essentials, including search and rescue, forcible entry and hose and roof operations. They broke windows, cut through roofs and used thermal imaging cameras to maneuver through heavy smoke.
At this rate, according to Christian Delisio, a hands-on training coordinator, itll take us 10 years to burn the place down, if its there that long, because the Monticello Fire Department burns some rooms on its own and some rooms just cant burn.
Setting fire to actual although deserted hotel rooms gives trainees the opportunity to see realistic fire conditions in a controlled environment, said Mr. Delisio, a retired lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department.
Called the city in the country, the Concord was a borscht belt icon, with 1,500 rooms spread over about 2,000 acres during its peak in the 1950s and 60s. Everything was bigger...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Spitzer Tries New Tack on Illegals Licenses
Spitnitwit eating some political crow compared to his original bluster, IMHO.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
The Chiefs Association used to have their confrence there, there would be numerous rooms with equipment, trucks, and just about everything else related to fire fighting and ems.
Now they do it in Rochester.
While we still have a few members that will go there, we now go to a show in Harrisburg PA that is much bigger than the Chiefs show ever was up at the Concord.
Yes that place will be missed!
Training Ground for Firefighters, possible future for much more of the decaying development and infastructure of the rural northeast, hayna?
I was in the NY All State stage band, at the Concord, in about 1971. The hotel amazed me. I had never had food like that.
The downstate kids were terrors. They plastered the inside of one of the elevators with Sam Goody stickers. An eye-opener for innocent little me.
With all due respect, your post had NOTHING to do with the theme of this article. We don’t have to be thinking illegal immigration every hour on the hour; some of us have other interests as well.
I went there for a convention as a high schooler, and what I remember most was the huge dining room. It would be cool to go back there for fire training. For safety reasons, there are a lot of restrictions on live fire training now, so it isn’t easy to get realistic conditions.
Thanks for the ping!
Well you can take your respect and stick it where the sun does not shine. The point was to share both ideas on my NY list. Sometimes the ideas are more varied, but the theme still is New York.
I was there a few times as a kid.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.