Posted 12 years ago
roundtwovi…
(13 items)
My boyfriend's grandfather, Bruce Wotherspoon, was a firefighter in New York City during the during the 1940's. This helmet was given to Sean as a gift when he was a young boy. We're working on getting a more in depth story from his grandfather about his experience in the city.
This helmet is NOT from New York City. The FDNY has NEVER worn fire helmets of that style. FDNY historically wore the N5A "New Yorker" which is made of leather which is the quintessential firefighters helmet. This is a Cairns & Brother helmet like the N5A but is known as a "modern style" helmet. This came out in the 1970's and is known to most firefighters as a "piss pot" or "salad bowl" in the 1970's and 1980's the N5A leather fire helmet fell out of favor for a while. This was a dark time in the US fire service. By the early 1990's the leather fire helmet N5A and its newly introduced counterpart, the N6A "Sam Houston" were back in vogue. Nowadays anybody firefighter worth his salt wears a leather fire helmet proudly, despite their $500.oo price tag. Hope this helps.
****Note: The FDNY now issues their firefighters a helmet made by Morning Pride, (The Ben II as in Ben Franklin II) Morning Pride is their turnout gear manufacturer. So they get all their turnout gear from Morning Pride or Total Fire Group (a consortium of firefighting equipment manufacturers)
This is a Cairns Philadelphian helmet (later given the model # 770). It was introduced in the mid 1970s and was worn by the Philadelphia FD when they transitioned away from the Aluminum Senator helmet. Judging by the lining & chin cup (as well as lack of an impact cap), I would guess that this helmet was one of the first generation from 1975 or so.
I am sorry to say that as stated by the previous poster, that FDNY NEVER used these. There is no way that FF Wotherspoon used this helmet on the job. It has negligible collector value.
Hope this helps!