Fire & Rescue Museum: Special Mementoes Section, Warren fire department.

In June 1971, I went on a visit to Warren, Ohio. I was 11 at the time. My grandmother's American-Finnish cousin Reino "Ray" Niemi lived there. He was the Assistant Fire Chief. Every third day, Reino was on duty at the station on a 24-hour shift, and so was I. I slept in the firemen's dormitory and when an alarm went off, my place was with Reino in the front truck. Although no dramatic fires occurred, that month at the fire station remains in my mind clearer than any other month in my life.

The visual material in the display case is based on photos from that journey. I was given a simple Kodak Instamatic camera, which I used to take photos of the firemen and fire engines. The collection includes also a few photos sent by Reino to his relatives in Finland, such as the one where he and Labaugh, Chief of the Warren Fire Department, are greeting President Richard Nixon, and a picture from the 1960s in which Reino shakes hands with John F. Kennedy. Most of the other black-and-white photos are taken either by Reino or the fireman serving as Fire Investigation Photographer.

Some of the objects were received over the years as Christmas presents from Reino and his wife Esther. There is also Reino's smoke mask from the 1950s, Fire Service Training textbook, and a black fire helmet I got already at the end of the 1960s. Other items include a white fire chief's helmet, donated by Reino to the collection. He received the helmet as a gift from the neighbouring fire department when he retired after forty years of service. There is also a picture of Reino in my Fire Museum in Helsinki on his last visit to Finland in 2001. At that time, he already had difficulty walking. His legs were in bad shape. Reino had once fallen through the roof in a fire, and the injuries sustained then had deteriorated as time went by. The display case also contains other firefighting material from America acquired for the collection over the years.

Nixon, Reino "Ray" Niemi and Chief Labaugh

2 instamatic Portraits of fireman Bob Patchen " The Red Spider"

Reino shakes hands with John F. Kennedy

WFD Alarm centre

"These pictures was taken by a firefighter who worked as the fire departments photographer, with the task of photographing the scenes of fire to suppor investigations into to causes of fire. I am 11 years old and have been ordered to pose (which I didn't like very much). A few years later I censored myself out of this pictures and some others, either by scratching or with orange paint.

Warren emergency truck #1