RIOT DUTY, PATERSON - 1960s

Race riots plagued the U.S. in the 1960s. 

In August 1964, trouble erupted in Paterson "when a pack of carousing teen-agers in the slum Fourth Ward began pelting passing police cars with bottles and rocks," according to Time magazine.

Soon hundreds were in the streets, "smashing windows and hurling debris at police," according to Time.

Rioting continued on-and-off in Paterson through the decade amid decaying economic conditions.

Top photos shows open cab modified to deflect rocks, bottles and other debris on Paterson Truck 1, a 1962 Pirsch aerial ladder.

PATERSON LUMBER YARD - 1961

Photo: Paterson Retired Firefighters Facebook

 Top image shows Paterson News account of general alarm at Dillistin Lumber Co., 178 18th Ave., Paterson, N.J., on June 18, 1961, from the collection of Vince Marchese. Box 427 was transmitted at 6:30 p.m. Photo below shows  Ken West, Tony Gaita, Fred Armona (killed in 1975 church fire), Walt McMahon, George Stanton, Jim Farrell and Ted Guerall, from the collection of Debra Burns.

FRANKLIN FINISHING - 1963

Photos: Fire Engineering,  Vince Marchese collection 

On Oct. 21, 1963, an explosion leveled Franklin Finishing, a textile dye house at 178 Keen St. in Paterson, N.J. Box 656 was transmitted at 12:33 p.m. Ladder 3 was destroyed by the blaze.  (Your editor was a kindergarten student in Haledon at the time and recalls learning about the explosion from his parents.)