August 5, 2003 -- One of the city's remaining volunteer fire crews is hoping a judge will come to its rescue.
The Aviation Volunteer Fire Department of Harding Park in The Bronx was supposed to pack up its fire engine, rescue boats and mobile trailer and leave the building its called home for 80 years. The city had condemned the structure after a slab of roof caved in.
But a Bronx Supreme Court judge ruled Friday that the 35-member crew has a shot at taking the land from its landlords. And if the judge says they can stay, the tenants will be permitted to construct a new building.
A day earlier, the crew had filed a lawsuit against the owners of 1820 Gildersleeve Ave. - the Harding Park Homeowners' Association - claiming they have a right to their roost.
"It's the last step up the ladder, and it's been a very long ladder," said department Chief William Rivera, 21.
The volunteers have been fighting fires and answering medical calls from the small lot near the East River shore community since 1923.
In 1986, the homeowners tried unsuccessfully to have them removed using the courts.
On June 30 of this year, with plans to build a community center in its spot using a $200,000 state grant, the homeowners filed an eviction notice.
The volunteers' lawsuit asks the judge to rule that since the firefighters have been there so long and done most of the work on the building, they should be grandfathered in.
The association's president, Elbin Mena, a retired NYPD detective, said the suit is another way for the volunteers to stave off eviction. "They're squatters," Mena said. "The land isn't theirs. It's time for them to leave."
The association had the phones, electricity and water shut off. But the firefighters began running the operation from the parking lot using a generator off one of its trucks.
The crew could start over somewhere else, Rivera said, but they just don't want to. "The community needs us, and they want us to stay right here," Rivera said.
