Above, a memorial for Harold Ramis last year. The narrow firehouse includes the “Ghostbusters” logo, above right.
BY JOSH ROGERS | Who you gonna call? Another firehouse. Tribeca’s famed “Ghostbusters” firehouse is going to close soon for renovations. Hollywood probably won’t care about the temporary loss of the setting of its 1984 blockbuster and sequel, but for neighbors, it’ll mean longer emergency response times for quite some time.
A firefighter with the Ladder 8 company at 14 N. Moore St. told a Downtown Express photographer that the house will soon close for about three years, and the company is not sure yet where it will go.
Jim Long, a fire department spokesperson, said Ladder 8 will be relocated to another house, but it’s not yet decided where. He said the F.D.N.Y. has to evaluate rebids to do the work before it knows when it will begin, how long it will take, and how much the project will cost.
“It’ll be a gut renovation,” he said in a phone interview. “A large part of the work is to replace the floor so it can support the apparatus.”
Modern, heavier fire trucks are particularly tough on older firehouses. Long said the electricity and plumbing will also be upgraded.
The N. Moore firehouse opened in 1905 and was originally a wide double-truck house, but in 1914, the house was cut in half to make room for the widening of Varick St. Ladder 8, which began on Franklin St. in 1865, was slated to be closed permanently in 2011, but pressure from the City Council saved it along with 19 other houses on the chopping block.
The house last year served as a makeshift memorial for actor Harold Ramis, the “Ghostbusters” star.
On 9/11, the company rushed to the burning Twin Towers, where Ladder 8’s Lieutenant Vincent Halloran was killed.
