'Ghostbusters' firehouse a tourist hot spot as New York's Bravest fan flames of Hollywood history
"Ghostbusters" still guard the streets of Gotham, 40 years after the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man menaced Manhattan.
Comedians Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray starred in the 1984 silver-screen smash hit "Ghostbusters" about a foursome of unlikely heroes who kept New York City safe from a haunting invasion of paranormal phenomena.
The summer blockbuster was the top-grossing movie of the year, spawned a No. 1 hit song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr. and turned an old New York City firehouse into a popular tourist destination.
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"It's the most famous firehouse in the world," said FDNY Ladder 8 firefighter Nicholas Vitucci in an interview with Fox News Digital.
"We really appreciate our place in pop culture."
The Ladder 8 firehouse in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood played a leading role as the headquarters of the "Ghostbusters" team.
The small, one-door beaux-art building is still a working firehouse. It doubles as a celebrity structure attracting a daily stream of film buffs and tourists from around the world.
"For the past 40 years, fans have been making the trek to North Moore Street, snapping photos of the building and the company’s logo painted on the sidewalk," NYCTourism.com reported in March, as the movie comedy franchise welcomed its fourth installment, "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire."
Ladder 8 adopted the famous "Ghostbusters" logo as its unit shield around 2015 or 2016, replacing an octopus icon, said Vitucci. The 8-legged sea creature was a sort of mascot for Ladder 8.
"I'd say since 2021 we really started to embrace the whole ‘Ghostbusters’ image," added the member of New York's Bravest.
The pop-culture icon ghost appears on the Ladder 8 truck, uniform patches and hangs from the firehouse facade — in addition to the sidewalk out front.
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Tourists by the hundreds stop and snap pictures each day. Ladder 8 has also become a central celebration point for Halloween festivities in Tribeca, said Vitucci.
"It’s not like any other place I’ve worked," Ladder 8 Lt. Leonard "Lenny" Kinnear told NYC Tourism in May.
"I’ve worked in every borough. No other firehouse has as much civilian interaction," Kinnear added.
The Ladder 8 imagery is part of a larger tradition that promotes unit cohesion among New York City's sprawling network of 218 firehouses.
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Most units display unique symbols that proudly connect firefighters to their company history, heroes or local landmarks. Pop-culture fame can also play a role.
Engine Company 74 calls itself "The Lost World" with the words in stone-age font on its truck and patches. It’s a tribute to the second entry in the "Jurassic Park" movie series and the firehouse location near the American Museum of Natural History.
The Dragon Fighters of Engine 9/Ladder 6 patrol Chinatown. The firehouse is emblazoned with a colorful Asian motif of a fire-breathing dragon against a deep red garage door.
Ladder 4/Engine 54 near Broadway is known as the "Pride of Midtown" and decked out with theater motifs. The firehouse famously "Never Missed a Performance."
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It's a bittersweet boast of dedication to duty. The Pride of Midtown raced to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
The heroic performance cost the lives of 17 firefighters of Ladder 4/Engine 54 at the World Trade Center, according to FDNY officials.
Their names are listed on a theatrical-style marquee in front of the firehouse on busy Eighth Avenue, steps from Times Square and Broadway theaters.
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Alex Kesaris, a resident of Massachusetts, was stunned last month upon seeing the price the firehouse paid on 9/11 during his first visit to New York City in 20 years.
"It just puts you in a different place seeing the names up close," he said.
In some cases, the unit image is simply a tribute to a local in-house curiosity or idiosyncrasy.
The Cavemen of Engine 40/Ladder 35 adopted the name as an inside-joke reference to their famously cramped firehouse at the bottom of a large building, one of the unit members said.
"You know, New York City firehouses have always had monikers or nicknames and it’s just how they kind of identify themselves as a unit," Jim Long, FDNY deputy commissioner of public information, told Fox News Digital.
"Some firehouses lead with it. Some talk about it more than others. But, you know, it's a great source of pride for the department and, more specifically, for those firehouses," Long added.