A fire in a truck parked at the headquarters of Call-AHead in Broad Channel destroyed a truck and a number of porta-potties early on Wednesday morning, fire department sources say.

Between spending his time at home, at work and volunteering, Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dan McIntyre somehow still finds time to renovate and repair the BCVFD’s 105-year-old firehouse, which was desperately in need of concrete padding in the backyard to be used for an equipment storage shed.

The 105-year-old Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department firehouse began to show its age about a decade ago. Since then, the BCVFD has been trying to relocate. Turns out it will be unable to do so: the city is going to decline being the project’s local sponsor, according to a spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Happy New Year everyone! Did you leaf through last week's Wave looking for Bits, not find it and leaf back through—glancing at the index, and realize the column was—gasp—missing?

When Hillary Clinton, soon to be our new Secretary of State, came to Broad Channel several years ago for a Korean Veterans Memorial ceremony, she took one look at the 100-year-old firehouse used by the community's volunteer fire department and immediately promised them help in building a new facility.

The Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department's dream of one day operating out of a state-of-the-art firehouse on Cross Bay Boulevard seems to have been ended by officials of the city's fire department, who indicated this week that the federal funds for the firehouse would be better spent for them.

FOR a century, the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department has occupied a small red firehouse about 400 feet from the waters of Jamaica Bay, Queens. The building, with one garage door, barely accommodates the department’s fleet of two ambulances and two fire trucks, one of which bears the volunteers’ nom de guerre, “Renegade Warriors.”

The 45-member Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department (BCVFD) has been saving and raising funds - $440,000 in total - for the last 10 years for a new firehouse, but the city’s Department of Transportation (DOT) is balking at the project - not answering letters or emails - according to Eddie O’Hare, 49, president of the organization.

Volunteer firefighters in Broad Channel are used to battling blazes and saving lives, but now they're facing a new challenge - bureaucratic red tape.

In March of 2005, Congressman Anthony Weiner stunned the 100th anniversary dinner of the Broad Channel Volunteer Fire Department with news that he and Senator Hillary Clinton had come up with $1 million dollars to build a new firehouse on Cross Bay Boulevard to replace the 100-year-old Noel Road facility.