I really didn’t expect much from this museum and, when we got in and I looked into the room in front of us, saw a few old engines and stuff but not much. What I didn’t realize was that there were 3 more rooms that same size with several smaller rooms to the sides. It was much bigger and much more complete than I had thought. We’ve been to museums which had quite a few items and a bit of an explanation by each item. For example we’ve seen lots of airplanes and by the plane is a sign saying: turbo-prop, 2 stroke, 6 cylinder multi-wing-nut 536-ALC engine. And, if you’re a gear head, this means something to you, But, I’m not and this means nothing.
Well, this museum had some signs like that but it also had lots of history which tied the particular item into the scheme of things. I want the history, I want the connections, I was the context. And this museum did this better than many. It answered such questions as:
why do we have fire hydrants?
why do we have street numbers on our homes?
why did the firemen have to pull their equipment, why not a horse?
why is a fire engine painted red?
Now, come on, admit it - you’ve always wondered about these items too, haven’t you? I’m not thinking that they kept you awake at night but, in your off hours, you’ve probably said to yourself: how do fire hydrants work?
Obviously prevention was paramount and colonists were required to put their home fires out in the evening so fires couldn’t start overnight. The word ‘covrefeu’ which is French for ‘cover your fire’ became ‘curfew’ in English, the fire and torch dousing time around 8 or 9 pm.
Over time, cities and towns had water supplies and used underground pipes to get the water around. With these pipes underground, firemen had to dig down to the pipe, use an axe to pierce a hole in it and hook their hoses up to the spurt of water coming out of the hole. After the fire they would ‘plug’ this hole in with a wooden plug. Pretty inefficient and how many plugs in a pipe before it gives way? Fire hydrants solved this problem and most American cities had these by 1850.
The modern era of firefighting as we know it really began back in 1666 when the fire insurance industry was born as a response to the Great Fire of London which burned over half of London. The rich wanted to protect their home asset and insurance companies were founded to do this. Only the rich had this type of protection and only those rich who lived close to the insurance company fire department headquarters. Pretty limited.
Back in the late 1600’s when cities had no house numbering system it was difficult for insurance company fire trucks to know where the fire was. People described their home by color, or proximity to another landmark. ‘We’re the blue house, 2 houses down from the brown grocery store on Hill Street.’ Imagine being a fire truck looking for this house, especially if Hill Street was 2 miles long. The first method to designate houses was a ‘mark’ form an insurance company. This ‘mark’ was a metal or wooden logo on each house they insured to ‘mark’ it as one that their firemen could save. By 1870, most cities had paid fire departments so the ‘mark’ was not needed. Here’s the mark for the Green Tree Insurance Company.
Here’s a Currier and Ives print which shows an early fire truck leaving the station for a fire. When fire spotters stationed throughout the city spotted a fire, they rang bells to indicate where the fire was. When the volunteers heard the bells, they ran to the firehouse to get their equipment and their truck. Latecomers (like Currier, who himself was a volunteer fireman, on the left of the print) joined the group en route. Those firemen who knew the city best, led the teams with a lantern in front. The first group to the fire got bonuses and prestige. Unfortunately, sometimes the firemen fought with each other over the bonus and prestige, forgetting the fire.
I’ve read three stories about why fire engines are painted red:
because red was the cheapest paint color and volunteer departments didn’t have much money so they had to use red
because red was the most expensive color and they wanted to have the best and stand out from the others so they used the most expensive color: red.
because Henry Ford painted his cars in only one color: black, fire departments wanted their fire trucks to stand out and chose red
You make up your own mind.
These insurance companies, to protect their investments, also forced cities to develop building codes, organize city-paid fire departments and encouraged the development of better fire fighting equipment. American cities had paid fire departments by 1880 and smaller towns had volunteer departments. Interestingly enough, even today, 75% of fire departments are volunteer. Back in the 70’s and 80’s we lived in a small town in New Hampshire with a volunteer department. Obviously these volunteers had local jobs.
So, why are fire trucks called hook and ladders? Because they needed long ladders to get to the taller stories and hooks to fit over the sills in the windows.
Hey, remember the circular nets that used to be used by fire departments to ‘catch’ people when they jumped from high stories in buildings? Well, they got rid of them because people kept missing them and suffering injury. Here’s Jerry standing in front of one net. Now, imagine standing on the window sill of a 4 story building and looking down at this blue circle. It must have looked incredibly small and not easy to hit with ones body.
As we left the Hall of Flame we spotted this road runner in the parking lot. Before I could get a closer, better picture, he had run across the lot.
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