“We Do Save” ... Through Steam
This view of the Dayton firehouse at Main and Monument shows a steamer and a ladder wagon, with their crews. The year is 1910.
The advent of steam in the age-old field of fire-fighting soon swept aside most of the old hand-operated engines. It also cleared away many of the impediments to fire-fighting efficiency inherent in the old volunteer system. Operating a steam fire engine required something more than sheer brute power and the ability to “knock in” sundry heads.
Thus it was not coincidence that saw most volunteer fire companies being replaced by professional fire fighters about the same time hand pumpers were succeeded by steamers. Cincinnati had pioneered the first successful steam fire engine, and it was Cincinnati that established the first paid fire department in 1853—the same year that marked the triumph of Moses Latta’s ponderous “Uncle Joe Ross.” The Queen City was also the first to have an all-steam fire department.
Dayton followed her neighbor’s example a decade later when three steamers were purchased following the burning of the old Dayton Journal by a mob incensed over Civil War issues. This famous blaze proved to be the last stand of the old volunteers and also the final time that hand pumpers were operated in Dayton without the assistance of steam fire engines.
Early in 1864 the Dayton City Council resolved that “an appropriation be made in favor of fire department for the sum of $300, payable to the chief of said department for the payment of employed men, purchase of feed, etc.” It was also decided that “compensation of engineers of steam fire engines shall be $50 per month and the firemen, drivers and pipemen shall be $36 per month until further ordered by Council.”
At the same time a paid fire department was established in Dayton, the Council summarily disbanded all the volunteer organizations as of March 1, 1864. The reputation of the volunteers at the time of disbandment must have been at an all-time low. Nowhere in its various resolutions did the Council extend a single word of thanks for the colorful vamps’ (volunteers’) four decades of service without pay. The rowdy behavior of the old-time volunteers is in sharp contrast to the efficient community service performed by today’s volunteer firemen.
Fire marks, which were usually metal plaques, first appeared in the 17th Century. They were issued by insurance companies which maintained their own fire brigades. If a burning house bore the fire mark of a company, that company’s fire-fighters would lend assistance. If not, they customarily refused to help. After fire-fighting became a community effort, however, fire marks were simply a form of advertising. Shown above are the fire marks of three Dayton insurance companies. The Cooper mark was issued in 1867.
The Columbia mark’s issuance date is unknown.
The Dayton Insurance Company mark was issued in 1851.
By now, conversion to steam was taking place throughout the United States. The steam fire engine, often called a “bulljine,” could run for hours without tiring. It made its debut in cities large and small, and firehouses began to assume some of the aspects of livery barns, since the steamers were usually too heavy to be pulled by men. Hay and oats soon came to be as much a part of fire department supplies as hose and axes, although just as firemen had opposed steamers as an insult to their strength, so they opposed at first the use of horses to pull equipment to the fires. In some cases horses were obtained, after an alarm was sounded, at nearby livery barns, but the delay inherent in this procedure proved prohibitive.
As the trend to steam fire engines grew to landslide proportions, manufacturers of the new machines mushroomed all over the eastern United States. Almost every heavy machine shop which had had any experience with steam brought out an engine. Some erstwhile manufacturers never built more than one machine; others produced hundreds. Moses Latta, the pioneer in the field, enjoyed only a few brief years with minor competition, eventually selling his business.
The city or town which wanted to replace its old hand-pump engines and modernize its fire-fighting facilities had a wide choice in steam fire engines. If funds were low and the needs modest, an engine could be purchased for as little as $800. One such economy engine, built by the Knowles Steam Pump Works at Warren, Massachusetts, was as plain and homely as it could be; it offered no shiny plating or fancy striping, but it put out fires just the same.
At the other extreme were such monsters as those turned out by the Manchester Locomotive Works at Manchester, New Hampshire. One of this firm’s machines, the “Extra First Size,” towered more than ten feet and was almost twenty-five feet long. It weighed four and a half tons minus water, and was guaranteed to deliver at least 1,100 gallons a minute.
The fire mark of Dayton’s Teutonia Insurance Company, shown above, first appeared about 1870.
The mark of the Farmers & Merchants Insurance Company of Dayton was taken from a building on First Street. It was issued about 1865.
This unusual action picture shows a typical three-horse team used for pulling heavier steamers. Firehorses were carefully trained.
Training fire horses to pull the heavy engines was a long and complicated task. The setting off of the fire gong, which often automatically opened the stable doors, was the signal for the horse to take his proper place without guidance under the swinging harness which hung from the rafters of the engine house. This was of vital importance; a wrong or clumsy move would entangle the delicately arranged harness, delaying the run to the fire.
Running at full speed over rough and often poorly lighted streets with a several-ton engine rolling behind required perfect coordination with the other horse or horses in the team. Animals were often badly injured in falls and had to be destroyed. Like race horses, fire horses had to be kept in top condition.
The confining life of the fireman and his constant proximity to and dependence on the horses resulted in close relationships between the men and animals. When a horse grew too old for the demanding fire department life, his departure from the firehouse for a less arduous job, such as pulling a delivery wagon, was usually a touching occasion and a trying one, too, since it meant another long breaking-in process for his successor. It is no myth that former firehorses seldom forgot their original training. Stories are still heard of how the owners of former fire horses were dragged unwillingly to fires in their buggies and delivery wagons by horses which heard the alarm and immediately responded to their old training. Many fire horses could actually tell by the first digit of the alarm whether the fire would be a run for their own company, and most soon came to realize that a burning building was always their destination.
All over America, in cities large and small, the exciting spectacle of the steam fire engine rumbling to the scene of a blaze became commonplace, but never so commonplace that it failed to thrill both young and old. The interest in steam fire engines, which was kindled by various water-throwing contests, spurred additional competition, which in turn increased interest in the steamers still further.
Like the caretakers of the old hand pumpers, firemen who operated “bulljines” usually kept their equipment in immaculate condition. The steamer shown below has been fitted with a tarpaulin behind the front wheels to keep mud off the engine.
As had been the case in the era of the old hand pumpers, different companies vied for honors in decorative skill also. Ornate and costly scrollwork and platings appeared on the engines with increasing frequency. Terse mottoes which set forth the firemen’s creed, such as “We Do Save,” were beautifully lettered on the engines. Many a latter-day fire captain climbed his first rung to higher rank by proving to be a capable man with the brass polish in his days as a rookie fireman. The phrase, “All dressed up like a fire engine,” had its origin in the loving care given the steamers and the old “musheens” which preceded them.
Residents of Detroit lined downtown streets on April 10, 1922, to witness the last run of this steam fire engine. Matched horses of high quality were not unusual during the heyday of the steamers.
Along with pay for firemen also came a more professional stature. The engineer of a steam fire engine in a well-respected company was a man of some standing, especially among the younger set. The American’s traditional love for machinery and for gadgets to make his work simpler found one of its most potent outlets in these glittering machines. A locomotive, its valve gear flashing as the engineer thundered past a Middle West whistle stop, was a stirring sight at any time, but it could hardly compare with the glamor inherent in the old fire engine. Here were all the wonders of steam with the added dramatic ingredients of danger and the fight against man’s eternal enemy, fire. It is not surprising that “running with the engine” became as popular a sport as the church socials or Saturday night band concerts that characterized America in the late 19th Century.
During the heyday of the steamers, progress in fire-fighting was being made in other directions also. The first aerial ladder truck was perfected in 1870 and became popular following the famous Chicago fire of 1871. The aerial ladders were often called “big sticks,” and at first were raised by manual power. The water tower, which placed a powerful stream forty-five to sixty feet in the air, developed from a “hose elevator” constructed before the great Chicago fire and had a platform which could be raised or lowered. The water tower eventually became one of the fire-fighter’s most potent weapons.
The sprinkler system was introduced in 1874, and an automatic alarm device used in conjunction with sprinklers has proved to be one of the most effective fire-fighting aids ever devised. The same year, Rochester, New York, became the first city to install a high pressure water system, which delivered water at fireplugs under such great pressure that pumpers were not required, but the high cost resulted in a delay of twenty-five years until other cities began adopting similar systems.
Although the steam fire engine brought great gains in fire-fighting efficiency and ended many of the evils inherent in the old volunteer system, it was not a panacea for all the fire-fighting problems of the time. In most cities, politicians recognized a good thing when they saw it, and were quick to take an interest in the newly created paid departments. One historian wrote that Dayton’s paid fire department from 1864 to 1880 was under the “mismanagement of council” and largely subject to “the caprice, partisan aims and hunger of the politicians.”
But in 1880, disgusted with the estate to which the department had fallen, the citizens of Dayton obtained passage in the Legislature of a bill which created a non-partisan board of fire commissioners. The board immediately appointed Daniel C. Larkin as fire chief, and with this appointment the more modern era in Dayton fire-fighting history began. The department was reorganized after adoption of the commission-manager form of government in 1913, and has continued at a high level of efficiency.