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Company Apparatus (New!!)
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Alarms for 2008
Change of Fire Apparatus Over the Years
The earliest form of organized fire protection in North America consisted of citizen bucket brigades. When a fire occurred, all able-bodied citizens would run to the scene with buckets. A double line would be formed from a water source and filled buckets would be passed up the line to the fire, where the contents were thrown at the burning structure. The empty buckets would be quickly passed back, via the second line of people, to be refilled. The first fire apparatus utilized in the U.S. were hand pumpers that were built in England and shipped by boat to New York during the early 1700's. The hand pumper had long, parallel handles that required many volunteers to pump up and down rapidly, pumping water from the machine's tub. While the effectiveness of the hand pumper was limited by the volunteers' capacity to pump before becoming exhausted, these pumpers far exceeded the capabilities of the bucket brigades. American manufacturers copied and refined these machines for almost 100 years.
During the early 1800's, a revolution in firefighting technology took place with the development of the stream pumper in England. Steam was created by firing the boiler with coal. The power created was transferred to enable the unit to supply water to hoses. At first, volunteer firefighters strongly opposed the use of the steamer as it was perceived as a threat to their existence. The steam pumper could supply a continuous stream of water more effectively and with far less manpower than hand pumpers. When steam pumpers were finally accepted into the American fire service, they were, for the most part, hand drawn by firefighters. The first use of horses took place in the 1850's and 1860's. This period coincided with the introduction of paid firefighters who were required to pull apparatus to the scene; consequently, these newly organized paid departments opted to use horses for this purpose. Lighter apparatus were pulled by two horses. Those that were heavier or that responded in hilly districts or in snow were pulled by three horses Another major change in fire apparatus design was a direct result of the establishment of paid departments. Early apparatus, because it was pulled to the scene by firefighters, had limited riding positions for personnel. There was never a reason for anyone to ride the apparatus -- all personnel were required to pull it. Firefighters in the early paid departments were still running to fires, even though horses were pulling the apparatus. And they were running farther because there were far fewer aid companies than there were volunteer companies that had been replaced. In short, by the time firefighters ran to the scene of many fires, they were already worn out and needed to rest before starting firefighting operations. This was obviously an unacceptable situation and within a few years, apparatus were retrofitted with running boards and back steps to accommodate on-duty firefighters. To provide a quick knockdown while steamers were being set up and hoselines stretched, as well as to extinguish small fires, the chemical unit was developed. These units carried tanks of bicarbonate of soda that, when activated by sulfuric acid, were expelled through small diameter rubber hose. Most were two-wheel units pulled by one horse, but four-wheel units were also used. Later, chemical equipment was installed on both hose wagons and even on some ladder trucks, providing this option for first-responding units. The first successful aerial ladder was patented in 1868 by Daniel Hayes. It was constructed of wood and required several firefighters to raise by hand through a series of gears and pulleys. The rights to this patent were eventually sold to LaFrance. The Fire Extinguisher Manufacturing Company, Babcock and Dedcrick also developed their own aerial ladders. In 1879, John Hogan and Abner Greenleaf developed the first water tower. It consisted of a 50-foot mast of pipe sections that had to be assembled to attain the desired height and was then raised manually by cranks and gears. Water towers were capable of delivering a large-capacity elevated stream into the upper floors of burning structures.
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