No room for anyone but the driver and pump on the earliest horse drawn carriages. (hotcars)
Way back in the day cooking, heating, and even light all came from fires. While that sounds romantic, it also led to quite a few hazards, like burning your house down. For many years if a person’s house caught fire, little could be done other than gather around and watch the blaze burn itself out. Sure, they did occasionally try the old bucket brigade but once the flames really got going, it was like putting out a forest fire by urinating on it. Eventually, in 1721, an English inventor named Richard Newsham created what amounts to a wagon with a water pump attached. From there fire trucks steadily improved to the impressive water spraying behemoths we enjoy today. This is the history of fire trucks.
Firefighter got a break when horses were brought in to pull the earliest fire engines.
The Acme Fire Truck
If someone witnessed the earliest fire trucks in action today, they’d assume it came from a Bugs Bunny cartoon. The earliest versions weren’t even pulled by horses but by the actual firefighters themselves! Weighed down by the heavy pump, the first firefighters spent more time lugging their wagons than actually fighting fires. Oddly enough, most firehouses were privately owned, so insurance companies would pay out to whichever group arrived and put out the flames first.
Turns out speed is important when fighting fires. (gutenberg.org)
Thanks For Watering The Remains Of My House
More often than not, the fire brigade would arrive just as the building crumbled into glowing embers. Adding a horse to pull the pump certainly improved response times but firefighters themselves were still forced to hoof it on foot. Obviously, that left them gassed and out of breath to put out the actual fire.
It’s also worth noting that the earliest firefighters weren’t posing for any calendar shoots. Most of them drank like fish and smoked like chimneys. Running more than a block and a half would leave them bent over and wheezing. They undoubtedly blessed the person who invented back steps, allowing them to ride rather than run.
After horses steam engines literally carried the water for about 50 years.
Poor Horses
As the industrial revolution drastically improved the various fire fighting tools, they also created an unintended consequence: weight. The more powerful pumps helped douse fire more effectively but unfortunately put a tremendous amount of strain on the poor horses trying to drag the weighty equipment.
So if the fire occurred more than a half mile away from the fire station, you could expect the lead time to rise dramatically. Those adorable firehouse dalmatians actually served a purpose by clearing the way for the horses and their massive water pump. The advent of the steam engine should have retired the overwhelmed animals but inexplicably, firefighters did not fully put their trust in these new-fangled engines for nearly a decade!
The Model T firetruck, one of the earliest "modern" firetrucks. (modeltfordclubamerica)
A Short Run For Steam
From about 1850 to roughly 1910 steam became the engine of choice after much dragging of the feet by firefighters. From their perspective, horses, while slow, never failed to painstakingly drag their fire pump to the scene. Steam engines, on the other hand, could fail, leaving them uselessly staring at each other while some unlucky soul’s house burned down.
The lack of reliability and power compared to motorized vehicles, which began popping up in the early 20th century put a quick end to the steam engine’s short reign.
Mack Trucks came to the rescue and along with improvements thanks to WWII fire trucks took a giant leap forward.
Mack Fire Trucks
In 1911, Mack Trucks began producing a preview of what became the modern fire truck. As buildings grew in size, these first motorized trucks allowed firefighters to carry more and more equipment. Ladders went from the type the average joe would use to giant extension ladders built directly onto the truck itself. Even the first versions could rise up to 150 feet into the air and gave these early first responders a fighting chance against nearly every blaze they faced.
World War II greatly changed firefighting with a litany of new tools. The aerial work platform, which was basically a big bucket attached to a mechanical bending arm, gave them access to previously unreachable corners of most buildings.
