Show f N C V nr N r A a of 0 A f 16 r W ys ot 19 0 by MRS airs WILLIAM CHADWICK continued from last week r FIRE department there was no organized bucket brigade in morgan county in the earlier days whenever a fire occurred a brigade was formed and everyone helped extinguish the blaze people came for miles to offer their services to a neighbor about the year 1890 the stake tabernacle roof caught fire it was sunday morning and sunday school was in progress bishop anderson of round valley was riding past and saw the blaze he hurried into the building and in formed A 0 durrant who was in charge and dismissed classes the congregation marched out in order when all were outside a bucket brigade was quickly formed and all set to work water was passed from the ditch in front of the court house altho the roof was so badly burned that it fell the rest iest of the building was saved and rebuilt another destructive fire of early days was when the tannery caught fire this building was located back of the present drug store site it was totally destroyed by the fire altho the vats were saved by a bucket brigade which was immediately formed the first fire department of the county had a fire cart with feet of hose the fire had to be within this distance of a stream or the hose cart was of no avail this hose cart was replaced in 1924 by a model T ford converted into a fire engine the city and county each bore half the expense of this new equipment bob richards was the first fire chief his wages were per call the same amount to be paid within the city limits and for all county fires in 1932 a new fire engine was purchased the expenses were borne two thirds by county and one third by the city also the same arrangement was made for paying the fire chief and for the upkeep up keep of the apparatus before the days of the telephone and the electric fire alarm shouting was the common way of telling that a fire had started shouting is still used but not to the extent it was in the olden days running out of a burning house a person would call at the top of his voice fire those who could hear would take up the shout and men would go rushing to the nearest neighbor those who ran there have been described as a howling in mob ob at least we may feel sure that they got in the way of another as they tried to wheel out the hand pump and rush it to the fire when they arrived they fitted their engine to the nearest hydrant and used the hose to pour a half inch stream of water on the burning timbers if they gave up hope of saving the house as they often did they turned the hose on nearby near by houses in an effort to keep the fire from spreading in many places there were no hydrants from which to take water bucket brigades were used in such cases buckets of water were taken from wells and were passed from hand to hand either cither to be poured directly on the flames or to be placed in a tank from which the water could be pumped out of a hose A dutch engineer is given credit for inventing the first leather hose for use with a fire pump by twisting long strips of leather into tubes and sewing the edges together in in 1672 he made a hose which was fairly flexible the rubber hose did not come into use until much later there were towns in the olden days where any and every man who heard the cry of fire was expected to rush to the scene and to do his part but some towns had fire brigades made up of men who volunteered to serve in case of need and who practiced with the hand pumps of fire engines continued next week |