Fire Engines Photos

Operating these manual pumps was very hard work; the usual process was to have two crews, who alternated every few minutes. When not pumping, the crew refreshed themselves with ample quantities of beer. This meant that the capacity of the pump to deliver water peaked after about 10 minutes, then dropped off very noticeably.

Fire companies of that period needed large numbers of members, and their voting power meant that volunteer fire companies had a lot of political power. Some had two engines, and as many as 120 members.

The small silver "drum" on the other truck in this photo is a hose reel. Hose companies were much smaller than engine companies, and some were combined with engine companies. Often, these reels were pulled by a team of firefighters, but some were horse-drawn.

Added by Rob Johnson on 17 January 2013.

Please add your comments about this picture using the form below.

Comments

Your Name

Your email address - this will be shown on the page and will allow the system to notify you of further comments added to this picture.