It was an ordinary day. Reading the Lancaster Sunday News story titled "Horses and Hoses" which described the city of Lancaster and it's fire department before the first official fire department was organized on April 1, 1882. Had a hard time believing some of the stories that I was reading that talked about rival firefighting groups that would actually resort to fist fighting and water fights when more than one firefighting group would arrive at a fire at the same time. Seems that on August 21, 1881, a water fight broke out between the Friendship fire and Hose Company and the American Fire Engine and Hose Company. While the fire tore through the B.F. Skeen Building at the corner of Sherman Street and Marion Alley, firefighters blasted each other's equipment with water and threw "stones, bricks and other missiles" instead of fighting the fire. At the time, arson was a big problem throughout Lancaster. So bad that the city hired a group of lawyers to prosecute the arsonists, commonly known as firebugs, "who caused so much excitement in this city during the last few years," One of the most famous "firebugs" in Lancaster was a guy named George "Tis" Brimmer" who was the head of the "firebug gang." He earned a reputation as "one of the most celebrated criminals ever developed in Lancaster County." He was born in the 1860s and would go on to break out of jail, be caught again, and eventually pardoned in 1895 after serving 12 1/2 years in prion.
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Lancaster City's Truck A sometime before 1917 when horses were no longer used.
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Then, a new fire department was created on Augut 21, 1881 and most of the fighting between neighboring fire companies stopped. But, getting to the fire for the newly created fire department was still rather dangerous. At that time, Henry Howell was the city's first fire chief and was in command of 39 men: 19 horsemen, 9 driver, 5 foremen, 4 engineers and one tilleerman and one ladderman. The equipment required at least two horses to get it to the fire and three stallions were needed for the ladder trucks. The very first day that the department opened, a building known as the "old match factory", near Chestnut and Duke Streets caught on fire from a spark thrown by a passing locomotive a few feet away from the building. The fire department made excellent time going to the fire and did good work the local newspaper reported. On April 11, 1882, a group of insurance men from New York visited Lancaster and were very impresed when an alarm was struck a few blocks away and the firemen arrived minutes later. The newspaper called the run "very satisfactory," even though one of the carts crashed going over railroad tracks, injuring a firefighter and breaking parts to the cart and injuring the horse. Since the beginning of Lancaster's Fire Company in August 21, 1881, 11 firefighters have died in the line of duty. The most recent one was firefighter Thomas Horvath who suffered a heart attack on a fire scene in 1992.  |
| A steam engine was used to pump water in 1910. |
In the department's first calendar year, firefighters were called to 34 alarms, including two false alarms. One of the first major fires was on November 5, 1883 at the Inquirer Printing and Publishing Building at 47 N. Queen St. The firefighters arrived within 3 minutes, but the building was destroyed by the fire. The newspaper article I was reading told of many of the city's major fires as well as the equipment that has been purchased in the past. The story also told of the first black firefighter and first woman firefighter to be hired. Today the fire company not only fights fires but assists with car crashes, medical calls and animal rescues. Today there 76 firefighters. Lancaster's Fire Company has come a long way from the 1880s, and I'm sure will look quite different 100 years from now. But, everyone reading my story today will more than likely not be here to talk about how it used to be. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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