Friday, November 21, 2008

Alert Fire Engine Destroyed

On November 21, 1857 an alarm of fire was sounded at 9:30 p.m. for the Rev. James Mackey residence on King Street. When firemen from the Vigilant Fire Company and Alert Fire Company arrived they found a stack of straw to be ablaze. Quick application of water kept the fire from spreading past the stack and doing further destruction.

It was reported a party of lawless characters, whose names were yet unknown almost totally destroyed the “Alert” engine. The engine was not worth much in case of emergency and was said to be one of the oldest around, dating back to the 1700’s.

This would be the last response for the Alert Fire Company.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1st were you on the big fire in the city yesterday? 2nd Are you going to do a book on the Shippensburg Fire Service?

Brad Myers said...

"A" shift was working and we came in for the afternoon shift. I did get to clean up.

A book would be nice, but they are expensive, I also would not want to do it without reading the Vigilant's and CV's minute books. Without those it would not be as complete or accurate.

I have considered a apparatus book in the future but they would run $25 to $30 each.

Becky said...

Interesting story. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
If it's OK, I'm going to send your blog to our son. He is a firefighter.
Have a great Friday.