Monday, December 8, 2008

Firemen Combine Hose To Extinguish Fire

On December 8, 1890 at 3:00 p.m. fire station bells alerted firemen to a fire on South Penn Street, just over the borough line. A fire that began in the attic around the chimney destroyed the upper portion of the home and its roof. The C.V.’s on the scene first took the plug at Orange and Penn streets, but ran out of hose before reaching the scene. The Vigilant Hose connected to the C.V. line and finished the lay. This left the companies short on hose providing them with just enough to play one stream on the fire. Damage estimates were not available. The Vigilant Hose and Cumberland Valley Hose Companies extinguished the fire.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Should have wagon piped it. Ha Ha For those of you in the Captain's Office last night you know what I mean. Now we have enough hose to lay half way across Ship and still burn them down. Don't get me started...

Anonymous said...

Brad, what size supply line did you use back then? I am sure that the supply line was not big enough to support a wagon pipe operation!

WMIT

Brad Myers said...

2 1/2" was the hose for the time period. Each company at that time ran a two wheel hose reel that went out first to catch a plug and for speed and followed up with a four wheel hose reel. The hand engines were only used for really big fires since the borough had hydrants. It would be alsmost 20 more years before the two companies had four wheel hose wagons to carry their hose.

Brad Myers said...

Without trying to stir anything up can anyone tell me why the new Vigilant web site has not been updated since it went on line. It is a very nice site with a great header it would be nice to be able to keep up on the community by seeing updates.

Anonymous said...

Brad, I keep asking said person about the website. Sparky, take her allowance away....


WMIT

Anonymous said...

She is asking the some question when?

Haney said...

Until it's up AND running, I'll bite my tongue. It is more frustrating for some of us, trust me.

Anonymous said...

I had the same thoughts that Brad had for a long time. For some of us it is the only connection to the firehouse because of other life circumstances . It would be great to see updates and happinings around the firehouse.