The old No. 2 Engine company directly opposite the front door of St. John's Church served parts of downtown and east Utica, but as the city grew and more buildings went up it was soon obvious more equipment and a larger fire house were needed. Plus, the height of the new downtown buildings demanded extra long ladder trucks as well as much larger pumps to get the water high enough above the ground. The new station on Elizabeth Street across from the County Court House was dedicated in 1912 and also housed Central Fire Station functions including administrative workers and fire inspectors.
Close-in fire fighting.
Have you noticed the guy up on the back of the fire rig? He's the tillerman. In
the old days, if a motor vehicle was too long to work its way around a street
corner, you chopped it into two pieces
so the back could follow the front around a curve. But what if the trailer was too long? Then you steered the rear wheels of the trailer independently. How?
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| Modern Tillerman's seat and tiller wheel
You put a man at the very end of the truck
to steer the rear wheels left when the
guy in front turned right. You put him up high enough so he could see what the front of the truck was doing. Think about
it. Or trust me on this. It works.
The guy in back was
called the tillerman and even today you’ll find
them on long ladder trucks.
|
I believe thetrucks above and below are approximately the vintage of the Hook and Ladder Truck from No. 2 that I remember seeing as a young child. (I don't think this particular truck is UFD's.)
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| UFD, 1913 |
Jumping out of bed at 2a.m. directly into pants and boots set up at the foot of the bed. Then down the fire pole to the engine room below. Horses screaming in fright as they're hooked to the engine or ladder and hose trucks. And in later decades the smell of rubber and gasoline and the sound of the behemoth truck engines roaring to life.
Jumping off the trucks, the crew was ready to quench the fire and to save anyone in sight . In my father's time, the firefighters were met at the scene by the Chief and his assistant traveling
separately in the Chief's car (no doubt so the two could get there first.)
The Chief's job was to assess the fire and quickly plan an attack. The
assistant's job was to collar all the firemen and stop them from jumping in
feet first. There were too many instances of pumped up firemen taking an axe
and chopping down the front door of a residence before checking to see if it
was locked. And once a resident opened his door and was almost speared by a pike pole. Luckily he quickly jumped out of the way of the fireman rushing in to save him.
Business end of an a six foot pike pole.
Business end of an a six foot pike pole.
Above, a section of the page from Utica's Weekly Herald describing the Genesee Flats fire of 1896. Four souls were lost, a wonder given the extent of the fire. "Flats" was a fashionable term in the 1890's and the apartments afforded sumptuous living for the wealthy, either as a primary or vacation home. Not long after the fire completely destroyed the building, the owners rebuilt the structure two stories lower (for fire safety reasons) and called it the Olbiston Apartments. It still stands today ... though with a clientele with presumably lesser circumstances ... at the corner of Genesee Street and Clinton Place. The fire and its victims have been the subject of historical interest and a good deal of writing by the late Jon Hynes researcher, technologist and master of the electric and acoustic bass; artist and writer Fiona O'Downey; and myself.
The following selection is from my fictionalized account of one spectator, William Foley, a newspaper boy who used the fire alarm on the corner to call in an additional alarm for more fire department apparatus. The piece is entitled "Blame." It is more in-depth than the original story, "Billy Foley's Morning."
"I stood up from the stone bench quickly when I smelled smoke in the air. It was a sharp smell, not at all like wood or coal smoke. A bell clanged down the block and horses neighed and in another minute all hell broke loose as the team of horses and men from the fire department’s Engine Company No.1 pounded through the Oneida Square. The few people crossing the roadway scattered like pigeons and the rear wheels of the pumper wagon slid sideways when the driver hauled the reins sharply to the left and forced the beasts up Genesee Street. Holy Cripes, they were pulling the huge fire engine pumper I'd read about in the paper, a Cole Brothers Steamer. The firemen’s wrenches and hammers and spikes clanged against the copper sides of the big steam dome. It sounded like cannibals banging on a big pot as they waited for their dinner. Every dog in the neighborhood chased the two wagons and the steam pumper. A man ran by and shouted “The Flats is on fire!”
From "Blame," a young newspaper boy gets involved with the tragic 1896 fire that burned down the Genesee Flats, predecessor to the Olbiston Apartments.
An unfortunate accident in which a horse pulling the steam pumper was killed. It happened on lower Genesee Street (you can see the canal "Hump Bridge" at the far right.) The photo was carried by newspapers across the nation.
Firefighting was dangerous work and it still is so today. Luckily, the UFD has a estimable safety record for both the firefighters and victims. I have to believe it got started in earnest after the famous Crouse Block fire on Broad Street in 1897. Two Firemen, Isaac Monroe and John O'Hanlon, were killed when the burning building collapsed on them. They've been immortalized by the locally famous Fireman monument in St. Agnes Cemetery. O'Hanlon had been cited for bravery in the Genesee Flats (later the Olbiston) Fire just a few years before. When the monument was installed at the Mohawk Street cemetery, my great grandfather, Patrick, was listed with UFD's First Division in the news account of the well attended ceremony. His membership would have been largely ceremonial by 1898, given his age, but with ample reason since he had been one of the early organizers of Utica's city-wide fire department.
In the 1970s I was a volunteer fireman in a small rural fire district in New York's Catskill Mountains. I have tried to maintain my sense of humor in the face of a few tragedies I witnessed.
-excerpt from Hero, in the book, "Nowhere," copyright
David Griffin, 2010.
There is a photograoh-laden website regarding the history of the Utica Fire Department here:
The Fraser store fire. Rebuilt, it eventually became the building that housed Woolworths during my days downtown in the 1950s and early 60s.
The Gardner Building fire, southwest corner of Genesee and Columbia Streets. 1947. If on duty that day, my father would have been tillering the No. 2 Hook and Ladder truck. Notice all the hose. It may not seem like a lot from this height, but down on the ground it's quite a task to roll up after each fire. The outside sleeve was a covering of fabric and back at the fire house each length had to be unrolled and dried . Else, mold would set in, just like when a wet tent is stored away. Rolling up hose in this weather was a back breaking job since the ice made it heavier and stiffer.
A later aerial or "tower" truck.
Tenament style housing in the last century had terrible fire safety records. Just the amount of people in such a small space of a city block meant more chances for a fire to start. Add to that coal and wood stoves in the living spaces and a lack of fire safety consciousness by the builders, and the result was a recipe for disaster.
Bill of Sale for American-LaFrance pumper truck on a Chevy frame and cab. Almost $16,000 a half century ago. Can't imagine the cost today.
You saw this in an earlier section. Called by some the Long Block Fire (not because a number of buildings were involved, which has been proposed by some), because that section of lower Genesee Street was often called the Long Block because no lateral streets intercepted the west side. According to my father, the firemen of the time called it the Allen's Bakery fire, because that's where the fire started.
Toy fire engnes have probably been very popular since as far back as when they were pulled by horsts.
Fire fighting has always been a lure for those seeking a job with excitement (interspersed with a lot of boredom.)
The old "Tower No. 2" rolls out of UFD Central prior to WW2. Newer equipment to reach new heights was on the way. As I mentioned earlier, fire equipment was updated regularly when the fire commission could get the necessary funds from the city. This was said to be not unduly difficult because politicians recognized the UFD was well respected by a population that depended upon quick and efficient service by the fire companies.
I like this photo for several reasons, one of which is the reminder that Langdon Hughes was right next door to Central on Elizabeth Street and after school I sometimes stopped by and bought one small switch or component for my radios in the attic. (See "Out of Gas" at http://www.windsweptpress.com/outofgas.pdf or .doc)
My friend Rich (UCA, 1960) and I spent much of our spare time building radios and conversing in Morse code (and sometimes in voice) with hams all over the country and in Europe. For both of us it's truly been a wonderful hobby that has lasted all of our lives.
