Alameda Fire Department’s (AFD) Seagrave Model 760 pumper is approaching an important milestone. Dec. 20 marks the 100th anniversary of AFD placing the apparatus in service as Engine No. 2. Seagrave’s creation was one of a pair of triple-combination pumpers that the department purchased in the wake of the Jan. 7, 1920, fire that devastated Park Street in the neighborhood of Webb and Lincoln avenues. The fire came within a whisker of burning Fire Station No. 1 that stood on Webb at that time.
Some seven weeks after the blaze, on March 19, 1920, AFD purchased the pumpers. Each boasted a three-fold system that consisted of a water tank, a pump to deliver the water and hoses to disperse the water onto a fire. Seagrave built the pumpers at its Columbus, Ohio plant. The city paid the then-39-year-old company $23,750 for the apparatuses, some $312,000 in today’s money.
On Dec. 20, 1920, Seagrave delivered both pumpers to the city.