It’s been reported that many famous Americans served as volunteer firemen, some of whom were Thomas Jefferson, Paul Revere, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. After a large fire in Philadelphia, Ben Franklin formed the Union Fire Co. Buildings that his company insured were identified by a steel fire mark showing the outline of a wooden fire hydrant.
George Washington, a volunteer fireman in Virginia, bought the first fire engine for Alexandria in 1774. These “engines” were wooden hand pumpers. We’ve come a long way, but it hasn’t been easy.
Locally, the fire of 1884, for many years called the “Big Fire,” burned every building in the blocks northeast of Main Street and Broadway, sparing only the Odd Fellows Hall. With no fire equipment, except for a bucket brigade, and no organized firemen, it wasn’t unusual for buildings to be burned to the ground. The bucket brigade consisted of a line of citizens passing buckets of water to each other, from a local source of water, to throw on the fire.