Evening star., 1933-01-21
OLD F|REF|GHTERS
HISTORY RECALLED
Society of Natives Is Given
Picture of Days When Presi-
/ dents Were in Brigades.

Shades Of Washington's fre- fighting
past, when smoke eaters" included all
men from Presidents down to paupers,
were recalled by James F. Duhamel,
historian Of the Society of Natives, at
the organizations meeting last night at
the Washington Club.
A century and more ago, Mr.. Du-
hamel told the Natives, their grand
fathers and great-grandfather were
firemen, whatever else they might have
been professionally, for those were the
years of volunteer fire departments,
bucket brigades and fire-bucket ordi-
related, that the ordinance requiring
the maintenance of a fire bucket on
each floor Of dwellings was passed, and
this WAS the first organized attempt on
the part of the authorities of the then
youthful Capital to combat the fire
menace.
Five Companies in City.
At the same time, Mr. Duhamel said,
there were five fire engine companies
In force. The Anacostian, the Colum-
bian, the Perseverance, the Franklin
and The Union. In addition to these,
he said, there was the Pioneer in
Georgetown. And then, he added, there
were no less than two dozen lesser
companies in the populous neighbor-
hoods, so that when an engine arrived
IN given community to fight blaze,
the local company manned it.
All these engines, Mr.. Duhamel told
the society, were drawn by men. If
the motive power was primitive, so was
the system by which these engines re-
ceived their water supply. Prior to
1920, MIR. Duhamel said, all water came
from pumps, wells and the many
streams which then traversed the Dis
trtct OF Columbia. In fighting flames,
the engine would be placed at the con-
formed to the nearest water supply.
Thus 1t was that buckets Of water were
passed by hand and dumped into the
tank Of the engine ITSELF Sometimes,
If the ire were conveniently located,
the engine would be backed under q
pump and while one crew of volun-
teers worked that instruments handle
to supply the engines tank, another
crew manned the engines own pump
ing bars.
Presidents Were Firemen.
The volunteer fire departments in
cluded on their rosters the Capitals
elite as well as its humble, Mr.. Duhamel
recalled. President John Quincy Ad-
ans and President Andrew jackson are
recorded as having worked as volunteer
firemen, he said. The company rolls
included, too, the mayors of the city,
the narrator said.
The early volunteer fire departments
shared honors with the churches as the
social centers Of the Capital. Each
company had its own ball and each
sponsored excursions to neighboring
q nf
There was a particularly friendly re-
1ationship between the Washington and
the Philadelphia companies. It was,
in fact, from Philadelphia that the
Washington firemen brought back to
Washington the sectional names of
Swamp poodle" and Northern Liber-
ties" which they applied to Washington
communities, Mr.. Duhamel told the
Natives.
In the same year-1802-tha the fire
bucket ordinance was enacted, Mr.. Du-
hamel said, the city was divided into
four wards. -Four prominent citizens,
Griffith Coombs, Thomas II. ellis,
James Hoban and Nicholas Voss, were
made directors Of fre companies. These
gentlemen served without compensation
and they were charged with response
bility Of ascertaining that the fire buck
cts were installed and kept ready for
use in each dwelling in their respective
wards. At an alarm, each resident was
required to grab his bucket and run to
the blaze. Each bucket was numbered
and registered and after the fire they
were returned to their owners. If
residents fire buckets were not in
place he was fined IS for each missing
one.
The first Government purchased en-
gine was housed near the Capitol, Mr.
Duhamel said, and in 1904 the munich
pal government appropriated $500 for
an engine to be located at the Center
Market Provisions were made, also,
to locate engines 'as soon as possible"
at the Navy Yard and another at the
Western Market. About 1920 Daniel
Haupmen Of Georgetown was contracted
with to construct several engines. One
of these was located at the Treasury
Building and was the forerunner Of the
Franklin Engine Company.
Status Later Changed.
But time changed the engine COM
panies' status, as It did everything else,
Mr.. Duhamel showed. About 1850, he
said, 1.-The fire companies had sadly de-
generated and fires and parades were
generally accompanied by riots. A riot
between the hose company from Jack
son Hall alley and the Northern Lib
critics Company In 1855 at Four-and-a-
half street and Pennsylvania avenue re-
suited in some so shots being fired and