![]() ![]() With the new truck came a well-deserved rest for the fire horses. (Courtesy of the Fort Collins Local History Archive, Image H05503) After the engine was unloaded from the Union Pacific boxcar, in which it arrived, Acting Mayor Armitage ran the new truck through its paces and stated “I had it do all the mean things I could think of and I could not stick the machine.” City officials and firefighters were well-pleased with the performance of the machine and the new fire truck was formally accepted by City Council at its Monday afternoon meeting.įort Collins firefighters pose with their new motorized apparatus, a 1914 American La France sometime in 1915. ![]() The new 105-horsepower engine arrived to much fanfare in February of 1915. Due to the altitude difference between Fort Collins, Colorado, and Elmira, New York, where the truck was built, the 50-horsepower truck was only registering 40 horsepower.Īfter several attempts to get more power out of the engine, the City finally gave up and ordered a larger engine. ![]() 22, 1914, and was soon found to be inadequate for the city’s needs. The American LaFrance fire engine arrived on Oct. It took the City almost three years to put together a funding package to purchase the new apparatus, which cost $4,500. The city council first discussed making this move in Fort Collins at their meeting on Nov. The chief, as well as other officers, were elected annually.īy 1911, nearly every city in Colorado the size of Fort Collins had replaced its horse-drawn fire wagons with automobile trucks. Stover, a prominent Fort Collins pioneer, was elected to be the chief of the newly merged department. 14, 1888, the Fort Collins Hook and Ladder Company and the Collins Hose Company joined to become the Fort Collins Volunteer Fire Department. The two fire companies operated as separate units, each with its own leader until 1888. They said “Had the whole business district been burning the ‘Hook and Ladder Laddies’ would have been able to make a valiant stand against the flames.” The town now boasted two fire companies, each equipped with a hose cart and 1,000 feet of linen hose, nozzles, and the rest of the equipment required to be an effective firefighting force. The Fort Collins Daily Evening Courier crowed about the successful testing with a front page story in a special edition. Just how much of an influence the fire had on its passing is unknown, but history had already shown its necessity.īy early June 1883, the Water Works was completed and undergoing testing. The bill passed with 182 of the 278 votes cast in favor. Prior to the fire, an election to approve the Water Works had already been scheduled for Sept. The lack of an adequate municipal water system was clearly a direct relation to the destruction. The Keystone Block, along with another building, was destroyed in the blaze. "An unceasing stream of water was poured upon their roofs by hearts that knew no faltering and hands that knew no fatigue, and their gallant and loyal efforts were successful, and the progress of flames were checked at the fire wall between the Odd Fellows’ hall and the consumed Robertson building." An article in the next day’s Fort Collins Courier described their heroic efforts: Instead, the gallant firefighters concentrated on saving the adjacent Odd Fellows Hall and the Poudre Valley Bank. It was quickly evident that the bucket brigade formed by the Hook and Ladder boys would not be able to save the building. 15, 1882 when a nearly-completed building, known as the Keystone Block, caught fire in the early morning. (Photograph courtesy of Retired Fort Collins Fire Chief Ed Yonker) This view was taken in 1888 when the Collins Hose Company and the Fort Collins Hook and Ladder Company were combined to become the Fort Collins Volunteer Fire Department. The men assigned to the new company started training to become an effective fire-fighting force, but their efforts were hampered due to a lack of a pressurized water system.įort Collins’ first fire station was located at 223 Walnut Street. It sat along Jefferson Street covered with a tarp until a fire station was completed in the summer of 1882. On June 4, 1880, several men met to organize the Collins Hook and Ladder Company.Ī hook and ladder wagon was ordered from the Caswell Manufacturing Company and arrived in November complete with ladders, a dozen leather buckets, lanterns, chains, rope, and axes. The early morning fire, in a dry goods store owned by Jacob Welch, claimed the lives of the store’s 20-year-old bookkeeper, Tillie Irving, and 24-year-old sales clerk, A.F. 3, 1880, was the catalyst for the formation of a fire department in Fort Collins, a former military post that was becoming an important town in Northern Colorado. ![]()
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