CHARLESTON FIRE DEPT 1907
Hose Wagon & Ladder Wagon on Court
Street in front of the Kanawha County Jail and county courthouse.
Photos of the old jail are extremely rare. It sat on Court & Virginia
Street. The current middle section of the courthouse is on the
left. The house in the background would be on the North West
corner of Virginia Street. Of these three photos, only one has
ever been published. This is the first time the other two have
ever been seen.
See much larger photo HERE
Chemical Hose Wagon And Steam Engine on Court Street
in front of the Kanawha County Jail and county courthouse.
See much larger photo HERE
Beautiful Steam Engine in front of Central Station
on Court Street
See much larger photo HERE
LAST RUN IN 1923
|
The man who made the last run with horses
was Captain J. H. Hamilton. It was on May 5, 1923 when the
old horses used for many years in the fire department made their last
run, and that was an emergency run, all motor vehicles being out when
another alarm came in. Captain Hamilton was located then at the central
station on Court street.
At 10:30 a. m. an alarm came In from Luna Park, which was entirely
consumed and kept the firemen
fighting flames for several hours.
At
12:35 the Yellow Pine Lumber company plant on Wilson street was: found to be on
fire and the only motor vehicle left In the department was sent out. The horses which had been used so long
in the department had been replaced by motor vehicles, but had not been removed from their old stalls in the
department, and there was still a hose truck which they had drawn that had
not been removed from the building. So when a third alarm came in at 1:22 from
the 1500 block of Quarrier Street... with the motor apparatus all out... old
Morgan and Ben were hitched to the hose truck they had drawn so many times
before and their final run to any fire. It proved to be only a minor blaze In
some dry grass set on fire by a spark falling from the lumber yard fire. But
the horses did their part in putting it out and preventing further danger.
|
Here is a panorama
of the Charleston Fire Dept.
( Click on the photo to make it very large )
About these photos....
The above is a sample of how these photos
looked when I received them. 100 years can be unkind to any
photo that has not been cared for properly. One photo was torn
in several places. Through the magic (and hard work) of using
computer programs, I managed to salvage these great photos after
many hours of tedious restoration.
Back to index
