New Fire Truck For Forest Hills

In an earlier post, the arrival of an new auto-chemical fire truck was mentioned. Here we have a preceding article from the Globe that describes the new-fangled machine. Being a (male) baby-boomer, my mind goes immediately to the Three Stooges episode, in which the boys attempt to show that the old horse-drawn wagon can still do the job as well as the new motorized version. I wonder if Boston firefighters resisted the new machines, or if they saw them as a great improvement over the horse-drawn wagons.


Boston Daily Globe January 20, 1910


New Fire Fighting Machine For Hub. Combination Chemical Auto Reaches City and Will Be Stationed in the Forest Hills District.


A new combination chemical automobile, built for the fire department of this city, and which will later be installed in the new fire station now being erected at Forest Hills, arrived in the city yesterday. It was taken to Briston st, where commissioner Parker, Chief Mulen, Supt Byington and other fire department officials examined it. In the afternoon it was driven to the Copley sq hotel, where the fire chiefs' club of Massachusetts was in session. The members of that club gazed upon it admiringly.

The new machine is considered an important adjunct to the fire service of this city. It will be the sixth auto in service in the fire department when placed in commission.

The new machine will be placed in a district at Forest Hills where for 15 years additional fire protection has been persistently advocated. In the meanwhile the combination chemical will be temporarily installed elsewhere and thoroughly tried out.

While the machine was being built there was a member of the Boston fire department on watch constantly getting a line on every part of it. First Charles H. Cosgrove had the Springfield assignment, and he remained at the factory until shortly before his promotion to the rank of lieutenant, when he was supplanted by hosemen James T. Jones of engines 26-35, Mason st. Those firemen know all that there is to know about the new car.

The machine will be equipped with two 35-gallon chemical tanks, several hundred feet of chemical hose, 1000 feet of hydrant hose, a small extension ladder, two hand extinguishers, a lifeline, axes, door opener, hose jackets and other equipment that will make it an up-to-date piece of apparatus. The machine is painted red. It carries a large searchlight beside the two fixed lights on front, and cost the city $5150.

The fire department officials are relying on the new machine doing great work at Forest Hills. It will be located so that it can reach almost every box in that district before any of the horse-drawn apparatus, and will carry a crew large enough to run a hydrant line should it reach, before the other apparatus, a fire that required a large line.

A special running card will be prepared for the combination chemical. Later it will be announced who will have charge of it.