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BUGGIES
for fire chiefs probably were not furnished until
after the fire department went paid (at least none
were found in the Houston Volunteer Fire
Department). Volunteer fire chiefs ran to a fire as
did the other firefighters. They may not have
manned the ropes of an apparatus being pulled to a
fire. That would have been a privilege reserved
only for fire chiefs. The
first buggy for Houston was a four-wheel
buggy pulled by one horse. Pictured is the
buggy ca. 1900. It lacked the nice comfort
provided for modern day fire chiefs. There
were not even springs to absorb bumps in
the streets. The fire
chief was provided a driver who chauffeured him
around day and night. It is believed that the
driver was Louis Bradley who drove Fire Chief
Thomas Ravell, the first fire chief of the
fully-paid fire department. Fire chiefs responded
to first alarms in the high value districts, and to
all second alarms elsewhere in the city. His driver
would pick him up at home at nighttime. By
1910, a motorized buggy had been purchased
for the fire chief. It added more comfort
for the fire chief, although it lacked a
top to protect against the
elements. The
manufacturer of the buggy is unknown. (The buggy
was sent to Galveston to pick up Fire Chief
Reginald "Kid" Ollre who was on a fishing trip when
the Fifth Ward Conflagration occurred in 1912.)
The
fire department also furnished the
assistant fire chief with a buggy. He,
too, was required to respond to large
fires. The buggy in the picture appears to
be a Model-T Ford. There were
three assistant fire chiefs by 1925 who shared a
six-cylinder Buick roadster. Assistant chiefs
worked 48 hours followed by 24 hours off.
Assistant
fire chief Bob Boyd was on duty in 1923, when a
raging fire was reported. It may be that the Buick
roadster was with the other assistant chief on
duty. Boyd hopped aboard Chemical No. 1 as it was
pulling out of central fire station. The driver
swerved to avoid a collision with an automobile at
an intersection and slammed into a telephone pole.
Boyd was pitched from the engine and killed.
About
this time the comfort level for fire
chiefs reached new heights. The fire chief
was furnished an eight-cylinder Packard by
1925. It had a top
that protected the fire chief and his driver from
the elements. The comfort level never was exceeded
until the department furnished chief cars with air
conditioning years later. Battalions
were established in 1926 after a second platoon was
added. Battalion chiefs rode on either a chemical
engine or hose wagon. (Alfred Schutze, a battalion
chief, was killed in a nighttime accident in 1938
responding to a fire, when the chemical engine he
was riding struck a curb and
overturned.) It would be
in the 1940s before battalion chiefs were furnished
automobiles. Pictured
are the types of buggies furnished chief
officers including the district chiefs.
The buggies were both 2-door coupes and
2-door sedans. FIRE
chief buggies had come a long way by the 1940s from
the very first buggy. However, none of the buggies
up to now, and probably into the future, will ever
equal the grandeur of the old eight-cylinder
Packard, circa 1925. |
