Providence FD, 150 Years Later: Answering the Call of Tradit

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Just an interesting article I thought I'd share. (BTW, I read this newspaper regularly. The Providence Journal does an excellent job of covering everything , including FD issues.

Providence FD, 150 Years Later: Answering the Call of Tradition  

BY AMANDA MILKOVITS  

Journal Staff Writer  

PROVIDENCE -- In mid-19th-century Providence, fighting fires could be a contact sport.  

Volunteer fire groups had been answering the alarm since 1754. But workmanlike behavior wasn't always the norm when the job brought no paycheck.  

The men sometimes fought each other as well as the fires, the mayhem possibly fueled by buckets of beer trotted out to them by people watching the blazes, according to published accounts.  

The catalyst for change came in October 1853, when two volunteer companies working a building fire on North Main Street turned on each other and a Teamster with one of the companies was killed, published accounts say. After that, the City Council passed a resolution ending firefighting by volunteers and established a paid department of 432 men on March 1, 1854. There are 487 men and women in the department now.  

Today's firefighters handle more rescue calls than fires, and they train for bioterrorism and in ways to handle hazardous materials.  

They say they join the department for the thrill of saving lives and fighting fires. They stay their entire careers for the camaraderie.  

"I've loved it from the first minute," said acting Fire Chief Gary Mulcahy, who came on the job 30 years ago.  

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the department as an organization of paid firefighters. It's the second-oldest major paid department in the nation, following Cincinnati by just 11 months.  

The sacrifices of the firefighters from the past have inspired changes in technology, equipment and training. The culture hasn't changed.  

"The characteristics of a firefighter back then and a firefighter now are probably the same. You love doing this job," said David Peters, a firefighter at the Messer Street station and the president of Local 799. "When you [get called], you want to be the person there because you believe you're going to help the person, you're going to save the person, you're going to be the person to make the difference."  

IN HIS 1886 BOOK, The Providence Fireman, Providence fire Capt. Charles E. White described the attitudes of his firefighters:  

"Firemen are proverbially rough and ready, to use a homely phrase," White wrote. ". . . They can run or jump, bang in the door of a burning building, mount a ladder, break or connect a coupling, or cut a pigeon wing on the dance floor with equal neatness, dispatch, agility and grace, and it is safe to say that they take as much pleasure in doing one as they do another."  

Turning the department into a paid organization made a difference, Chief Engineer Joseph Taylor said in May 1855, ". . . such as the excellent order maintained by the department at all times on duty, the quiet in and around the engine houses, and the harmony that has prevailed among its members."  

Taylor offered statistics as proof. During the last 15 months of the volunteer era, the city had 83 fires and $375,964 in damages. In the first 15 months as a paid department, there were 59 fires, and a drop to $95,070 in damages.  

The city bought its first motorized fire truck in 1911 and ended the horse-drawn era in 1920. Even then, the firefighters hated to break with tradition and had to be tricked into giving up their last two-horse companies. The mayor pulled a fire alarm in downtown and when the firefighters responded, he took the horses away and sent the firefighters back on new fire trucks.  

Today, the department has 14 fire engines, 8 ladder trucks, 5 ambulances, and a special-hazards truck on its frontline. A new $539,000 ladder truck is on order.  

Last year, there were 47,474 calls for service, from fires to medical calls, to people locked out of their houses, to flooded basements and burst pipes.  

Because medical calls, not fires, make up the majority of their runs, firefighters must get certified as high-level emergency medical technicians. The firefighters also volunteer on a dive team, trench-rescue team, and decontamination team, and are trained in handling hazardous materials and bioterrorism.  

There are also firefighters trained to help others on the job deal with its stresses. Members of that team helped New York City firefighters after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.  

THE DEPARTMENT holds on to tradition.  

There are sliding poles in every station. Aside from small adjustments in the collars and a change from wool to polyester, the uniforms look as they did more than 100 years ago. The term "old fire horse" now refers to retired firefighters who want to be part of the action.  

They have their mascots. Fire Lt. Steve Schora remembered Blackdog, a mongrel who rode Engine 8 from the Messer Street station and ran into fires with the firefighters. The firefighters at the Admiral Street station are mourning Penny, their Dalmatian, who died last week at age 15.  

The firefighters have their nicknames, their games -- but most of all -- their bonds. They work in teams, four days on, four days off, a far cry from the work schedule of the firefighters of 1854, who only had meal breaks and one day off a month. But the closeness remains. They cook and clean together, and live at the firehouses.  

"This job is like a family. It's so different from any other job," Peters said. "You live with them. Your life depends on them. You have a bond with them that lasts your whole life. There are guys on this job I would die for."  

That's the culture of the Providence Fire Department, said Deputy Assistant Chief Michael J. Dillon.  

"You have to want to save people. You have to want to excel at what you do. You have to want to put other people's lives before your own," he said.  

Firefighting is a childhood dream for most. Capt. Mike McDermott, a third-generation firefighter, remembered visiting his father at the Messer Street station and trying to sleep over when he was 8. He joined the department 20 years later.  

"The job is unlike anything else," McDermott said. "When you go to work, it's like going to a relative's house. You get close to people. You look forward to going to work."  

They honor their connections with the past. They think of the old-time firefighters, who stuffed their beards in their mouths to filter the smoke and wore themselves out on hand-pump engines, said Schora, a historical society member. Today's firefighters wear airpacks and protective clothing, and use engines pumping 1,500 gallons a minute.  

"People were doing this without the gear we have. They were dying doing this," Schora said. "That pushes us.  

"Damn, I'm not going to let them down."