HALL PROFILE: BY BERNICE HALSBAND, TORONTO FIRE FIGHTER, STATION 232-C
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magine that the year is 1834. Within the past decade, aluminum has been discovered and aluminum powder is being made in Germany. In the US, the Democratic Party is created. Napoleon has died on Helena, and the first photographs have been developed in France. Typewriters have just become a “thing” in the world. Toronto has just been incorporated as Ontario’s first city. Its northern city limit is Bloor Street and the streets are mostly packed dirt. The Toronto Islands are still attached to the mainland (and will be for another 20 years) and William Lyon Mackenzie’s party, the Reform Party, has won the elections and chosen him as Mayor of Toronto. You’re walking north on Bear Street (now Bay Street) towards Lot Street (now Queen Street), not towards Old City Hall (that was not completed until 1899), but for a stroll through the woods. Suddenly the bells ring from St. James’ Church (the only bells in the city), and shouting can be heard.
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“FIRE!!”
The voices shout out as smoke billows from the east. After what feels like forever, the earth shakes as goose-neck fire engines, drawn by horses, race past you. First, they head south to the bay to fill up an onboard reservoir with water, then to the fire that has been growing steadily. Citizens have been trying to throw buckets of water on the blaze to no avail. The only chance the building has is the pump that throws a “5/8 or ¾ stream about 140 ft.” (History of the Toronto Fire Department, published 1924). To your relief, you see not one, but two quickly moving apparatus thundering up the street towards you, with horses foaming at the mouth as they gallop with 32 men hanging on for dear life. There are 16 men on each ‘pump’, one named York and one named Phoenix, with 8 men on either side of the brakes. The earth is shaking as they draw nearer. It is clear that they are racing one another. In an instant, they are cut off by another company, the Toronto, coming from the west. They disappear in the smoke migrating through the streets, still fighting with one another to be first on scene. As crazy as this sounds, it’s not a far cry from South Command fire trucks today. The biggest differences being that the streets are now paved, we have motor driven trucks, and the first in truck doesn’t get more money for showing up first. But let’s be honest; who hasn’t had a giddy moment or two beating another truck into a fire; especially in their first run area?! Vo l u m e 1 4 | I s s u e 4 | F I RE WAT CH 28
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