The Fire Engine Test that Thrilled Fairhaven
Citizens and business leaders gathered to watch a dramatic demonstration of a new chemical firefighting engine, sparking immediate calls for city-wide protection.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Yesterday afternoon at 3 o'clock the test of the Lindgren chemical engine was made with perfect success. A large number of men congregated on the corner of Tenth and McKenzie streets, where a rough building had been erected. The interior was covered with pitch and saturated with kerosene oil, and about the sides were heaped shavings and kindling. A committee of citizens was appointed, whose duty it was to tell the agent, Mr. Wright, when to apply the match and to decide when to use the chemical compound. The match was applied and an instant later the building was a mass of flames. After burning half a minute, the word was given to extinguish the fire. Mr. Wright, with the hose in hand, at once started for the fire and in twenty-two seconds the blaze was extinguished. The oil had not been consumed and the boards were only half burned through. Mr. Burbank, secretary of the Tacoma fire department, remarked that the Lindgren is the best engine he knows of, noting that it uses compressed air and doesn't waste unused fluid. Business men are expected to take definite action in relation to the purchase of the engine to protect the town.
“The match was applied and an instant later the building was a mass of flames. After burning half a minute, the word was given to extinguish the fire.”
In 1890, the threat of fire was the primary civic fear for burgeoning timber towns built entirely of wood. Today, while Fairhaven’s risks have shifted to seismic and economic instability, the desperation for municipal infrastructure to ensure public safety remains a constant theme in local civic discourse.
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