Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

During the formative years of the fire department some traditions were slipping away slowly but surely and for the good. One of those traditions that went away was that of firefighters riding the tailboard of the fire truck to get to the scene. This tradition goes back to the really old days of the fire service when the firefighters rode on a horse drawn steam engine. The purpose of firefighters riding on the fire engine was to shovel coal and get the boiler going enroute to the fire so it would build a head of steam and be ready to pump water.

A hundred and fifty years later you only needed to turn the key and the engine was ready to pump water, but firefighters were still riding on the fire engine. Why? Because that’s the way its always been done. Firefighters were notoriously thick headed and helmets used to deflect new ideas like a mirror reflects sunlight.

Anyway, the government stepped in and said firefighters were not allowed to kill and maim themselves on the way to the fire so no more riding the tailboard. You see, a fire truck has a huge blind spot and if a firefighter fell off he would simply roll into the ditch and no one would be the wiser. After years of injuring firefighters Big Brother said “No more!”

Prior to that regulation coming into effect it wasn’t unusual to see our Big Yellow Trucks (BYT’s) going down the road with a couple of firefighters riding the tailboard and holding on to the OS handles provided on the back of the truck. In the old days, you won’t believe this, not everyone had a car (gasp!). And, are you ready…., not everyone had a phone (double gasp!).

If you notice today there are no more sirens in our community. That’s because the fire department issues each member a pager that activates when an alarm comes in. Prior to that the only way you knew there was a fire is when you heard the siren. Then you didn’t know where the fire was so you went to the station and then went to the fire. It was grossly inefficient, but the fire department did the best they could with what they had.

Firefighters back then would take shifts hanging out at the station waiting for a call. This was to get the truck rolling to the scene when an alarm came in. This made responses a little quicker than if everyone was at home and then went to the station when an alarm came in. They could entertain themselves easily since not everyone had a TV (triple gasp!) and the fire station had one. It also had a pool table, stocked fridge and tables for playing cards. There wasn’t that many fire calls back then so most of the time was spent, well, passing the time.

One day three firefighters are playing pool and hanging out at the station on their shift. The alarm goes off and they scramble to put on their gear, start the truck and open the door to go. Once that was done they assembled on the tailboard, grabbed the OS handles and….waited. Finally someone made the observation that all three firefighters were standing on the tailboard and no one was in the cab to actually drive the fire engine. After a three stooges moment one of them was finally delegated to drive the fire engine and get them to the fire.