Vancouver Fire Department

by Alex Matches

From very humble beginnings in 1886, the Vancouver Fire Department has long been considered one of the finest fire departments to be found anywhere. In 1911 it was deemed one of the world’s finest by a committee “as regards to equipment and efficiency,” behind only London, England, and Leipzig, Germany. In the 1950s, as the recipient of the National Fire Protection Association’s Grand Award for having the most outstanding fire prevention program for 1956, the VFD was described as having “the best fire department on the continent” by the past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. And in November 1980 the Canadian Fire Underwriters Survey declared the VFD had achieved Canada’s first-ever and only class 1 rating.

When the city was incorporated, its firefighting tools consisted of the citizen’s axes, buckets, shovels and ladders, and little else. Although Hastings Mill had an old hand-operated “enjine,” it was considered to be “not serviceable.”

At city council’s second meeting the manager of the local shoe store, Sam Pedgrift, asked them to help fund a fire brigade, but no funds were available. They did, however, pass a by-law providing for the institution of a volunteer brigade. On May 28, 1886, the founding meeting of the Volunteer Fire Brigade took place at George Schetky’s men’s clothing store, attended by some 40 people. Sam Pedgrift was elected chief of the Volunteer Hose Company No. 1, On June 2, Hook & Ladder Company No. 1 was formed with William Blair elected foreman. George Schetky was elected treasurer with $200 from public subscription, and the volunteers paid dues of “two-bits” a month. It was decided the hose company would wear blue shirts with white trim, so the ladder company picked red shirts with white trim. (They didn’t have any equipment, but they wanted to look good!)

The story of the Great Fire of June 13, 1886, has been told many times. A young girl, out on the inlet in a boat said, “It was all over in 45 minutes, a grand but awful sight.” Fewer than a dozen buildings survived. The next day, over the still-warm ashes, the rebuilding of the new city was begun with material supplied by the Hastings Mill. Eight days later the city ordered the following equipment from the John D. Ronald Company, of Brussels, Ontario: a 2,728-litre (600-gallon) per-minute Ronald steam pump, 762 metres of hose and four hose reels. The total cost was $6,880, which the manufacturer agreed could be paid over 10 years.

On August 1 the new fire engine and its supporting equipment arrived, and two days later was placed in service “under canvas,” until the new firehall was built. The volunteers took the names the Invincible Hose Company No. 1 and the Vancouver Hook & Ladder Company No. 1. A week later the latter volunteers felt their name was an absurdity because they didn’t have a hook and ladder, so they became the Reliance Hose Company No. 2.

The first major fire fought by the VFD was at Spratt’s Oilery, near midnight on August 11, 1886, and described as “a considerable distance from town” (at the north foot of today’s Burrard Street). By the time the volunteers pulled the engine uphill to the site of the fire there wasn’t much to save of the abandoned fish processing plant, but they did manage to save a few nearby houses. The newspaper of the day applauded the efforts of the inexperienced firefighters and praised the engine as a “superior article.”

An historic event attributed to the fire brigade was the hosting of the city’s first-ever public ball, held in Gold’s Hall on Water Street, to raise money for the brigade’s purchase of uniforms and other expenses. More than 250 attended, the program consisted of 24 dances and a sumptuous banquet.

In October the firehall at 12 Water Street was opened, and it was about this time that Sam Pedgrift left town with the fire brigade’s funds, never to be heard from again. Later, in an election, John Howe Carlisle beat John Mateer by one vote to become the new chief, a position he would hold for the next 42 years.

The city installed five 45,460-litre (10,000-gallon) cisterns underground. In May 1887 they were used to fight a large bush fire that could have been a repeat of the fire of 1886. With the new equipment and a shovel corps, the volunteers extinguished the fire. A few days later, on May 23, the volunteers, along with the Hyack volunteers of New Westminster, all in their finest parade uniforms, helped greet the arrival of the first transcontinental train into Vancouver. In June the first “hook & ladder” arrived at No. 1 Firehall.

Chief Carlisle convinced the city of the need for a team of horses so the men could perform more efficiently. In May 1888 horses were purchased for Engine No. 1, named M.A. Maclean in honor of the first mayor. In August a new No. 2 Firehall opened in the 700-block of Seymour Street. By March 1889 water from the North Shore mountains reached Vancouver, and by June the hydrant system was in operation, replacing the cisterns.

By September the first salaries were paid--the chief received $75 per month, the two engineers $60 each, and the two stokers, two drivers and six full-time firefighters $15 each. “Callmen” were paid by the fires attended.

In February 1890, 15 alarm boxes were installed. This was also the first year that records of fire alarms were kept, and that year the department answered 110 alarms. Fire damage was $17,300.

Tragedy struck at 1:30 a.m. on June 5, 1893, with the death of 25-year-old John Smalley, the engine driver from No. 2 Hall, who died when he fell en route to a fire. His was the department’s first of 32 on-duty deaths.

The VFD became a fully paid department on July 1, 1893, with three firehalls and 30 firefighters. No. 3 had opened on Broadway, west of Main Street, on November 1, 1892, with a hand-drawn hose reel. No horses, but they had a telephone! When No. 3 got its first horse-drawn hosewagon on October 31, they had to borrow horses from the city water works to pull the wagon.

The period between 1900 and 1910 was known as the “Golden Years.” The VFD added seven more firehalls--No.’s 4 through 10--and 20 more pieces of apparatus, including a self-propelled steamer and the first of the motorized rigs. Chief Carlisle gave up his buggy and favorite horse Billy in favor of a two-cylinder McLaughlin touring car in 1907. In spite of criticism he purchased the first three pieces of auto fire equipment offered by the Seagrave Company of Columbus, Ohio, and put them in service in early 1908. Vancouver’s fire department, considered in the forefront of firefighting technology, was a “must-see” for visiting fire chiefs. The move to full “automation” was under way.

The first motorized aerial ladder was a 1909 22.8-metre tractor-aerial ladder, first of its type built by the Seagrave Company. It was purchased because of the large number of high buildings being built downtown, like the Dominion Trust Building at Hastings and Cambie, then the tallest in the British Empire.

By 1911 the city had 11 firehalls and 191 firefighters and more equipment was ordered, this time from the American-LaFrance Fire Engine Company, of Elmira, New York. Vancouver took delivery of Canada’s first order of this manufacturer’s equipment, beginning in 1912, including the department’s first motorized pump, a 5,683-litre (1,250-gallon) per-minute engine that remained in service for almost 40 years.

The VFD became fully motorized in 1917, making Vancouver the first major city in Canada and possibly the continent to become so, many years ahead of other large cities. On July 7 the firefighters went on strike for better pay and conditions; city council grudgingly acceded to their demands. From the start of the war in 1914 until the two-platoon system came into effect in 1918, 340 men joined then left the fire department because of the poor conditions and moved on to jobs with better hours and pay. Vancouver’s firefighters became the first and only Canadian members of the International Association of Firefighters, headquartered in Washington, D.C., on February 28, 1918. As Local No. 18, the firefighters continue to be part of the International.

The blackest day in the department’s history occurred on May 10, 1918, when No. 11 hosewagon en route to an alarm struck a streetcar at 12th and Commercial, killing four of its crew of five.

During the twenties many important events took place. In 1921 the 17-member Fire Wardens Branch--responsible for inspections, enforcing fire by-laws and investigation of fire scenes--was formed. It replaced a police sergeant who had enforced the fire by-law on a part-time basis for many years.

The worst loss-of-life fire in the city’s history occurred at the Royal Alexandra Apartment at Bute and Comox Streets. On a hot July 8, 1927, a painter’s job became a nightmare when his varnish and thinners caught fire and turned the building into an inferno in which eight people died.

After many years of trying to get a fireboat for the city, Chief Carlisle proudly watched the launching of the 21,821-litre (4,900-gallon) per-minute J.H. Carlisle, purchased in part by False Creek property owners. The boat was put in service on September 1, 1928, at No. 16 Station at the south foot of Drake Street.

The following year saw the amalgamation of Point Grey, South Vancouver and the City of Vancouver, which increased the size of the fire department to 250 firefighters and 21 firehalls.

In 1930 the CN Dock fire destroyed the new 305-metre long pier, and in August 1936 the Auditorium fire destroyed the home of Vancouver’s Stanley Cup Millionaires in a spectacular four-alarm blaze. The best remembered of them all? The CPR Pier D fire of July 27, 1938, when the entire structure and its contents were destroyed, along with several boxcars and a fire truck.

The fire department added a new component, the “inhalator” crew, the Rescue & Safety Branch, on January 10, 1942. Over the years, the crew would save the lives of many.

On March 6, 1945, many thought the war had come to Vancouver when SS Greenhill Park blew up while loading at CPR Pier B. The explosion in her No. 3 hold rocked the entire downtown area, smashing many windows and killing eight longshoremen. The ship was towed through the harbor to Siwash Rock, where the fire was extinguished.

Tragedy again struck the VFD when, on September 14, 1945, three firefighters were killed in the McMaster Building fire on Homer Street.

In 1951 Vancouver Fireboat No. 2 was placed in service in Burrard Inlet. With a capacity of 90,920 litres (20,000 gallons) per-minute, it was said to be the world’s most powerful. It proved its worth the following spring when it was instrumental in containing and extinguishing a four- alarm fire at the United Grain Growers Dock. With the fireboat, which was able to reach areas of the fire that land companies could not, the waterfront was saved from a major conflagration.The damage was set at $3 million, but it was estimated that the loss would have surpassed $10 million without the boat.

Throughout the fifties there were many notable fires and incidents, including the collapse of the unfinished Second Narrows Bridge, at which VFD’s then-new scuba team spent many hours searching for victims of the accident.

The first five-alarm fire, largest in the history of the department, occurred on July 3, 1960, when fire destroyed the B.C. Forest Products plant and lumber storage facility on False Creek. The fire covered an area equal in size to four city blocks and took many hours to put out. Every available firefighter and piece of equipment was called out, including both fire boats. Twelve firefighters were injured.

The Seventies added many new pieces of apparatus. In 1971, when the J.H. Carlisle was taken out of service, she was replaced by four 6,819-litre (1,500-gallon) per-minute “super pumps” stationed in the firehalls around False Creek, which by then was more easily accessible by land-based fire companies. Then, in 1973, the VFD received Canada’s first 28-metre Calavar firefighting platform, which gave firefighters the ability to get up and over many fire scenes because of the rig’s articulated column and boom.

With 40 fire deaths 1973 was the worst in the city’s history. This terrible toll was partly caused by the lack of sprinkler systems in hotels and rooming houses. Steps were immediately taken to introduce new sprinkler by-laws. The following year the toll was dramatically reduced, and by 1982 deaths by fire were down to eight.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, many pieces of fire apparatus were replaced, nine new firehalls were erected and No. 6 was declared a heritage building and renovated. A new Fire Dispatch Centre located at the No. 1 Hall, VFD headquarters, superseded the old Fire Dispatch Office, at 20th and Cambie Street, which had opened in 1931. On May 28, 1986, the members of the department celebrated a “Century of Service.”

Cutbacks in manpower in the late 1980s affected manning on fire apparatus and resulted in the decommissioning of Vancouver Fireboat No. 2. It was subsequently sold to the San Francisco Fire Department.

In the fall of 1987 district chiefs became known as “battalion chiefs.” With the new fire alarm designations, the VFD’s first six-alarm occurred at the Fraser Arms Hotel fire on April 24, 1988. Soon after, pumps were designated “engines,” trucks became “ladders” and the articulated platforms (Firebirds) were known as “towers.”

Into the 1990s changes continued: the 911 emergency telephone number covered the entire GVRD; the department hired its first female firefighter; fire apparatus became computer- equipped and now have cabs so the crew can ride to alarms in safety; men are now trained to handle hazardous material spills and life-saving defibrillator to aid heart-attack victims. The new training facilities will soon include instructions in confined-space and high-angle rescue. And, lastly, two new fire boats have been put in service to cover waterfront and marine fires in cooperation with three additional fire boats in neighboring fire departments.

From the humble beginnings of the small volunteer fire brigade in 1886, when members volunteered their time and energies for the common good, to today’s Vancouver Fire/Rescue Service, the same daring and enthusiasm is shown in putting the “wet stuff on the hot stuff.”

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