The first record of organized firefighting in Brooklyn dates from 1772, when six local men were recruited to combat fires near "the Ferry," a settlement having risen around the ferry landing at the foot of present day Fulton Street. A company of volunteers, consisting of seven men chosen at the town meeting, was formed in 1785. Beginning in 1788, those Brooklyn firemen who had performed the prescribed length of service were exempted from jury duty and militia service, which swelled the ranks of the volunteers. Upon the incorporation of the Village of Brooklyn in 1816, the Village Trustees were given "full authority to make their Fire Department what in their judgement it should be." The Trustees quickly established two new companies, increasing the total roll to ninety five men. The Trustees also established the offices of four fire wardens, elected for the first time in 1817.
The three volunteer companies of what became known as the Western District, were represented by a Chief Engineer, who was nominated and directly elected by the firemen until 1827, when the election was delegated to the foremen of the respective companies. The selection process returned to the firemen themselves in 1839 with the re-institution of direct elections, which process usually reflected local, regional, and national politics as well as ethno-cultural affinities and social rank. The Chief Engineer reported to the Trustees of the Village of Brooklyn and, after the incorporation of the City of Brooklyn in 1834, to the Common Council of Brooklyn. The institution of the "Annual Report of the Chief Engineer to the Mayor and Common Council" was inaugurated in 1828.
The Village of Williamsburgh organized a firefighting force and purchased two engines for two companies, "Washington" and "Protection Engine" in 1834. In 1844, a third company was added, "Good Interest." The Williamsburgh Fire Department included seventeen companies by 1854, at which time the City of Williamsburgh (chartered 1851) consolidated with the city of Brooklyn. Upon consolidation, the Williamsburgh Fire Department's name was changed to the Fire Department of the Eastern District.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the administrative portion of the Brooklyn Fire Department had grown to include: a Board of Representatives, made up of a fireman from each company; a Board of Trustees, which supervised the allocation and disposal of funds generated by dues and other benefits; various standing committees; a Board of Fire Commissioners; a Board of Officers composed of the Chief Engineer, Assistant Engineers, and the Foreman of each company; the Board of Fire Wardens; and, the Exempt Firemen's Association. Each fire company "chose its own members, generally from among near neighbors, friends, and relatives, and thus directly reflected the social composition of the several wards." Close proximity between the firehouse and residence was necessary to ensure maximum efficiency and prompt response.
Living and working together in often dangerous conditions bound the men into a brotherhood, and made each man the judge of his mates' strength, willingness, and agility. These were qualities needed to pull an engine through uneven, garbage-strewn streets, to dodge a crumbling fiery wall, or to assert and defend the company's honor against a variety of challenges.
The firehouses functioned as neighborhood clubhouses of sorts, attracted hangers-on who ran with the official volunteers, and provided a meeting place for the members of the firefighting fraternity. Records indicate that membership in a volunteer company became an important component of social identity.
Competition between individual companies was strong and frequently resulted in violence both at the scene of a fire and en route. Companies often competed to be first at a blaze and tried to eclipse each other's apparatus in pumping power. Great physical endurance was required to pull the engines through cobblestoned and unpaved streets in all weather and to pump water from the East River prior to the formation of the Nassau Water Company, which began pumping Ridgewood (Long Island) Reservoir water into Brooklyn in 1858.
The fraternal aspects of the brotherhood of volunteer firemen extended beyond the local company. Volunteer firemen administered relief in the form of sick benefits, pensions, and widows' and orphans' stipends, and mortgages and loans became available through the Firemen's Fund. Capital was generated by fundraising activities such as balls and musical entertainments, as well as through the collection of dues and fines.
As the population of Brooklyn grew rapidly during the 1840s and 1850s, as a result of both in-migration and large waves of Irish and German immigrants, the size and density of the growing city began to show the inadequacies of a volunteer force of autonomous companies that were unable to fight fires effectively. Fire Department officials petitioned the Mayor and Common Council for funds to establish new firehouses as well as to maintain and purchase equipment and supplies. The "Annual Report of the Chief Engineer, Western District" for 1863 indicated the contemporary size of the Fire Department:
"The working force of the Department, at the present time consists of eight Engineers, eleven hundred and twenty two members of Engine Companies, four hundred and ten Hose Companies. And one hundred and ninety five members of Hook and Ladder Companies, making a total of seventeen hundred and twenty seven men. The Department is divided into fourteen hand engines, fifteen hose carriages, and five hook and ladder trucks, all of which are doing duty."
The volunteer status of firemen was sharply challenged in the mid-nineteenth century as firefighting effectiveness diminished in the rapidly urbanizing city. The first bill to establish a paid Fire Department in Brooklyn was introduced and defeated in 1858, but the capability of the volunteer Fire Department was further contested as Brooklyn became an industrial center during the Civil War. The City of Brooklyn replaced cisterns with hydrants that dispensed a steady and predictable water supply, while technological advances in the form of horse drawn steam pumping engines threatened volunteer companies that pulled their pumpers through the streets by hand, sometimes to the risk of life and limb to themselves and passersby. The fire brigades' autonomy, but not their identity, was summarily altered by "An Act to Create a Metropolitan Fire District" which in 1865, merged the Fire Departments of the City of New York and the Eastern and Western Districts of the City of Brooklyn under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Fire Commissioners appointed by the governor.
The companies remained volunteer in nature, but the consolidation produced renewed demands for a paid firefighting force for the city. "An Act to Reorganize the Fire Department of the City of Brooklyn" received approval in 1869, which moved governance of the fire department from New York State to New York City elected and appointed officials. The Mayor, the Comptroller, and the Street Commissioner acquired authority over the four Commissioners of the Fire Department. The Trustees of the Widows and Orphans Fund of the Fire Department reported to the Common Council of the City of Brooklyn, while annual appropriations for Fire Department expenses were relegated to the King's County Board of Supervisors. The bill also suggested that the new Fire Commissioners select members of the paid department from among exempt firemen, who had served a full term in the Volunteer Department.
The cities of Brooklyn and Williamsburg converted from volunteer brigades to a paid fire department by 1870. Thereafter the transition from a volunteer to a paid firefighting force took place upon the annexation of individual towns into the city of Brooklyn as follow: New Lots, 1886; Flatbush, 1894; Gravesend, 1894; New Utrecht, 1894; and Flatlands, 1896. Brooklyn became a borough of New York City in January 1898.
After the transition from a volunteer to a salaried Fire Department in Brooklyn and the annexed towns, Veteran Volunteer Associations served as surrogates for the vanished volunteer firehouses and maintained their traditional identities and affinities. In addition, ex-volunteers were eligible for membership in state and national firefighting organizations that accepted both professional firefighters and volunteers. The "vamps" of the old department perpetuated the fraternal aspects of the volunteer firehouses through these associations and organizations, maintaining the disbursements of benefits and pensions virtually as long as there were eligible veterans or their beneficiaries to receive such.
Sources:
Belknap, Rufus R. The Fireman's Almanac and Reference Book for the Year 1860, containing in addition to the calendar a memorandum. New York: H. Dexter & Co., 1860.
Brooklyn Fire Department. Our Firemen. Brooklyn, N.Y., 1892.
Brooklyn Fire Department. Report of the Special Commission in Matters of Reorganizing the Fire Department of the City of Brooklyn. New York: Wynkoop, Hallenbeck and Thomas, 1861.
Kernan, J. Frank. Reminiscences of the Old Fire Laddies and Volunteer Fire Departments of New York and Brooklyn: together with a complete history of the paid departments of both cities. New York: M. Crane, 1885.
Limpus, Lowell M. History of the New York Fire Department. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1940.
New York Fire Department. Centennial Issue: Fire Department, 1865-1965. New York, c. 1965.
O'Reilly, Joseph John Edward. How to Become a Fireman; with all the information relative to civil service requirements, examinations, and the school of instruction. New York: The Chief Publishing Co., c.1903.
Ordinances of the Village of Williamsburgh related to firemen and the Fire Department. Williamsburgh, N.Y.: published by order of the Board of Trustees, 1850.
Pettit, Marilyn. The Brooklyn Volunteer Fire Department, 1836-70. New York University, 1981, unpublished.
Sprague, William E. Old Times. The early days of the Brooklyn Fire Department: the formation of the first fire company, the original machine, and how it was worked, primitive implements for battling with the flames – "that horrid bell". Bay Ridge, Long Island: James H. Barr, Job printer, 1882.
Stryker-Rodda, Harriet. Outline of the History of Firefighting on Long Island. Long Island Historical Society, 1955.
Why New York City should have a paid Fire Department. New York: C.S. Wescott & Co., Printers, 1865.