HIGH TECH REPLACES BUCKET BRIGADES

NEW FIRE FIGHTING EQUIPMENT: The Cape Girardeau Fire Department shows off their new motorized fire trucks in circa 1917. At that time, the fire and police shared quarters at the corner of Frederick and Independence. That building remains standing today as a city museum. (JUDITH ANN CROW COLLECTION)

From hand-drawn hosewagons and bucket brigades to horse-drawn firewagons, to one of the most modern fire departments in Missouri that's the story of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department.

The history of the department dates back to the early 1860s. According to "Snider's History of Cape Girardeau," a law was passed under the administration of Mayor John Albert (1860-1862) creating a fire department. The ordinance provided for the spending of $1,000 to purchase a fire engine. The department was to consist of at least 30 members between the ages of 18 and 45. The ordinance provided for the firemen to elect proper officers and provide for the administration of the fire department.

Because the ordinance was enacted at the start of the Civil War, it's doubtful a fire department was actually organized.

The next mention of a fire department in the city comes on July 25, 1866, during the first administration of Mayor G.H. Cramer (1862-1867 and 1879-1886). At that time, the city council ordered the establishment of a hook-and-ladder company.

Former (retired) Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Charles Mills, who researched and wrote a brief history of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department for the July 4, 1976, American Bicentennial edition of the Southeast Missourian, said the first operating fire department in Cape Girardeau was organized in 1880, under the name of the Good Intent Fire Company. The fire chief, Henry A. Astholtz, was the first of 14 fire chiefs that have served the city.

The Good Intent Fire Company volunteers received $3 for each fire they fought and $1 per drill for an average monthly total of about $10 per month. The company consisted of firefighters, a hand pump, bucket brigade and a firewagon. Three years later, in 1883, it is recorded that the Good Intent Fire Company went before the city council to ask for better firefighter equipment.

An Oct. 2, 1934, Missourian article said the fire company divided the city into four wards in 1906. Each ward had a hand-drawn hosewagon that was pulled to the scene of the fire by the volunteer firefighters and citizens.

The Ward 1 hosecart was stored in the old city jail near the Common Pleas Courthouse; the Ward 2 wagon was stored on the John Williams property on William Street; the Ward 3 hosewagon was kept in the Steimle shop on Good Hope; and the Ward 4 hosecart was housed in a building on Broadway, near the Broadway Theater.

When the bell at the Presbyterian church was tapped to indicate a fire alarm, both volunteer firemen and citizens would run to the nearest hosewagon. The number of times the church bell was tapped indicated which ward the fire was in.

This primitive method of firefighting continued in the city until around 1908, when Cape Girardeau's first horse-drawn firewagon arrived. The firewagon was pulled by two dapper dray horses, Alex and Joe, named after the two men who purchased them at the stockyards in East St. Louis.

The firewagon and Alex and Joe arrived by steamboat. Newspaper accounts tell of a large crowd on the levee to greet the boat when it docked. The new firewagon and Alex and Joe were housed in the new police-fire station that had been constructed at the corner of Independence and Frederick.

In November 1908, red fire-alarm boxes were located at six places in the city: Main and Themis, Broadway and Fountain, Broadway and Pacific, Sprigg and Merriwether, Frederick and Good Hope, and Spanish and William. The alarm was carried by wire from each box to the fire station. This was the only time in the history of Cape Girardeau that alarm boxes were used.

In 1909, the Good Intent Fire Company was reorganized, with Barney Craft as fire chief.

"Chief Kraft's tenure marked the three phases of the department's history: the hand-pulled hose cart, when the volunteers pulled the water pump on wheels; the horse-drawn fire wagon; and the city's first motorized fire engine," Mills said.

In 1916, Cape Girardeau's most disastrous fire resulted in demands for more modern firefighting equipment. The March 16 fire destroyed the Riverview and Terminal hotels, the Buckner-Ragsdale store, and a number of other small storerooms along Main Street.

Fifty businessmen met soon after the fire to raise money for the new fire equipment. The effort became even more critical when Alex and Joe were killed by a falling power line while en route to a fire on June 5, 1916. On June 26, a new team of fire horses, Frank and Pat, was delivered to replace Alex and Joe. Frank and Pat continued to serve as the town's fire horses until the arrival of the first motorized fire engine.

On May 23, 1916, the citizens of Cape Girardeau approved a $15,000 bond issue to purchase two fire engines. The pumper truck arrived on Dec. 7, 1916, and the hook-and-ladder truck on Dec. 14. Later, a Dodge pumper was purchased in 1925.

Like everything else, the cost of fire engines has kept pace with the cost of living. In 1930, the city purchased an American LaFrance fire engine and paid $10,500 cash for it. Thirty-seven years later, the city bought another American LaFrance pumper engine, in 1968, for $30,000. Twenty-five years later a new pumper engine was purchased in 1992, at a cost of $185,000.

The main fire station at Frederick and Independence continued to serve as the town's only fire station until 1949, when a bond issue was approved for additional fire stations. The fire department grew rapidly in 1951, with the construction of two fire stations, No. 2, at 1632 Independence, and No. 3 at 429 Emerald. That same year, the late Fire Chief Carl Lewis took delivery of three new pumper engines and an 85-foot aerial ladder. In order to accommodate the aerial ladder truck, a one-story addition had to be added on the east side of Fire Station No. 1, which now houses the River Heritage Museum.

"By this time the fire department boasted eight major pieces of firefighting equipment, three fire stations, and a force of 42 firemen - a big change from eight men, a 1936 Dodge, 1931 American LaFrance, and a lopsided, old Robinson ladder truck that represented the fire department in 1936," said Mills.

In 1974, Fire Station No. 4 was built at Kurre Lane and Kingsway Drive to serve the growing northwest residential and business area of the city.

In the late 1960s, Lewis, then-city manager Paul Fredericks and the city council began a phased program to replace some of the older rolling stock with newer equipment. In the mid-1970s, plans were developed for a larger and modern fire department headquarters and Fire Station No. 1, which was opened at Sprigg and Independence in 1981.

In an interview prior to his retirement in 1992, former Fire Chief Gene Hindman said the decade of the 1980s was one of growth and change for the department. In 1986, the fire department switched from the time-honored two-shift, 24-on-24-off work schedule to a three-platoon system. The switch enabled the city to meet federal wage-and-hour regulations.

In 1987, a 102-foot aerial platform ladder truck was purchased for $411,000. The ladder truck had been the goal of three fire chiefs

In May 1987, the fire and police departments instituted a central dispatch system, which Hindman said reduces the chances of human error.

In 1988, another landmark was set by the fire department when Cape Girardeau's ISO (Insurance Services Office) rating dropped from 5 to 4 as a result of improved firefighter training, increased manpower, newer equipment and better water supplies.

The decade of the 1990s will continue the pattern of growth and development that began in the 1980s in the Cape Girardeau Fire Department.

In January 1991, Fire Station No. 2 was relocated into a new fire station near Mount Auburn and Bloomfield roads in the southwest corner of the city.

Later this month Robert Ridgeway of the Mashpee, Mass., Fire Department takes over as the 14th fire chief in the history of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department. Ridgeway is also the first fire chief in the history of the department to come from outside the department.

Within four years, construction should be under way on a new Fire Station No. 3, which will be relocated to the future extension of North Sprigg between Bertling and the eastward extension of Lexington. In the meantime, plans also call for the replacement of additional, aging fire engines.