150th Anniversary of the Key West Fire Department

The Key West Fire Department was created in  November of 1875 , twelve years after the Great Fire of 1886, which incinerated more than 50 acres of Old Town.

 

The fire started next to the San Carlos Institute on Duval street, burned for 12 hours and destroyed 18 major cigar, factories, and 614 houses. 

 

It has long been suggested, the fire was intentionally set by agents of the Spanish government to disrupt the support of the Spanish revolution in Cuba, which was being funded and encouraged by Key West cigar workers.

 

At the time of the fire, the city’s only steam-powered fire engine had been placed on a ship and sent to New York for repairs, further fueling suspicions about the timing and the cause.

 

Consuming every wooden building in its path, the fire tore through blocks of Fleming, Whitehead, Eaton, Duval and Simonton streets.

 

A year after the fire in 1887, Key West installed in a tower its first citywide fire warning system in the form of a giant brass fire bell.  Each neighborhood was assigned a specific number.   When a fire was reported, the bell would toll out the number to alert the town to its location.

 

In 1875, the city created the Key West Fire Department to replace the private all-volunteer Tiger Hose company that operated until then.  The first department had a 103 firefighters, still all volunteers, and one paid fire chief.

 

In 1906, the city installed 36, then 58 fireboxes throughout the town that could communicate via telegraph to the fire department.

 

Once telephones arrived,  the fireboxes became obsolete, although several of them are on display at the Key West Firehouse Museum.

 

As technology advanced –combustion engines, telephones, hydraulic pumps, 911 capabilities, sprinkler systems, smoke detectors and countless other innovations, so did the fire department.

 

All firefighters are now also emergency. technicians or paramedics, who respond to traffic accidents, heart attacks, hypochondriacs and yes, fires. 

 

Today, the fire department includes an urban search and rescue team, a dive team and a hazardous materials crew.  Firefighters are trained to use the jaws of life to extract people from vehicles and perform other lifesaving tasks. 

 

The Alex Vega Key West Firehouse Museum is home to many displays pertaining to the history of firefighting in the Florida Keys.

 

Highlights include a 1929 American LaFrance fire truck, one of the only indoor coal pits known to exist in the U.S.  There is also a piece of steel from the north tower of the World Trade Center.

 

FYI  the mamey fruit tree that has towered over the fire station for a 114 years is still producing the popular local fruit.

 

Admission is $18 for the tour, and it’s open.Wednesday through Saturday, from 10 am to 1 p m. 

 

Come experience history at the end of Route 1.