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KURT KAMM AUTHOR OF ONE FOOT IN THE BLACK
HISTORY OF THE FIRE PLUG
Here is the story of the fire plug. Back before even horses pulled the steamers, and a set of irons meant taking your vitamins, the term fire plug was born. In the cities, the earliest water mains were made of hollowed out logs. I have seen the remnants of these under the streets of my own city (Winston Salem, which was founded by the Moravians).
The call went out for a fire, and the fire fighters rushed to the scene with their great new hand pumper. There only PPE was a helmet and a bucket. The buckets were required by law to be in each and every home and business and maintained by the owners. When fire fighters arrived they had to know the location of the water mains. They had to frantically dig a hole down to the main. They then took an auger and bored a hole in the water main and allowed the hole to fill with water. Then the hard suction pump went in, priming was done, and water would flow.
By then all that was left of the original burning building was the chimney, front steps, and foundation. But a lot of work would be done to keep the fire from spreading to other structures.
When it was all done they had to stop the water. So a wooden plug was fashioned and driven into the bored hole with a wood mallet. Today our mallets are hard rubber, the pumpers driven to the scene, but we still fight the red devil with the wet stuff.
Stay safe
Here is the story of the fire plug. Back before even horses pulled the steamers, and a set of irons meant taking your vitamins, the term fire plug was born. In the cities, the earliest water mains were made of hollowed out logs. I have seen the remnants of these under the streets of my own city (Winston Salem, which was founded by the Moravians).
The call went out for a fire, and the fire fighters rushed to the scene with their great new hand pumper. There only PPE was a helmet and a bucket. The buckets were required by law to be in each and every home and business and maintained by the owners. When fire fighters arrived they had to know the location of the water mains. They had to frantically dig a hole down to the main. They then took an auger and bored a hole in the water main and allowed the hole to fill with water. Then the hard suction pump went in, priming was done, and water would flow.
By then all that was left of the original burning building was the chimney, front steps, and foundation. But a lot of work would be done to keep the fire from spreading to other structures.
When it was all done they had to stop the water. So a wooden plug was fashioned and driven into the bored hole with a wood mallet. Today our mallets are hard rubber, the pumpers driven to the scene, but we still fight the red devil with the wet stuff.
Stay safe
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