April 21, 1878: Firefighter George Reid, of Engine Company 21 in Chicago, is busy unloading hay for the horses that pull their fire engines. As the story goes, he was on the third floor when an alarm rang, and rather than dashing down the flights of stairs, he took the easiest way: down a binding pole that had been set vertically. Inspired, forward-thinking Captain David Kenyon, of the same company, convinced the Chief of Department later that year to allow for the installation of a permanent 3″ diameter pole made of Georgia pine. Needless to say, they were the first-due engine for many calls after that.

Image courtesy of the Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis

Since then, however, because of stringent safety concerns, installations have been stopped and existing ones removed, as per NFPA recommendations. Single-story firehouses are now more and more common, and the once staple of the firehouse image — that and the dalmatian — are now part of the beautiful and long-gone past.

Filed under: On the Fire Side, That Was Then