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Museum to commemorate New Brunswick Fire Department

Daniel Munoz
Correspondent
The 254-year history of the New Brunswick Fire Department will be commemorated with a history museum.

NEW BRUNSWICK - The city’s fire department isn’t the oldest in the country, despite its official founding in 1764, over a decade before the Declaration of Independence was signed.

That honor might go to the fire department of Jamestown, Virginia, then called the London Company, founded in 1607.

Notable runners-up might include New York City’s quasi-fire department, founded in the mid-17th century when the city was a small Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam.

Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States, had a hand in crafting an early fire department, the all-volunteer Union Fire Company in Philadelphia, founded in 1736.

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Firefighters work at the scene of downtown fire in 2015.

Nonetheless, the 254-year history of the New Brunswick Fire Department, with all of its ups and downs, will be commemorated with a history museum, city officials announced at the April 4 City Council meeting.

The museum is planned for the second floor of the Unity Square Community Center, 81 Remsen Ave., and in a decommissioned firehouse built over a century ago.

The second floor is empty, according to Thomas Loughlin, the city business administrator, and it’ll stay that way until the museum opens to the public. Renovations should be done in 3½ to 4 months, Loughlin said.

“The walls and everything have been approved, but there’s no furnishings, or no museum exhibits, there are no artifacts,” Loughlin said.

Fire at 80 Delafield St. before dawn Oct. 26, 2015.

The exact artifacts to be displayed are yet to be determined, according to New Brunswick Fire Department Lt. Chris Stellatella.

“We have a huge quantity of artifacts and historic pieces of equipment we’ve had for years and years,” Stellatella said.

Possible features include historic photographs that would be scaled up to the size of a wallpaper, and commemorative cornerstones preserved from since-demolished firehouses, according to Tom Valenti, a city engineer.

If all goes well, Loughlin said, the museum will be up and ready by the end of 2018.

With many of the artifacts in private hands, or owned by the fire department or firefighter’s unions, artifacts and exhibits might be occasionally rotated through the museum, Loughlin suggested.

Firefighters working to extinguish a blaze that destroyed Congregation Poile Zedek in 2015.

New Brunswick’s fire department started as the all-volunteer First Bucket Company in 1764, according to the city website. But historical documents provided to MyCentralJersey.com suggest quasi-predecessors for decades earlier.

Under Mayor Thomas Farmer in 1731, the City Council passed a law titled “An Ordinance to Prevent Fire,” which appointed city officials who would inspect chimneys and hearths to ensure they posed as little fire hazard as possible.

Those officials had the power to order houses and structures to be up to code with fire prevention, and could issue fines (in shillings, not dollars) for those who failed to comply.

Minutes from a 1737 City Council meeting show that a fire engine had been purchased by New Brunswick, and references to the engine pop up in subsequent meeting minutes over the next few decades.

But the department, nonetheless, is noted as having officially sprung to life in 1764, and a commemorative parade was held in the fall 2014 for department’s 250th anniversary.

Just over a decade into its service, the fire department purchased its first two vehicles, which were incorporated into the “Upper and Lower Companies,” reads the city website.

A two-alarm fire at 970 Somerset St. in 2014.

Put to the test

The fire department was put to the test on several occasions before the turn of the century.

One fire, on April 14, 1768, “destroyed five homes, a bake shop, a bottling establishment and a copper shop,” reads the city website.

With high winds spreading the flames and worsening the fire, New Brunswick called in the military and local residents to help.

But the worst was yet to come. In 1798, a fire wiped out nearly the entire city, prompting the state to appropriate $5,000 in aid, according to the city website, upwards of $100,000 accounting for inflation.

Fire vehicles up through the end of the 19th century were composed of horse-drawn carriages, with large metal water tanks mounted on top, along with hoses, steam engines to pump the water through the hoses, ladders, and valves to measure water pressure.

Yet over the years, additional fire companies were founded and equipment was regularly updated to reflect the nation’s constantly evolving technology during the Industrial Revolution.

By World War I, the fire department had been outfitted with the early versions of the firetruck. In 1914, the department switched from all-volunteer to a paid department.

Firefighters were required to adhere to a strict set of rules, according to an article in the June 30, 1914 edition of The Daily Home News.

“Curfew bell with ring for firemen,” reads the article. “Paid men must retire by 10:30 in winter and 11 O’Clock in Summer - Politics in the Department Barred.”

Firefighters worked 21 hour days, with an hour off each for breakfast, lunch and dinner, according to the city website.

Over the decades, the city adopted more efficient alarm boxes, 911 systems, fire vehicles, medical training and organizational set-up.

New Brunswick’s first African American firefighter joined the department in 1947, followed by the first Hispanic firefighter in 1965 and the first female firefighter in 2001, according to the city website.

“Presently, the New Brunswick Fire Department is comprised of one director, four deputy chiefs, eight captains, ten lieutenants, 76 firefighters and one secretary,” reads the city website. “The Division of Fire Safety is comprised of one fire official and three fire prevention specialists.”

New Brunswick Fire Director Robert Rawls