Remembering the old Norwalk fire station and its horses

Norwalk's wonderful new fire station has brought up the subject of the days of horse-drawn equipment before there were motor-driven fire engines. The old fire house was built in 1912 with stall in the back for the horses, which were used until 1918. The first motor-driven engine was purchased in 1912, and was on order at the time of the courthouse fire in July of that year.Of course, the horses were trained professionally to responded to a gong, spring through the open doors of their stalls, and move to a designated spot where the harness would drop on them and be fastened. Within a very short time they were on their way to the fire with the pumper. Meanwhile, a fire had been kindled under the boiler to create steam pressure to power the pumper at the scene of the fire. It must have been an impressive sight to see the team and pumper en route to a fire.When the fire department was housed on East Seminary Street prior to 1900, the driver, Clement Kramer (better known as Fritz), lived upstairs with his family. At least one of his daughters was born there and she told me her older siblings would accuse her of having been born in a barn.Accompanying this article is a photo of the horses and pumper in action. I believe that this photo was taken on West Main Street near West Street and it is the only one I've ever seen of the horses and pumper in motion. I'm bothered, though, by the fact the men are pretty well-dressed to be firemen on their way to a fire. Perhaps this was some sort of test of the equipment and the men are city officials.The life of a fire horse wasn't all oats and hay, however. Here are some incidents where the horses were in peril. There may have been more, but these are the ones which have come within my ken:1. In May of 1903 the department was responding to a fire on League Street. About in front of the present new station a rein broke and the horses were out of control. They ran north on Whittlesey to the gully just south of Lovers Lane Road, where the inevitable crash took place. Two firemen were injured slightly. 2. While responding to a grass fire on West Main in April of 1917 one of the horses' shoes caught in the interurban track. The horse was dragged about twenty feet until the hook and ladder truck could be stopped.3. The worst accident saw one of the horses killed on Feb. 18, 1918. As the driver turned the team from East Monroe onto Milan opposite 28 Milan Ave., he lost control and one horse hit a power pole and was killed. One of the firemen was seriously injured.This latter incident may have precipitated the end of the horse-drawn era. In October of 1918, Molly was sold for $26, and Bird was sold for $15, each to different purchasers. Both were veterans of 20 years with the fire department, and there was sincere regret at their leaving.In less than ten days local citizens had raised the money to buy them back. They were taken to a livery barn temporarily, and the next day were euthanized and buried in the north part of Norwalk, possibly along West Washington Street.One version of this story is that the horses kept responding overtime they heard a gong. That fact isn't given in my sources, but I do know that one of the horses kicked and seriously injured his new owner during the short time the news owner possessed it. No doubt the poor horse was confused by his new environment.* * *REMEMBER: My "Just Like Old Times" books are on sale at New Directions Design, 20 W. Main St., in downtown Norwalk. These contain my earlier columns fully indexed and in permanent book form. Henry Timman, an authority on Firelands history, resides in rural Norwalk.Timman