Fire Engines Fire Engines
The fire department of Denver, Co, has been a loyal Seagrave customer since the days of the fire horse, and Denver still uses large fleets of Seagrave fire engines to this day. This nostalgic photo shows Hose 12 of Denver, with a two-horse Seagrave hose wagon, and the horse harnesses suspended from the ceiling, ready to drop onto the horses at the first ring of the fire alarm. Note the firefighter seated at right, patiently holding his pose through the long exposure time of late-19th century cameras. (Photo Courtesy of Lester Williams)
The Seagrave painter's log shows that Denver bought two Seagrave horse-drawn hose wagons like this one in 1906: serial number 1982 and 1983. This photo might show one of these two, or it could be a Seagrave hose wagon built for Denver before Seagrave started its painter's log in 1906.
Denver also bought two horse-drawn Seagrave aerial ladder trucks in 1907: serial numbers 2229 and 2230. Another horse-drawn aerial for Denver, serial #3633, has the painting date of June 31, 1909. Denver's 65-foot Seagrave aerial #8588 (probably horse-drawn) had a painter's date of April 22, 1913.
But in the meantime, Denver was starting to buy Seagrave motorized apparatus, beginning with the purchase of an air-cooled Model AC-40 chemical and hose car #3485, painter's date of Augist 9, 1909. Three more Model AC "buckboard" motorized chemical and hose cars followed in the summer of 1911: serial numbers 5979, 5980, and 5981. The fourth "buckboard" motorized chemical car for Denver (#7436) followed on July 24, 1912.
This page was last updated on September 7, 1999.