I live in Lynn and did not know I had such an easy access
to such interesting history in the Lynn museum about firefighters and their different methods
of fighting fire. In 17th and 18th century Lynn. There
were no organized firefighters to douse the flames when a fire broke out.
Instead, residents responded to the fire with fire buckets. The leather
jugs shown in the picture hung in homes and businesses and were placed close to
the entrance of the building for convenience. Local fire clubs were organized
and the volunteers were known as “bucket bridges”. The volunteers’ work became
easier with the advent of fire engines, machines that were pushed and pumped by
hand. Each neighborhood housed and maintained its own engine. These
neighborhood engines were a source a pride, and crowds often gathered around
the fire to cheer on their neighborhood fire company.
Until the early 19th century, firefighting
equipment was purchased by private sponsors- usually those with businesses to
protect. In 1835, Lynn assumed responsibility for providing the tools and the
people to fight fires. By the 1860s, new engines pulled by horses and powered
by steam were purchased to replace hand pumped engines and fire stations were
built throughout Lynn. The necessity to professionalize the industry of
firefighting was fueled by growing number of factories, which increased the
risk of fire. Stemming from a fire in a glove factory, the Great Fire of 1889
drastically changed the city’s landscape, wiping out an entire section of the
downtown, including Central Square. Part of the Gamewell Fire Telegraph system,
Box 41 was pulled to alert citizens of Lynn to the start of this devastating
fire. Though more recent, the Great Fire of 1981 had similarly destructive
effects on the city. This fire consumed the last shoe factory in operation in
Lynn and left nearly 800 residents homeless.
I witnessed the Great Lynn Fire of 1981. I was home from college for Thanksgiving. We woke up in the early morning hours to sirens and dogs howling. We could see a fiery sky towards Boston and thought it was a nuclear bomb at first. How crazy it was to feel relief to learn it was only Lynn's factories on fire. Lynn had already experienced a lot of economic decline before the fire, but the fire caused the City to enter a new age of decline. The City has only recently begun to improve in my view.
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