Competition and pride among the various volunteer companies was intense. Much value was placed on getting first water on a fire. Other volunteers would race dozens of blocks to the fire, pulling fire pumpers with such affectionate names as Old Brass Backs, the White Ghost, and Red Rover.
The buckets would be gathered by the volunteers as they ran to the scene of the fire. When the cry of fire! echoed through the streets of early New York, relaying the alarm from block to block, residents of the closely packed wooden houses would toss the leather buckets they were required to have out their windows to the brigades of volunteer firefighters below. Ballads were often written about their exploits. Each volunteer company had a piece of apparatus individually named, painted, and funded by a group of financial patrons. The volunteer firemen, selected by the General Assembly for being able, discreet, sober men, were an elite group and enjoyed an elevated status. New Yorkers in the 18th and 19th centuries had a real romance with firefighting. In its most trying moments, the Fire Department of New York responded to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 19, dutifully rushing into the towers to save as many lives as possible and ultimately losing hundreds of their own. Later, facing unprecedented heights and unparalleled danger, firefighters in New York City were called upon to battle infernos in the first skyscrapers, often using the most rudimentary equipment and barely protected from the flames. The proximity of buildings in the city streets and the construction materials made each fire especially dangerous, but determined firefighters never hesitated to battle the flames and rescue the victims. From the gaslight days of horse-drawn steam engines to the World Trade Center tragedy of 2001, the heroic men and women who make up the city's most dynamic public service have risked and often lost their lives in order to protect and serve the people of New York City.New York City Firefighting: 1901-2001 chronicles the proudest fire department in America. It is also the story of man's triumph over destructive forces. The story of firefighting in New York City is one of danger, tradition, pride, excitement, and tragedy.
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