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Pre ven- ontro m Ear D asBOWMANVILLE, ONTARIO, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, by Doug Taylor Fire Prevention Week is an annual occasion, now more than 100 years in existence during which fire departments with co-operation from the media, focus on methods of fire prevention and safety. ,Traditionally, of course, we ,end to continue this prac- tice with invaluable fire pre- vention and safety informa- tion and description of what the Bowmanville Station of the Town of Newcastle Depart- ment plans for the public. As a slightly different ap- proach to the celebrations this year we have ad- ditionally decided to turn back the pages of time and examine the department from its early days when it was, according to records from the late 1800's known as the "Canada No. 1 Fire Company." Prior to the beginning of the 1900's the name had changed to the "Alert Hose Company," the change apparently taking place in 1884 as the records contain a roll call list of the members under both names for that year. It was certainIy a time which monetarily would please the present council for Newcastle. This is evident by records which show that each member of the company was then granted an annual remunera- tion of $10 for their services to the company in answering alarms. However, from the $10 each mimber was required to pay Tariff, or what we would now term as a deposit, amounting to $1.00 for the rubber fire coat and $2.00 for the cap and belt. The records of the late 1800's unfortunately do not enlighten us on the causes, locations or damage in fires of that period but we do find that the then called Chief Engineer was Thos. Hoar. Mechanical En- gineer was George Haines. Other members filling the company's ranks in those early days and on into the 1900 swere such as N.S. Young, Wm. McKay, N.R. Climie, John Lyle, P.B. Mar- tyn, John Percy, Wm. Cann, T. Percy, M. Hern, C. Stone- bouse, Wm. Trewin, John Ried, John Sinclair, George Downey, G.D. Fletcher, H. Baskerville, George Peck- bam, Fred Hoar, R. Dumas, A. Mitchell, Wilson Neads, Wm. Roenigk, F. Smith, T. Goard, F. Manning, H. Cree- per, W. Walker, N. Taylor and so on. Admittedly, some of the rnes may have been orn- ed from the preceding list, rrwtially due to-the condition oftheold record boak together with that of transiating the old style writing.of thekday. Bickering over petty mat- ters, usually found in munici- pal council meetings today, was not absent at the meetings of the company members. We find evidence of this in thp recording of the com- s special meeting on r 28, 1898, held in prepara- tion 'for the July lst celebra- tions that year. At the meeting a motion was introduced by Walker and seconded by Percy "That the members of the company wear stand up collars on July 1." However, disagreeing with that suggestion, an amend- ment was put by Edger, seconded by Taylor, "that the company wear turned down collars on July 1. The Motion as amended carried. Following this Knight mov- ed with Grant seconding "that each member wear a white vest on July 1", but again the amendment carried with Ed- ger and McBrien suggest- ing "that each member wear what they like in a body." The only original motion at that meeting pertaining to the dress of the company for July 1 which carried without amendment was that by McBrien and Edger "that the company wear white gloves on July 1." At the turn of the century we find the records of 1902 showing that George Haines, previously the mechanical engineer, had moved up ta assume the rank of Chief. A few new names such as Chas. Rice, H-. Ridge, Jas. Morrow, W. Rabbins, H. Allin, Thos. Coulter, J. McIntyre and F.J. Bennett had also joined the company by this time. The first detailed records of tbose early days of the company's response ta fires, still at the time af horse drawn equipment, begin around 1916, the year which brought a $1,500 loss by fire at the Goodyear factory on Febru- ary 19. Later that year, an August 6 fire broke out in Mayor Mitchell's garage on Horsey street. Owing ta a delay in the alarm, fire got a head start and the barn and a closely adjoining building were burn- ed to the ground while firemen concentrated their efforts in saving other nearby dwel- lingss. éte in the fall of 1917, the first of a series of fires which brought an eventual arson convictiobrok_qut at Mr. WilV 'n Tordiff's "in the hol'., on November 28 at 2 a.m. Following the description of firemen fýhting the fire with two lines ohose laid froni the corner of Queen Street and returning to the hall about 4:30 a.m. comes a somewhat humorous note. It advises that the "Team" did not show, although fails to explain when, and reports that a horse was hired to bring the hose back. The second Tordiff fire on record is shown under Febru- ary 5, 1918 in the terraces at Fire Chief Tom Hoar and his dog Prinnie, sometime prior to 1906 attired in the typical dress of the early years of fire protection in Bowmanville. Chief Hoar is reported to have died in 1906. Brown and Queen Streets at 3 a. m. On that occasion firemen battled the blaze until 9 a.m. in temperatures of 28 to 30 degrees below zero, nearly all suffering from frozen faces, hands or feet. Tordiff was apparently also responsible for a~third fire but it does not appear to be on record. However, on the occasion of the terrace fire he was found setting fire when firemen arrived and thev are reported to have turned the hose on him. He was conse- quently arrested and in March was sentenced to seven years of hard labor in Kingston by Magistrate W. Horsey. 1918 on the whole was one of the worst years on record in the early days'of the Bowman- ville firefighters. A monetary loss is not given but a fire February 19 at 4:30 a.m. in the "Quick Store House" took five hours ,to extinguish. Then on April 19, the residence of Mr. Payne on Concession Street burned to te grounid at 9:30 a.m. for a loss of $3,000. The records report that the "chemical engine" as it was known, performed satisfactor- ily, but as there was no water available the home was too far gone to be saved. The Town Hall fell prey to fire on July 16 at 6:45 p.m. and suffered a total loss of $3,241. Firemen battled the town hall fire for some two hours, with three lines of hose laid, until the chief finally declared the blaze out at 8:45 p.m. The loss was covered by four separate insurance com- panies, the Northern National, Dominion, Merchants and Commercial Union, each pay- ing an equal share of $810.25. It is not stated in the fire company's records but a life long citizen of Bowmanville, Claude Ives, recalls that the town hall fire also destroyed many of the municipal rec- ords In 1920 one comes across the first notations of "Motor and Men" responding to the alarm rather than the previous "Men and Horses." The reason, of course, was the arrival at that time of the company's first motor power- ed vehicle, a Ford Model T. pumper on June 4 1920. Later that month (June 21) the first official testing of the new pumper was conducted at 7:30 p.m. at the hydrant at "Mr. Symons Corner" and it was reported that "in six ininutes from the ring of the bell water was thrown." - Additional practice preced- ed the July 19 regular meeting of the company. Three runs were made on that date to hydrants in the south ward, the first water being thrown in a little over three minutes. Unfortunately, even the ar- rival of the new pumper proved little help in saving the arn of W.W. Horsey on October 24. Fire was discovered in the Horsey barn about 5:30 p.m. but a delay in supplying firemen the proper location gave it a good start and then the records show that the men "could do nothing for the want of water." The uninsured loss of the barn totalled $4,000. The arrival of the pumper however did bring about another change in the name from the "Alert Hose Com- pany" ta the "Alert Fire Company," the Chief at that time being William Edger. Insufficient supply of water seemed to be a major problem facing the company at this time as another fire is recorded on July 28, 1921 where the residence of Mr. Childs in the north ward was a total loss owing to no water supply being available while firemen were successful sav- ing adjoining residences. _ John Trimble's apartment house on King Street East received fire damage of $1,500 to the building and $600 contents on March 17, 1924, while Sid Jackman's Boiler House burned the morning of April 2, also due to no water close by. Further improvement in the company's equipment came with tbe arrivai in the fal oI 1926 on September 13. A new Godfredson pumper arrived and was tested at the "Jeffries Tank" at the corner of King and Silver Streets. The Bowmanville company were called for assistance in Oshawa on June 19, 1928 at 3 a.m. for fire at the skating rink and returned home some two hours later. Following that, the years of 1929 and 1930 brought some slightly undesirable fire losses Included in these were the residence of Blake McMurtry on Wellington Street on Janu- ary 6, 1929, the residence of Harry Hamm's on Manvers Road on March 14, 1930 and the Jacobs Confectionery store on King Street March 21, 1930. All exceeded losses of $1,500. At the beginning of 1932 we find that fire protection to areas outside of town was being provided. The first is that on January 6 at 8 a.m. when firemen were called to Tyrone. On that occasion, the fire involved four structures, a store and barn owned by Mr. Phair, the bouse of Jas. Alldread, and the bouse of Wm. Virtue. Somewhat surprisingly, the fire was contained and men returned home by il a.m. but no dollar value is given. We then skip to 1936 on June 14 at 2:30 a.m. when firemen laid four lines of hose to protect adjoining buildings while Taylor's arena on King Street burned. The arena fire caused a second alarm when a spark ignited a smali fire on the roof of an Argyle Street residence, firemen finally returning to the hall at 6:30 a.m. The always feared possibil- ity of a fire truck being involved in a traffic accident enroute to a fire did occur as recorded on September 22, 1938. The truck, responding to an alarm at Mrs. Thos. Richards on Queen Street, callided with a transport truck at the intersection of King and Division Streets and did not get to the fire. What happened to the home is not recorded. Assistance from Oshawa was required when fire des- troyed the east wing of the Davis-Holt Furniture Factory in an eight hour blaze on November 28. 1938. On parade are the men and equipment of the Bowmanville, Company prior to 1920. In the car is Chief William Edger and driver Alexander Chaffer. Next in the line is the "chemical wagon with driver Herb Bradley and Ben Bickle, followed by Saddest of the fires in Bowmanville include one in 1940 which claimed a life. It came on Sunday March 24, at the home of Mr. Thos. Ross apparently caused by smoking and taking the well liked, former operator of the movie theatre, man's life. Structural loss of the house was calculated at $1,703 and contents at $2,000. Leafing on through the period of the 1940's one of very Members of the company aboard the hose wagon, prior to 1920, at the corner of King and Temperance Streets. Driver of the wagon is Herb Bradley accompanied by firemen Tom Percy and George Lyle at the front of the wagon. On back, not all are recognized but Herb Barrie and Neil Taylor are among them. Above we see the members of the "Alert Fire Company" of Bowmanville while in attendance at a firemen's demonstration at the Oshawa Fair Grounds in August 1922. The vehicle in the picture was the company's first motorized unit, a 1920 Model T Ford pumper. Standing at ground level from the left are Deputy Chief George Lyle, Charles Rice, Lucius (Ham) Hooper, Neil Taylor, Alvin Stacey (lying in front), Percy Williams and Herbert Jamieson. On the truck from left are William Barrie, Tom Percy, Tom Lyle (mascot and later a chief), Chief William Edger and Driver Frank L. Calver. The men and equipment of the Bowmanville Fire Department as it stands today took time Saturday afternoon to pose for the Statesman camera in front of the Police-Fire Hall on Church Street. From the left are Graydon Brown, Bruce Smith, Ray Kitchko, Greg Corden, Mike Murphy, Ron Carter, Bill Lyle, Brian Smith, John Lyle, Wally Ruiter and Howard Davey. Absent were Chief Jim Hayman, Lloyd the hose wagon with driver Joe Byers, "Ham" Hooper, George Lyle, and Harry Allin and finally the pumper driven by Sam Candler with engineer Tom Percy and young Stuart Candler, who loaned us several photos for this article. few major fires on March 10, 1946 caused damages of $20,000 at Mr. Hancock's, building, formerly the West End Garage. After 20 years from the arrival of the Godfredson pumper in 1926, the company finally acquired another ve- hicle in early October, 1946, an International pumper. Other fires of the late 1940's exceeding losses of $1,500 include Rev. Rogers home on Centre Street the morning of December 14, 1946 and the Balmoral Hotel in the small hours of Februarv 22, 1947. Fire Chiefs come and go and such was the case during the 1940's with rank of Chief now assumed by Lucius (Ham) Hooper while Walter Hackney was Deputy Chief. Hackney later became Chief it 1958. , Mention of Fire Prevention Week is found on September 20, 1948 when the company voted to hold an essay contest for school students, the prizes for first, second and third winners to be $5, $3 and $2 respectively. A grass and bouse fire north of Tooley's Mill on April 10, 1949 gives first evidence that the compaty were required to operate within certain bound- aries. Owing to tbe disturb- ance from town permission to attend the fire was not granted. Summarizing the 1950's period we find records in our own files giving the total number ofcalls and fire losses during this time. 1950 brought a total of 29 calls, three of them in Darlington Township with a total loss of $2,996.75, up slightly from the 1949 total of $2,125.49. Due to a $5,800 loss at Memorial Hospital during construction the 1951 total jumped to $7,200 with a total of 35 calls turned in, 12 of them for Darlington. Forty-seven calls in 1954 (13 in Darlington) saw a total fire loss of $29,200 while the next major year was 1958 with the loss at midnight on a Sunday in May of the Orchland Farms Hatchery valued at $25,000 which included the loss of some 2,000 Leghorn and Barred Rock Hens. Since the 1940's the Bow- manville department bas con- tinued to update its equip- ment. A new GMC 500 unit arrived in February 1950 followed by a Ford model in October 1959. Next replacement came in 1971 with the arrival of the Forsey, Harley Martyn, Wayne Harrison, John Carter, George Moore, Bruce Goudey and Steve Oke. Vehicles from left are the 1959 pumper, 1971 pumper, water tanker, emergency van and chief's wagon. A emergency boat and motor that is kept in a small shed near the fire station were not included. Ford 840 in January that year while most recent arrivals are the water tanker for rural fires in October 1974 and the Emergency Unit in July of this year. Present Chief in Bowman- ville, Jim Hayman, assumed command from Tom Lyle in 1969. Chief Hayman had previouslyý served on the volunteer force for some 25 years. In 1973, the formation of the Region and the, New Town of Newcastle co-ordinated the fire services at Bowmanville, Newcastle village and Orono. The former 1950 GMC truck from Bowmanville is now one of two units in Orono, the other being a 1964 GMC. In New- castle village the department is equipped wiýh a 1965 GMC and a 1940 Ford. Chiel layman and Firenan Graydon Brown make up the present full time staff, based in Bowmanville station which also has some 17 volunteers. In Newcastle village (Hall 2) 18 volunteers operate under area chief Fred Glanville and in Orono (Hall 3) another 18 come under area chief Ross Mercer, for a total present, force of 53 volunteers. The, Bowmanville firemen are presentIy the oniy ones on the "tone alert" caîl system which automatically sets off the tone activated radios each man has. All men, at all three halls, respond directly to the station for the equipment. This is felt by Chief Hayman to be a preferable method over that in some communities where certain men are dele- gated to get the trucks and others respond to the scene of the fire in their own vehicles. It also bas the advantage of providing immediate awar- ness of who is on hand prior to leaving the hall. To bring this article to an end we asked Chief Hayman whai he sees for the future of the department. The main expectation, de- pending on population growth of the Town of Newcastle in such areas as Courtice, Bow- manville itself or wherever, will be more halls or sub- stations. Chief Hayman suggests that a rpation in any one area of 10,000 would require a fire station to be located there. The Chief explained that a professional study has been conducted by the Fire Mar- shall's office, examining the whole area. The study bas not been adopted by council yet but in planning for the future may eventually be accepted. One of the prime considera- tions for Bowmanville is of course an aerial ladder truck, a matter whicb bas beet kicked around and will no doubt have to come in the not too distant future. GARDENING with Doc Hartnol GET READY TO WINTERIZE PLANTS AND TREES Spring is the traditional gardening season, but I really enjoy fall for working in the garden. It's cool for us humans and just right for plants. It's the p.rfect time for repotting, transplanting, getting plants ready for storage, and generally winterizing the garden. When it comes to plants, bulbs are the first thing that corne to most minds. Chooseyour bulbs carefully. Make sure you know about the type of flower it will produce, where it will grow best and whether it will harmonize with the rest of your garden. Make sure yau've got good healthy bulbs, not ones that look moldy, soft, or rotted. What do you feed bulbs? Well, neighbors, i like to use a bit of Vigoro Bone Meal in the hole and worked in so the roots can reach it. On established beds, just add the bone meal and gently cultivate it down to soil to a depth of two or three inches. When planting new beds, remember that bulbs do better in sandy soil so it's a good idea to add some sand to the bottom of each planting hole if your bed has poor drainage. And remember, spring flowering bulbs must have time to develop roots before winter. Plant them not later than mid-October, but ask your local bulb salesman just to make sure. Plant daffodils as soon as possible after purchase;.they take longer to make up their root system. Keep in mind, too, that bulbs planted in a southern exposure near a wall will bloon earlier in the spring than those planted in a northern exposure. In cold sections and open beds, often a protective mulch of three to four inches of straw or evergreen boughs is recommended. Remove it in the spring before the plants are more than one inch high. Transplant peonies. Fall's a good tirne to divide and transplant peonies. Cut tops to 1", dig up the plants and shake off the soil around the roots. Divide the clumps by cutting with a sharp knife. Make sure that each division has three or four basal buds or "eyes" above the roots. Remove any damaged or diseased roots. I don't like to crowd peonies with other plants in beds, simply because you get beautiful blooms when the plants are given three or four feet of growing space. Dig a deep bed for the root system - but 1" to 2" of soil over "bud eyes" is sufficient. An application of a high phosphorus fertilizer like Pink Vigoro helps your garden along over the winter. The higher phosphorous con- tent gives root systens a goodfeeding over the wvinter. And, just a final word about those indoor plants of yours that have been vacationing in the garden, Many will be ready for reptting in the next size pot. For instance, if they were, put out in a 3-inch pot, repot them in a 4-inch pot. (Don't think youire going to save time by transplanting them into a 6-inch pot. You'll wait all winter for the root system to catch up.) Use a good weed-free potting soil. I've found Vigaro's potting soil is good and it's fortified with Pink Vigoro. 1 like ta"keepmy outdoor "vacationers" by therselves for a week to 10 days to make sure they aren't carrying insects which might damage other plants. If you have any questions about your plants or lawn, l'Il be happy to answer them. Just send them to me with a self-addressed stamped envelope to Garden Information Centre, 165 University Ave., Toronto, Ont. M5H 3B8