To the editor:
Last month, the Salem Fire Department dedicated its new, magnificent Ladder 1, thus continuing a firefighting apparatus history that started in 1832 — long before the establishment of the Salem Fire Department.
The Franklin Hook & Ladder Company, Salem’s first, was formed in September 1832 and named for Benjamin Franklin, who famously co-founded the first all-volunteer fire club in 1736 in Philadelphia. “The Franklin,” which carried multiple ladders and metal hooks to pull down fire-damaged buildings and chimneys to keep fire from spreading, was first housed on Court and Forrest Streets with Engine No. 5 (the “Pennsylvania,” a Philadelphia-style hand engine), and Sail Carriage No. 2 (a four-wheel cart with great rolls of unbleached sail cloth to drape over buildings on fire and soak with water.)
From Court Street, the Franklin moved to Marlborough, or Marlboro, Street (these streets are part of today’s Federal Street). By 1866, the Franklin had moved to its new ladder house on Bridge Street, opposite St. Peter Street. In 1869, the Franklin was replaced by a newer and much larger machine. Finally, in the early 1890s, after Salem purchased a second ladder truck, the Franklin Company, now Ladder 1, moved to Engine 4’s station house on Essex Street. The new truck became Ladder 2 and took up residence in the Bridge Street ladder house.
During the Great Salem Fire of 1914, Engine 4’s building was destroyed. While waiting for a new station house to be built (which it was by the fall of 1915), Ladder 1 joined Ladder 2 on Bridge Street. After the Great Salem Fire, the Fire Department took steps to fully motorize its apparatus. The first motorized ladder truck, designated Ladder 1, arrived in October 1915 from the Robinson Fire Apparatus Co. of St. Louis, Missouri. The Salem Evening News of Oct. 5, 1915, called it “a beauty (that would) add materially to the work of fire fighting as it will be easy to handle and has a speed of 45 miles per hour. The truck has an 80-H.P. engine, 17 foot wheel base and is equipped with Sewell cushion wheels.” It also carried a 35-gallon chemical tank, and cost $6,750.
Needless to say, the science and technology that produced the Franklin in 1832 and, 192 years later in 2024, the new Ladder 1, has evolved immeasurably. But the dedication of firefighters then and now, from volunteers, fire clubs, and call men to today’s robust Salem Fire Department, has not changed a bit.
Bonnie Hurd Smith-Dionne,
Peabody