As you stroll through the streets of downtown New Bern, you may have been drawn to an intriguing two-story brick building with the city’s mascot above the balcony. Below, four huge white doors and a sign with bold red letters that say “New Bern Fire Department.”
The 88 year old building is now the home of the New Bern Firemen’s Museum which recently moved from around the corner on Hancock Street, a plan years in the making.
“Last Saturday, this place was packed full of people, and we’re actually listed as the number two place to visit on Trip Advisor in Craven County.”
Retired Fire/Rescue Chief for the City of New Bern Bobby Aster says that puts the Firemen’s Museum as the most endorsed place to visit in New Bern, just behind Tryon Palace. It took ten years of renovations, but the new and improved museum opened to the public a month and a half ago.
“This building is actually our largest artifact. The museum used to be in a building built for a museum or as a museum. But now we’re in a fire station, and what better place could we be.”
Inside, spread out along the large, red concrete floor several vintage fire trucks represent almost a century of firefighting technology, from horse drawn carts to motorized vehicles with lights and sirens. Upon entry, a shimmering metal steamer from 1884 is front and center. It belonged to the Button Company, one of the two volunteer firefighting groups of that era in New Bern. The other was the Atlantic Hook and Ladder Company, organized 20 years prior, making it the oldest chartered fire department in the state of North Carolina.
The steam powered pump is nestled in a steel frame and attached to a single seated wagon, intended to be pulled by a team of horses.
“They would generate a fire before they left the fire station, the fire would be put in the firebox and as they, as the horses are pulling the steamer down the road, the wind would blow through it, get the fire good and hot, which would generate the steam which would operate the pump.”
A 10 foot long black hose, fixed to the steamer with leather straps was detached and used to pump water into the steamer from a nearby water source or from fire wells built along the streets of New Bern. Despite technology that now seems primitive, Aster says firefighters in the late 1800’s were very efficient.
“This particular steamer holds a world record for quick steam, which is going for a cool pump to being able to apply water at the end of the nozzle in a minute and forty eight seconds. And today, with a modern firetruck, there’s not a tremendous amount of difference in how long it takes to get water today that when it did back in these days.”
Both the Atlantic and Button Companies honed their skills and faced off in state-wide firefighting competitions, with both achieving world records. This intensified a long rivalry between the two firefighting organizations. It’s a rivalry that in some ways Aster says still exists today.
“I am an ex-Button Company fireman and we used to always compete with the Atlantic company, but it was always friendly. When it came time to put a fire out, we always worked together.”
In the museum, next to the 1884 steamer, is New Bern’s first motorized fire truck, displaying only a 30 year difference in firefighting technology. In 1914, the town gave the Atlantic and Button Companies a new truck, Atlantic’s was white and the one that’s on display here is Button’s which is painted red.
“BA: It’s a 1914 American LaFrance made in Elmyra, New York. It was the newest and best piece of equipment that you could buy at the time.”
JB: “There’s a ladder on this truck, what looks like a toolbox, and some other firefighting tools. What are some other things that can be clipped on to the truck and carried to the scene of the fire?”
BA: “This is basically the same type of truck that you would see today. It has a pump, it has a compartment for hose. One thing it does not have is a tank where it would carry large amounts of water. When this truck was purchased, New Bern had started its municipal water system and actually started some fire hydrants in the city.”
Even with the advent of fire trucks, horses surprisingly didn’t immediately become obsolete. They were often still used to help carry equipment to fires. When firehorses weren’t working with the department, Aster says they were put to use collecting trash.
BA: “These horses were smart enough that when the fire bell rang, they could unhitch from the trash truck and gallop back to the fire station and get ready to be hitched up to whatever apparatus they were going to pull.”
JB: “I see on the firetruck, the bell. Can we go over there, can we still ring it?”
BA: “Sure! It certainly is. This bell is interesting because it’s located in the rear of the firetruck. We can only assume that it was the firefighters that would stand on the tailboard while they were responding to the fire, it was one of their responsibilities to ring the bell. I’m not sure if it was used to clear traffic as it was to clear people out of the way to come through.”
Fire trucks and horses worked alongside each other in New Bern for almost three decades, until the late 1920s. The most famous and beloved was fire horse Fred. He went into service with the Atlantic Company in 1908 and served for seventeen years, including during the Great Fire of New Bern on December 1st, 1922.
“It was the largest fire in North Carolina. As you can see by these newspaper articles, it wiped out 1,000 homes in New Bern, and the photographs that we have on display show the fire and what happened. The fire department actually had to call in help from the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard came and actually had to dynamite some of the homes in the path to create a fire break.”
The Great Fire of New Bern is legendary. It left the town in ruins. More than a third of New Bern was destroyed and the devastation encompassed 40 city blocks near downtown.
Records show that more than 3,000 people were displaced from their homes. Some community members spent years in tents before they were able to recover fully.
Six years after the Great Fire, the original fire department on Broad Street was constructed to bring the Atlantic and Button companies together under one roof.
“The city had the idea…was under the impression that they were always competing with each other, which they were.
Aster says the Town Council took the rivalry into consideration when designing the two story brick building,
“The upstairs of this building is mirrored, two meeting rooms the exact same square footage, two offices the exact same square footage, one was painted in the Button Company colors, the other was painted in the Atlantic Company colors.”
Right now, the second floor of the museum is being restored and will include an extensive display on the Great Fire of 1922, an interactive exhibit for youngsters and a recreation of the Fire Chiefs office the way it would have looked a century ago. Aster says renovations should be complete by 2017.
The Firemen’s Museum, in the original New Bern Fire Department building, is open for tours Monday through Saturday 10 to 4. In addition to vintage fire trucks and equipment, old photos and uniforms, Aster says probably the most popular display is the actual head of Fred the Fire Horse encased in glass.
“Kids come in here, they love seeing Fred. And Fred talks, he can tell you the story. The kids can mash the button and he’ll tell you about his story and his entire life.”
