A Brief History of the Morristown Fire Department

These days, Morristown's fire companies work closely together, tackling dangerous blazes as one multi-faceted team. But that wasn't always the case.

"Back in the late 1800s to early 1900s the competition came from: Who would be the first to put out a fire?" said Capt. Jon Prachthauser, of the Morristown Fire Department. "I've heard all sorts of stories."

Some of those stories include putting cans over fire hydrants so they could not be used by the competing firehouses, Prachthauser said. There were even fist fights between companies in the middle of the streets.

These tales of a contentious rivalry between competing firehouses serving one town have been passed down through generations of Morristown firefighters. 

"Our general rule: We're deep in tradition," Fire Chief Gary Desjadon said. "It's important to know your history. It makes you feel like you're part of something greater than yourself. We convey that sentiment throughout by surrounding ourselves with it. Our fire houses are filled with history."

Morristown's first fire department—Independent Hose Company—was formed in 1867 when "the need for an organized fire department was realized," Desjadon said.

Located at 15 Market St. the Independent Hose Company is one of the three still standing fire houses in Morristown. No longer in use, it houses various memorabilia, most notably two antique fire trucks.

"Morristown owned the first motorized fire truck," Desjadon said. The antique currently sits in the two-part garage on the first floor of the Market Street building. Volunteers are working on refurbishing it, Desjadon said.

Out of the other two fire houses still in Morristown, the Humane Engine Company at 161 Speedwell Ave. is the only one operating. The First Ward Hose Company, at 155 Morris St., is used to house bits of fire department history.

"In the fire houses you come across different things–pictures, pamphlets, documents. Old memorabilia hangs everywhere, it surrounds you," Desjadon said. "Hats, a silver trumpet, a wooden hand-pumped fire wagon from 1833 is on display."

When Desjadon first became fire chief in 2008, he said, he came across some old documents and noticed that a particular dye used to be on the fire trucks.

"It was named Morristown Red," he said. "We were able to track down that dye, it's a darker red, and we use that on our trucks today."

Desjadon also had the names of all six once-existent fire companies stenciled on the sides of every fire truck. Each truck bears a different name. They read-Washington Engine Company, Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, Humane Engine Company, First Ward Hose Company, Independent Hose Company, and Board of Fire Wardens. All six companies were formed close to 1867.

Although there were three different types of companies when the six initially formed, four vied for the same responsibilities. Resolute Hook and Ladder Company opened buildings and ventilated them to conduct search operations, the Board of Fire Wardens had police-like duties, responsible for crowd control at the scene of a fire, while the other four were engine companies-in charge of accessing the necessary water by opening fire hydrants and attaching hoses.

Back then fires were reported through pole boxes. Dispersed throughout Morristown, each had a different number. When a pole box was set off, by pulling a lever, a bell in each station (and one bell at the top of the municipal building) rung. The number of chimes coordinated with the numerics of the pole box, indicating the fire's location. The first needed at the scene were engine companies-those responsible for getting water on the fire. The four companies who vied for the job-Independent Hose Company, Washington Engine Company, Humane Engine Company and First Ward Hose Company-were the fiercest competitors, Prachthauser said.

Further escalating tensions, five of the six shared buildings. "Each company also had a different ethnic and religious makeup," Prachthauser said.

When the Washington Engine Company (an Irish Catholic group) first moved into 17 Market St.-where the Protestant-based Independent Hose Company operated-a wall was built down the center of the building. 

"If you wanted to go from one house to the other you had to walk outside," Prachthauser said. "There was a lot of competition between those two companies."

Although the Humane Engine Company, owned and operated by Catholic Italians, the Resolute Hook and Ladder Company, a Protestant group, and the Board of Fire Wardens, formed by a group of "muts," as Prachtnauser described them, all had separate fire fighting responsibilities, cultural disparities kept each group at a distance, while they operated out of the same building—1 Speedwell Ave. The First Ward Hose Company, another group of Irishmen, was the only company to have its own house, at 155 Morris St.

The 1 Speedwell Ave. department was torn down in 1970 when Headquarters Plaza was constructed. The fire house was moved down the street to 161 Speedwell Ave., where Humane Engine Company, Resolute Hook and Ladder Company and the Washington Engine Company still operate today as the Morristown Fire Department.

Three separate companies still exist within the Morristown Fire Department. But times have changed.

"If there is a fire tonight we will go out as the Morristown Fire Department, we function as a single group," Prachthauser said.