PA Fire Museum Welcomes Home Horse-Drawn Pumper

Raised on blocks to ease stress on the wooden wheels, the 111-year-old Union steam pumper traveled 50 miles Saturday on a flatbed truck from Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, to Reading.

The crew transporting the 1909 pumper stopped in Leesport to weigh it before bringing it to the Reading Area Firefighting Museum at Fifth and Laurel streets.

It was about 7,000 pounds.

"That's about three-and-half tons," said William H. Rehr III, a retired Reading fire chief who is now president of the museum, which is in the former Liberty Fire Company.

After the hourslong trip, about 15 museum volunteers helped push the steamer next to the Junior No. 2 1923 pumper, an American LaFrance model.

"It's kind of rewarding," Rehr said, watching the pumper being lowered from the truck. "The city gave it to the historical society in the 1930s. It's fortunate that the historical society took care of it."

On a wall near the pumper a framed display holds the tails of the last two horses to draw the pumper through town, along with shiny horse shoes and photos of the drivers.

Rehr said firefighters waited until the horses died to collect their tails.

The steam pumper had been on loan to the Schuylkill County museum from the Berks History Center, formerly the Berks County Historical Society.

It was lent to Schuylkill County Fire Museum because that facility did not have a steam pumper.

The firefighters museum bought it from the History Center.

It's hard to tell what the pumper's worth, Rehr said. It needs some work.

Rehr said it might be able to pump water. A few years ago, a wheelwright took a look at the wooden wheels and said they would need to be soaked in water to be able to be used in a parade, Rehr said.

The drivers of a steam pumper had to be boilermakers because of their most important job was getting the steam pump running at a fire, and keeping it from exploding, according to Rehr.

Steam pumpers would be kept warm at the fire station by a pipe. When out at a fire, it would take about eight minutes to get the boiler hot enough to pump water from a hydrant.

It could pump about 600 to 700 pounds of water a minute, according to Rehr.

Pumpers were accompanied by a chemical engineer crew in another horse-drawn wagon. That crew could mix together essentially a salt solution to quickly attack a fire while steam built up to power the pump.

At the time, steam pumpers were a welcome relief from hand-pumping water.

"It would take 16 to 20 firemen pumping one pump a second to throw a stream as high as Trinity Lutheran Church," Rehr said. "They couldn't do it that for long."

The museum is closed due to COVID-19 but board member Dave Silcox said it will be giving tours by appointment on Sept. 11. More information can be found at: http://www.readingareafirefightersmuseum.com/

The Liberty Fire Company was active until October 2010. With its large number of antiques and memorabilia, it was soon designated to become the Reading Area Firefighters Museum.

The building received National Historic Register status in 1985.

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Visit the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.) at readingeagle.com

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