The year was 1873. For the past year or so St. Catharines had been considering the purchase of newer, larger, steam-powered pumpers for its fire department.
Late in 1872 it had received for testing the latest product of the firm of Hyslop & Ronald in Chatham. After trying out that pumper for six months or so, the town got word from the same firm that it had just produced a newer and larger fire engine that it would be happy to deliver for testing as well. The town accepted that offer and the new, improved pumper was duly delivered in mid-1873.
The town’s fire and water committee decided the best way to judge them would be to stage a side-by-side demonstration of what the two pumpers could do. What was once an unbroken row of buildings is now open space with the so-called “Rock Pile” and St. Paul Street West leading to the Burgoyne Bridge.
So it was that on July 9, 1873, the two pumpers were taken out to the town square, a large open space adjacent to the intersection of St. Paul and Ontario streets. The fire houses were unreeled, the steam was raised first in one pumper and then the other.
And then the pumping began. In the distance on the left in this week’s old photo is the proposed new fire engine, a tall plume of steam rising from the engine that powered it. To the right, a bit closer to the viewer, is the pumper the town had already had on approval for some months.
St. Paul Street is strewn with fire hoses and is muddy from all the water sprayed about during the .
