Key West boasts one of the largest collections of historic wooden structures in the country. Credit for the designation often goes to historic preservationists, who recognized decades ago the value in protecting those properties and hanging on to the island’s history.
But another entity was essential in ensuring those structures stood long enough to become a historic district — the Key West Fire Department, which was founded 150 years ago.
Key West will mark a century and a half of firefighters and first responders at a public celebration on Saturday, Oct. 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Truman Waterfront Park. The event will feature a parade of fire trucks and fire boats along the East Quay Wall, as well as live demonstrations, food and free family-friendly activities.
150 years and counting
City officials created the Key West Fire Department in November 1875, 12 years after the Great Fire of 1886 incinerated more than 50 acres of Old Town – although, back then, it was just “town.”
The fire started next to the San Carlos Institute on Duval Street, burned for 12 hours and destroyed 18 major cigar factories and 614 houses and other buildings. It has long been suggested the fire was intentionally set by agents of the Spanish government to disrupt the support of the Spanish revolution in Cuba, which was being funded and encouraged by Key West cigar workers, according to the Key West Historic Marker Tour and the Key West Firehouse Museum.
At the time of the fire, the city’s only steam-powered fire engine had been placed on a ship and sent to New York for repairs, further fueling suspicions about the timing and the cause.
Consuming every wooden building in its path, the fire tore through blocks of Fleming, Whitehead, Eaton, Duval and Simonton streets.
A year after the fire, in 1887, Key West installed its first citywide fire warning system in the form of a giant brass fire bell in a tower. Each neighborhood was assigned a specific number. When a fire was reported, the bell would toll out the number to alert the town to its location.
“My grandmother remembered, when the fire bell would ring, everyone would stop what they were doing and listen to the number of bells to see if the fire was near their house,” retired firefighter and historian Alex Vega told the Keys Weekly. Back then, he said, Key West’s isolation really demanded innovation and forced people and the government to find ways to protect the southernmost city.
In 1875, the city created the Key West Fire Department to replace the private, all-volunteer, Tiger Hose Co. that had operated until then. The first department had 103 firefighters — still volunteers — and one paid fire chief.
“Big changes were made in the years following the great fire,” said Vega. “The city opened three fire stations to spread out its equipment and personnel. It had three horse-drawn engines that used steam to pump water from hoses, and started installing fire hydrants all over town.”
In 1906, the city installed 36, then 58, fire boxes throughout the town that could communicate via telegraph to the fire department.
“There was one in each neighborhood, and a designated person would have a key to their area’s fire box to alert the department,” Vega said.
Once telephones became ubiquitous, the fire boxes became obsolete, although several of them are on display at the Key West Firehouse Museum, 1024 Grinnell St., which is named in honor of Vega.
As technology advanced — combustion engines, telephones, hydraulic pumps, 911 capabilities, sprinkler systems, smoke detectors and countless other innovations — so did the fire department.
“Decades ago, the main job of the fire department was to fight fires,” Vega said. “Today, the vast majority of calls are for ambulance and EMS services, which are handled by the fire department.”
All firefighters are now also emergency medical technicians or paramedics who respond to traffic accidents, heart attacks, hypochondriacs and yes, fires. Today’s department includes an urban search and rescue team, a dive team and a hazardous materials crew. Firefighters are trained to use the “jaws of life” to extract people from vehicles and perform other lifesaving tasks.
“The job really has a lot of stress and pressure that can lead to PTSD for some guys,” Vega said, recalling the horrors of fatal traffic accidents, deadly fires, electrocutions and other tragedies. “And the fact that we’re such a small town makes it even harder, because we’re likely to know the people involved.”
Despite the desperation and destruction he witnessed in his long career as a Key West firefighter, Vega can’t imagine having done anything else. And he’s happy to share some insider secrets of the hottest department in town, as he joins current Key West firefighters at the department’s 150th celebration on Oct. 11 at Truman Waterfront.
