Hose Wagon Was Hot Stuff Back in 1872

That primitive hose wagon pictured top right, being hustled along Center Street in 1872 Anaheim, was a source of great civic pride.

Before its purchase from the Studebaker Wagon Co. of South Bend, Ind., volunteer firefighters had only buckets and ladders. It was all that an agricultural community of 800 people could afford.

Or so they thought.

In April 1871, a Mr. Davis lost his house to a fire set by his son, who was playing with appropriately named lucifer matches. Two months later the two-story Planters’ Hotel downtown burned so furiously it was gone in 30 minutes. Only the absence of wind to spread the flames saved the town.

Then, in the same week in October, the epic Chicago fire broke out, followed by a forest fire in northern Wisconsin that reportedly killed more than 1,000 people, four times the toll in Chicago.

Anaheim passed the hat and bought its first firetruck, the hose cart that arrived probably in April 1872 and was named Sophie after the fire chief’s daughter. During the 1872 Fourth of July parade, it was decorated with flowers and towed through the streets, a tradition that persisted for many years.

Sophie cost $150 by some reports, $500 by others. Even allowing for inflation, that’s paltry compared to a modern firetruck like the city’s newest, at right: a 19-ton, 30-foot-long, 400-horsepower pumper manufactured by Saulsbury Fire Rescue Inc. of Preble and Tully, N.Y. Cost: about $300,000.

The 1995 model is electronically controlled and carries 500 gallons of water, chemicals that convert water to foam and a pump that can shoot 1,250 gallons per minute onto a fire. And if the fire injured you, the truck’s paramedics can help with that too.

The city owns six of the trucks and has eight more ordered for delivery this year.

O.C. Then and Now phone calls: (714) 966-5973; e-mail: steve.emmons@latimes.com.