28 March 2010

Historic Charleston Fire Houses


Charleston Fire Station, Cannon St., Charleston, S.C.

I have a particular affection for Firefighters since I live in an ancient wood house.

Years ago I walked out of my house early in the morning to find a jeep parked directly in front of my house in full flames. It was a couple feet away from my home and directly under two palm trees. Before I could catch my breath, a firetruck pulled up and in the blink of an eye, the firemen had hosed the jeep down. The car was left a pile of burned metal scrap but there wasn't a mark on my house and the overhanging trees weren't singed. Amazing.

Someone did all the work for me and created a web site of Charleston's historic Firehouses. I took this picture of Alex in front of the Cannon St. Station 6 Firehouse.
Charleston Historic Firehouses: Station 6, 5 Cannon Street. Built 1887-88. The third fire station built after the 1886 earthquake was a new Station 6. It replaced the former Marion Steam Fire Engine Company just down the block. Each of the three stations had a Silsby boiler on the first floor, for both heating and keeping hot water circulating at all times in the steamer. Like the Meeting Street station, this building also featured a watch tower in the rear.

4 comments:

Waldo Lydecker's Journal said...

More firemen, please.

Charlestonjoan said...

Cute firemen :) I can do that.

Anonymous said...

That photo makes me think of Deborah Garrison's poem THE FIREMEMEN. Check it out. She gets the sentiment just right.

"God forgive me -
It's the firemen,
leaning in the firehouse garage
with their sleeves rolled up
on the hottest day of the year."

Don't you want to know how it ends?

Charlestonjoan said...

I do like it!

A couple of years ago we had two gorgeous young firemen brothers go around the hospital on Valentine's Day handing out flowers and candy. A couple young nurses almost had heart attacks. They were so cute.