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The earliest use of ladders for firefighting appears to have been for the accessing and removing of thatched roofs of buildings, with suggestions the practice dates back to the Roman Empire. As buildings grew taller, their use for saving life became apparent, and following the invention of fire hoses the opportunities for gaining access to upper stories for firefighting also increased. The early pumping engines were too small to carry ladders on board, so they were carried by

To set the scene of how the fire brigade formed in the Snowy Mountains we are going to take you back to the early 1900s when the area around Mt Kosciusko was evolving as a popular tourist area with a hotel being built nearby in 1909. Tourism continued to grow over the coming decades and in the early 1940s the government was looking at establishing a national park in the area. In 1944 the State Executive Council approved the constitution of a Kosciusko State Park Trust to take

Dennis Bros. Pty. Ltd. was founded in 1895 with the company first entering the market producing bicycles. Six years later Dennis Bros. would continue to grow and branch out into the production of cars by 1901. It would not be for another seven years until Dennis Bros. would further develop the business and diversify into the production of fire engines. Their first fire engine would be produced in 1908, using a White and Poppe petrol engine and a Gwynne turbine pump. From then

The following has been extracted from a Fire News Article written by the Museum of Fire from May 2013 in relation to the at the time new CO2 Tender entering the Fire and Rescue Fleet back in 2013. CO2 Tenders Past With the imminent arrival of a new CO2 Tender, we thought it timely to revisit the history of an appliance type believed to be unique to FRNSW over a period of almost 80 years. Back in the mid-1930s, the Sydney County Council (electricity distributor for much of Syd

The Museum of Fire is proud to have been shortlisted in the 2023 National Heritage Awards in the category of Conservation – Interiors and Objects for the restoration of the 1959 Commer Fire Engine. The project saw an original 1959 Commer C5FT fire engine restored by our hard-working team of volunteers to a state of completeness unseen since 1983. The Commer C5FT is one of four in existence in NSW and is the only known one to have been restored to this degree. The Commer has

In the 1980s is when the aerial ladder platform became an appliance of interest to firefighters in NSW. The implementation of the raised monorail through Sydney and especially Darling Harbour was of greatest concern to Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) as the current fleet of turntable ladders and aerial pumpers were not as effective. Emergency evacuation of the monorail system or a fire occurring onboard or on a nearby building would not be able to be effectively managed by the cu

In the Museum’s collection is a wonderful historic fire engine, the 1923 Merryweather Turntable Ladders, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year. In honour of such it has been commemorated as the Museum of Fire’s vehicle of the year for 2023. Whilst a somewhat allusive fire engine in the historical record, the Merryweather has certainly got some stories to tell over its 100-year tenure. Early History of Merryweather and the Petrol Fire Engine Revolution The turntable la

Commer first began in south London around 1904 as Commercial Cars Ltd, manufacturing a variety of vehicles with a forward control aiming to implement better petrol-electric transmissions that relieved drivers of needing to master the art of the “crash gear box’. Commer would participate in the fire engine industry as early as 1910, teaming up with Henry Simonis and Co of Watford. Simonis was an established fire engineering company and provided the firefighting equipment and b

The “Blitz Truck" concept evolved in the mid-1930s from the desire of the British War Office to produce a standardised range of military vehicles for all British Commonwealth countries, except England itself, involved in war efforts. It was decided that these vehicles would be designed and built in Canada, due to the ready availability of materials, and expertise of American manufacturers. Both Ford and General Motors had plants in Canada at that time. Between 1939 and 1945 s

An early history of firefighting ladders In the early days of firefighting, appliances were often too small to carry a ladder or have...