Firefighters used water from Quint 1, the truck they were removing from service, to wet down their new Truck 1. (Photo by Eric Copeland)
Dozens of local residents, including a number of dignitaries, joined the Excelsior Springs Fire Department last Wednesday evening, July 29, to dedicate a new fire truck.
It’s not a common occasion—it’s only once every several years that the city can afford such a purchase—but it was an eye-opening and touching ceremony that has a proud tradition.
Following an open house during which visitors got a look at the fire department’s recently-installed new flooring and overhead doors, everyone took a seat outside for the ceremony.
Fire Chief Paul Tribble welcomed the audience and recognized several people in the audience, including former fire department personnel and officials. Tribble then talked briefly about the fire department’s mission to protect the community. He also mentioned how the new truck had been prepared for service by the addition of ESFD decals and a warning on the rear to stay back 343 feet, symbolic of the 343 firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
Just to the west of where the audience was seated, the new truck—a 2014 Ferrara Heavy Duty 100-foot mid-mount platform aerial—sat waiting to be welcomed into the ESFD fleet. Between the truck and the audience, all fire department personnel stood in a solemn line.
Tribble explained how firehouses retire old vehicles and dedicate new ones.
“A longstanding tradition in the fire service, a ‘wet-down’ is a ritual celebrated by many fire departments in the United States in which firefighters commission a new fire apparatus by anointing it with water sprayed from the retiring pumper’s tank water or from a neighboring firehouse’s apparatus,” he said. “The ritual dates back to the late 1800s, when horse drawn pumpers were used throughout the nation’s fire service.
“Horses that were commissioned for service would be washed along with the pumper at their newly assigned firehouse and backed into the firehouse bay,” Tribble continued. “The firefighters would then fit the new horse with its harness placing the company in service. After every run, firefighters had to hand push their pumpers back into the bay and ready themselves for the next alarm.
“When new horses or pumpers were purchased neighboring firehouses, department chiefs and citizens from the surrounding community would attend the ceremony to celebrate the new powerful addition to their neighborhood firehouse,” he said. “Local clergy came to bestow blessings upon the horse throwing holy water unto it for long life, strength, speed and good health. The blessing would serve to ward off any evil spirits or ‘gremlins’ that could affect the firehouse’s newest addition.
To read more, check out the print edition or e-edition of the Tuesday, Aug. 4, Standard. The e-edition also has additional photos of the ceremony!