Fighting fires is something Vancouver has contended with since the beginning.
The city was founded in the spring of 1886 (April 6, to be exact) and before the ink was dry the city burned to the ground in the Great Vancouver Fire. From then on the city took fires quite seriously, leading the way with everything from champion hose runners to one of the first mechanized departments in the world.
With changes to tactics, fire codes and, of course, technology, the trucks and gear that firefighters use have also changed somewhat over the years.
The earliest days saw uniforms and horse-drawn steam pumps, with limited gear to protect against the dangers of fires, although there was some. For example, in the photo from 1896, you can see the boots they had.
The first ladder truck came before there were any gas-powered fire vehicles in Vancouver. In the photo from 1902, you can see it's a simple structure, designed to get a ladder up quickly.
Gas-powered vehicles became more popular in the 1910s, and by the 1920s fire vehicles had the general shape and look of cars we see today, with rubber tires on metal rims, windshields, and headlights.
The mechanization of the department is put on display in the photo from 1946, where a ladder reaches 100 feet up to the top of the Hotel Ambassador on Seymour Street (it no longer exists). Firetrucks with the structure we see today were in use in the midcentury, though the form evolved a lot into the 1980s.
The technology is continuing to evolve, with a significant change coming as electric firetrucks grow in market share. Again, Vancouver will be at the forefront with one of the world's first coming here.
