WALNUT GETS THEIR FIRST FIRE ENGINE
Walnut Bureau—November 18, 1880
The fire engine and 200 feet of hose, with twenty-five feet of suction hose, arrived yesterday morning. Now all the town wants is a company of men to run with the machine, and Walnut will have climbed another step on the ladder of notoriety.
It is a hand engine, requiring a twelve-man power to operate it.
At the trial, Tuesday afternoon, it threw water against the wind on to the ridge of the Clayton elevator, a height of sixty-five feet. A party stood inside of a small building observing the workings of the engine, through a window, and Avery, who was holding the nozzle, turned it onto the window, dashing it in, just to show them “how the old thing worked.” The way they ran around the room to get out of danger is said to have reminded people of the time when Packard went gunning for Avery, with a Babcock fire extinguisher on his back.
The engine and its appurtenances costs the town $500, but will probably meet all the requirements for a number of years, and the council is to be congratulated upon procuring a fire extinguishing apparatus which has all the appearances of efficiency, at a very moderate outlay.
Walnut has been comparatively free from fires, but chimnies become defective with age, and the buildings grow dryer every year, so that each succeeding summer increases the danger and hence an equal increase in the necessity of more ample protection.
Now, who will volunteer to “run with the machine?”