![]() ![]() The Fort Collins Daily Evening Courier crowed about the successful testing with a front page story in a special edition. Just how much of an influence the fire had on its passing is unknown, but history had already shown its necessity.īy early June 1883, the Water Works was completed and undergoing testing. ![]() The bill passed with 182 of the 278 votes cast in favor. Prior to the fire, an election to approve the Water Works had already been scheduled for Sept. The lack of an adequate municipal water system was clearly a direct relation to the destruction. The Keystone Block, along with another building, was destroyed in the blaze. "An unceasing stream of water was poured upon their roofs by hearts that knew no faltering and hands that knew no fatigue, and their gallant and loyal efforts were successful, and the progress of flames were checked at the fire wall between the Odd Fellows’ hall and the consumed Robertson building." An article in the next day’s Fort Collins Courier described their heroic efforts: Instead, the gallant firefighters concentrated on saving the adjacent Odd Fellows Hall and the Poudre Valley Bank. It was quickly evident that the bucket brigade formed by the Hook and Ladder boys would not be able to save the building. 15, 1882 when a nearly-completed building, known as the Keystone Block, caught fire in the early morning. (Photograph courtesy of Retired Fort Collins Fire Chief Ed Yonker) This view was taken in 1888 when the Collins Hose Company and the Fort Collins Hook and Ladder Company were combined to become the Fort Collins Volunteer Fire Department. The men assigned to the new company started training to become an effective fire-fighting force, but their efforts were hampered due to a lack of a pressurized water system.įort Collins’ first fire station was located at 223 Walnut Street. It sat along Jefferson Street covered with a tarp until a fire station was completed in the summer of 1882. On June 4, 1880, several men met to organize the Collins Hook and Ladder Company.Ī hook and ladder wagon was ordered from the Caswell Manufacturing Company and arrived in November complete with ladders, a dozen leather buckets, lanterns, chains, rope, and axes. The early morning fire, in a dry goods store owned by Jacob Welch, claimed the lives of the store’s 20-year-old bookkeeper, Tillie Irving, and 24-year-old sales clerk, A.F. 3, 1880, was the catalyst for the formation of a fire department in Fort Collins, a former military post that was becoming an important town in Northern Colorado. ![]()
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