I don’t know about you, but I always wondered how folks dealt with fire 150 years ago. I mean we’ve all seen the movies that show the town citizens engaging in bucket brigades.

That would work for a house- maybe. Depending upon how many buckets, how far away the well was, etc.

And, I knew that many of the old buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn had water storage tanks on the roof. After all, these were darned tall buildings and there would be no way to put out fires on these upper floors. The water pressure would be non-existent.

But, what about smaller cities, like Alexandria (Virginia)? There were plenty of three and four story buildings- and most of them were either contiguous to one another or separated by inches to a few feet.

Now that much of Old Town (and waterfront) Alexandria is being converted to modern structures, surprise findings show up all the time. From cemeteries that were long ago overbuilt (a practice that is now illegal) to scuttled ships (one complete ship from the 1820s was found). Or, old cisterns and fire wells.

One such cistern was completely intact- but buried under depths of earth. The one on Fairfax Street (the 600 block) was 10 feet in diameter and 10 feet deep! The tank was dug until the clay subsoil was reached and the interior portion was plastered over- no bricks whatsoever were used. The water would be filtered through the ground and stored for future use. The filtration rendered the water safe for drinking. (I do hope no septic tanks were nearby- or it wouldn’t be.)

An old  fire well was found a few blocks away on Gibbon Street. (It was filled with water, still!) This was a circular brick structure, 8 feet deep and 9 feet in diameter.

The pump to get the water to where it was needed? A 9 foot long, one foot diameter pole. And, the center of the pole was bored with a 2.5 inch hole. One end of the hole was corked (OK, plugged with a dowel) and about a foot from the other end, a 2 inch hole was bored crosswise. Pulling the pump handle filled the cross wise hole, and it was drawn upward (by displaced air pressure) to reach the street level.

It turns out there were nearly 300 of these fire wells at various intersections in the city. So, that when (notice I did not say if!) a fire broke out, water would be available to preserve as much of the building(s) as possible. (The fire wells were occasionally used as sources of water for city residents, as well.)

Many of these fire wells were covered with planks of wood that rested upon supporting joists.   This made it possible to place in the center of the planks an access to a hand-cranked pump for use in putting out a fire. And, these fire wells provided more water than a hand-pumped fire engine could deliver to put out a fire.

When Alexandria began developing its public water system in 1852, these sort of structures were retired, covered over, and forgotten. But, as late as 1921, the Sanborn Fire Insurance company had maps showing there still were 284 fire wells. (The various Sanborn maps let the city archaeologist discern the Gibbons Street fire well described above to have been built sometimes between 1891 and 1896.)

And, now you know that bucket brigades were not the way Alexandria put out fires.

 

 

 

P.S.  Thanks to Alana Mautone for catching an error I made.  They were Sanborn maps.  The problem with being overseas with sketchy internet service means  that my fact checking suffers.  Sorry for those of you who read this post earlier with the wrong attribution.