The first
Mack fire engine purchased by the Seattle Fire Department was this 1927
Bulldog 1000 GPM pumper, which arrived in town about the same time as
Seattle’s
Ahrens-Fox (App. 100). The Seattle Fire Chief, a proponent of the
centrifugal pump,
had expected to see two Mack pumpers arrive from the factory. But
unbeknownst
to him, the sales representative from A. G. Long, convinced the city’s
purchasing
agent that the Ahrens-Fox piston pump could push water to the top of
Seattle’s
Smith Tower, which at 42 stories, was the tallest building west of the
Mississippi,
and therefore, at least one of the two new rigs should be an Ahrens-Fox.
So, to the
chief’s surprise, he got one of each – one Mack, and one Ahrens-Fox.
So perturbed
by this chain of events, he immediately ordered two crews to meet at
the Municipal Pier at the south end of Seattle’s Lake Union, to demonstrate
the
superiority of the centrifugal pump, compared to the Ahrens-Fox piston pump.
Of course, no sooner had the hard-suctions touched the water, and the Fox
was
pumping an impressive stream reaching far out into the lake. The crew
assigned
to the Mack however, wasn’t so lucky. As the story goes, the Mack, with its
Nash
priming pump, never did get a prime. And the problems didn’t end there.
The Mack
didn’t completely live up to the chief’s expectations. It was powered
by a Mack 6-cylinder, 60 horsepower engine – not exactly the most powerful
engine for pulling downtown Seattle’s steep hills. After only two
months in a
downtown company (Engine 2 at Fourth & Battery), it was re-assigned to an
engine company in the comparatively “flat” industrial area, south of
downtown.
The difficulty there however, was keeping the drive-chains on their
sprockets
while crossing the many railroad tracks and other rough roadways on the way
to alarms in that particular area of town. Ironically, the rig that
replaced the
Mack at Engine 2 was the Ahrens-Fox, which remained there for the next 19
years.
After
bouncing between two different companies, and serving as a reserve rig off
and on during that time, and later being designated as a “fireboat tender”,
App 99 was finally placed in reserve status – for good - in 1946, and used
very
little until it was sold in 1958.
Upon falling into private hands, the rig sat outside for many years,
suffering the same
fate as so many old fire engines do after serving their community during the
“prime
of their life”. We acquired the rig in 1978 and await the day when we can
restore this
historic rig back to its original appearance.
~ Apparatus 99 Company Assignments ~
1927 – 1927
Engine 2
- 2334-4th Ave
1927 – 1930 Reserve
1930 – 1933 Engine 14
- 3224-4th Ave S
1933 – 1934 Reserve
1934 – 1935 Engine 14
- 3224-4th Ave S
1935 – 1946 Engine 19
- Foot of S Massachusetts St
1946 – 1957 Reserve
1957 – 1958 In storage
1958 . . . . Sold
~ The Stations ~
SFD Fire Station #2 (1921-present)
App 99 (Engine 2) 1927-1927
SFD Fire Station #14 (1927-present)
App 99 (Engine 14) 1930-1933 & 1934-1935
SFD Fire Station #19 (1920-1967)
App 99 (Engine 19) 1935-1946
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