THE MEMORY of Wagga’s first fire brigade may have faded, but historians are determined to keep it burning.
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Sherry Morris said residents would know the Sunflower House building at number four, The Espanade.
But, she added they might not know it was home to the city’s first purpose-built fire station.
Wagga Rewind has in recent months captured the before and after of the city’s most beloved places, people, events, pastimes and icons.
The Daily Advertiser this week uncovered the long-forgotten history behind what has become one of the busiest Fire and Rescue NSW brigades in the state, according to Turvey Park station commander Chad Kennis.
Formed in 1880, the humble Wagga brigade boasted a small manual fire engine that was housed outside a two-room weatherboard cottage on Baylis Street.
It was run by the well-known Captain Bolton, who was in charge of 30 men.
The brigade later moved to a small wooden shed on Morrow Street in 1883.
When this burned down, the brigade secured a Municipal Council permission and funding to build a new station on the corner of Morrow and Peter streets.
Wagga locals designed and built the one-storey brick building at the price of 288 pounds in 1903.
It had an iron roof and contained a reel room, with an asphalt floor and a board room with a concrete floor.
In 1910, the NSW Board of Fire Commissioners reorganised the brigade and appointed 12 men as official firefighters.
Four years later, a horse-drawn turbine engine was commissioned and became the running appliance.
Three street fire alarms were installed a year later. When a fire ignited, residents would rush to the alarm box, open it and pull the small handle inside.
This called the station and moved a clock on the switchboard, which indicated which alarm box had made the call.
By March 1917, the brigade finally scored a motorised fire engine, which had a top speed of 48 kilometres per hour. It could also boast a nine-metre ladder and a hose that stretched more than 250 metres.
When the brigade outgrew the building, it moved on to the site of the Federal Brewery in 1927. It is now run by FRNSW retained firefighters.