Key West was incorporated as a City on January 8, 1828. In October 1834, one of the first volunteer fire departments in the State of Florida was organized in that city. It was called the Lafayette Fire Department, named after the French General Lafayette, a Revolutionary War hero.
Key West boasts one of the largest collections of historic wooden structures in the country. In the 1830s, Key West's population was a little more than 500 inhabitants and there were about 160 wooden structures on the island, the two largest structures being warehouses.
City officials created the Key West Fire Department in November 1875, 12 years after the Great Fire of 1886 incinerated more than 50 acres of Old Town.
The fire started next to the San Carlos Institute on Duval Street, burned for 12 hours and destroyed 18 major cigar factories and 614 houses and other buildings. It has long been suggested the fire was intentionally set by agents of the Spanish government to disrupt the support of the Spanish revolution in Cuba, which was being funded and encouraged by Key West cigar workers, according to the Key West Historic Marker Tour and the Key West Firehouse Museum.
At the time of the fire, the city’s only steam-powered fire engine had been placed on a ship and sent to New York for repairs, further fueling suspicions about the timing and the cause.
Consuming every wooden building in its path, the fire tore through blocks of Fleming, Whitehead, Eaton, Duval and Simonton streets.
A year after the fire, in 1887, Key West installed its first citywide fire warning system in the form of a giant brass fire bell in a tower. Each neighborhood was assigned a specific number. When a fire was reported, the bell would toll out the number to alert the town to its location.
That brass bell can be viewed at the Alex Vega Firehouse Museum at 1024 Grinnell Street.
In the 1870s, The city opened three fire stations to spread out its equipment and personnel. It had three horse-drawn engines that used steam to pump water from hoses. Fire hydrants were installed all over town. In 1906, the city installed 36, then 58, fire boxes throughout the town that could communicate via telegraph to the fire department.
As technology advanced — combustion engines, telephones, hydraulic pumps, 911 capabilities, sprinkler systems, smoke detectors and countless other innovations — so did the fire department.
All firefighters are now also emergency medical technicians or paramedics who respond to traffic accidents, emergency medical situations and, of course, fires. Today’s department includes an urban search and rescue team, a dive team and a hazardous materials crew. Firefighters are trained to use the “jaws of life” to extract people from vehicles and perform other lifesaving tasks.
Thanks to Keys Weekly Editor Mandy Miles and to Retired Firefighter Alex Vega, for this history.
