The history of the Trenton FD is wild, and yours to read
I’ve known Mike Ratcliffe since 1999, when I was first hired at The Trentonian. Ratcliffe was the night cop reporter for our arch nemesis, the Times of Trenton. Second month I was on the job, I was assigned the night beat (we rotated on a monthly basis). Now you have to remember: This was pretty much pre-Internet for us newspapers. I don’t even know if we had a website at that point. Anyway, I quickly dreaded waking up the next morning, as I’d go grab a copy of the Times to see how many ways Ratcliffe kicked my ass in his reporting. It was a long month. I tell you that story to give you some measure of Ratcliffe’s reporting chops, because now he’s taken on quite an undertaking, and one that I strongly recommend you check out: He has written a history of the Trenton Fire Department, titled “Trenton Firefighting,” complete with hundreds of photos and documents. Published by Arcadia Publishing and part of their “Images of America” series, the book is a wild tour through Trenton history. Truly: You don’t need to be a fire fan or a Trenton history buff to enjoy this book; it’s just cool.
So where did the impetus to write the book come from? Well, it started out in those old days when Ratcliffe was otherwise busy kicking my ass.
“It stretches back over 20 years, back when I was still at the Times, and one of the things I did on quiet nights on the police shift was just go through all the old microfilm” he said. “It was in a little closet. At the time, I was a volunteer in the Lawrence fire department, and my dad was a firefighter, so I was interested. And I would spend my time going page by page through the microfilm, and that’s where I first learned about the big fires. That was my first exposure to the statehouse fire, first time I learned about the Calhoun Street Bridge fire, which at the time was wooden and burned from one side to the other.”
While Ratcliffe was busy boning up on Trenton fire history, he was approached by thenTrenton Fire Chief Dennis Keenan. Trenton was about to hold a fire prevention parade, and Keenan asked Ratcliffe to put a commemorative book together. So Ratcliffe started the process, but the parade got cancelled, and the work Ratcliffe put into the book went into his attic.
Fast-forward about 18 years, and Keenan reached back out to Ratcliffe, now full-time with the Lawrence fire department, and asked him if would like to join the board of trustees at the Meredith Havens Fire Museum in Trenton. Ratcliffe said yes, and then one day wandered into the archive room, stuff not on display, saw a ton of old photos and company journals and …
“And it rekindled my interest in doing the project,” he said.
Some two years later - and countless trips to the Trenoniania room at the Trenton Library - the book is for sale, officially today both online and at local booksellers.
I don’t want to spoil too much, but to give you a taste of what you’ll find inside …
“The risk these guys took, the rescues they made … I keep going back to Alexander Grugan, he was a volunteer, he was at the State House fire and was involved in rescuing the Civil War battle flags that were there,” Ratcliffe said. “He had already distinguished himself as a volunteer, and in 1892 he transitioned to paid firefighter …”
Before we go any further with the Grugan story, know this: When the fire department went from volunteer to paid, it was nuts.
“There was one shift, and they were on-duty around the clock 365 days a year,” Ratcliffe said. “It was more like a military operation than anything else. They basically lived in the firehouse except for three one-hour meal periods where they could sneak away and be with their family. These guys went to every single fire, and they got beat up.”
OK. Back to Grugan. “He’s at one fire, fighting it, a wall comes down and collapses,” Ratcliffe said. “It buries him and another firefighter, who is killed on the spot. He’s buried under a mountain of brick and burning debris, the hose line they were holding is continuing to flow, and he’s pinned under this stuff, so he almost drowns from the water pooling up around him before the other firefighters manage to uncover him and get him out of there. He’s in the hospital for months recovering, they have to amputate part of his foot, he recovers and comes back to the job, gets promoted to captain, makes a dramatic rescue where a woman is trapped in upper floor and he climbs through a window in blinding smoke, finds here and drags her out. Years later, he dies in line of duty, suffers a stroke and fell down the stairs.”
Buy the book folks. I’m telling you. It’s practically alive in your hands.