Movies made for fire chiefs visiting Columbus to see first fire engine
Every picture in the Dispatch archives tells a story, but this one tells many more.
At first glance, it looks like a Downtown Columbus blaze in the early part of the 20th century. A banner on the Busy Bee restaurant reads “Future home of F.& R. Lazarus & Co.,” pegging it as the northwest corner of High and Town streets.
But the fire was staged.
Why?
In August 1908, Columbus hosted an international convention of fire chiefs. Fire hydrants across the city – 1,750 of them – were painted a vivid vermilion to welcome the esteemed guests.
The fire was staged three months earlier, in May, to make “moving pictures” to show at a benefit to raise funds to defray convention hosting costs. The spectacle began by setting buckets of tar on fire to create necessary smoke. Some onlookers had no idea the whole thing was faked.
This story might end there if it weren’t for more twists and turns. For one, fireman Fred Dennis was injured during the filming, severing an artery after being blown back by his water hose.
Also of note was that Harry Reimer, a globetrotting “picture man,” had to use a smaller film-making machine than usual, as his
main one had been stolen in Rochester. It ended up in a New Orleans pawn shop.
The Dispatch reviewer said the films, shown at a local theater, were “glorious.” The Columbus Board of Education even closed schools early one day so kids could go to a special matinee.
When the chiefs convened at the Southern Hotel that summer, they had to spring into action at a real emergency after an employee at the Ohio Filter and Shield Co. was severely burned in a factory accident. The young man had just been married a week before.
The big hit of the 1908 convention was none other than the first motorized fire truck built in the United States, designed and made right here by the Seagrave Co. A “purely Columbus product,” it could go up steep grades impossible for horse-drawn vehicles and arrive on scene much faster. “Riding about the streets on it has been a favorite diversion of the fire chiefs,” The Dispatch reported.
Contributor Linda Deitch was a Dispatch librarian for 25 years.