On Tuesday, December 30, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department crews assisted with the delivery of an 1876 Button hand pumper to the Henry Bradley Firefighters Museum on East Bay Street. The hand pumper was once operated by the Duval Fire Engine Company, one of several volunteer fire departments that protected Jacksonville before the city established a paid professional fire department in 1886.
The apparatus is closely connected to a pivotal moment in the city’s fire service history. During a large warehouse fire on Bay Street in December 1885, Assistant Chief Henry Bradley of the Duval Hose Company was killed when a building collapsed, becoming Jacksonville’s first line-of-duty firefighter death. His death, along with rising fire insurance rates at the time, helped lead to the creation of the professional Jacksonville Fire Department the following year.
After the volunteer companies disbanded, the hand pumper left Jacksonville and spent more than a century in other states. Following years of research and coordination, the historic apparatus returned to the city it once served.
The hand pumper will be preserved and displayed at the Henry Bradley Firefighters Museum, which is expected to open to the public soon, as a tribute to Jacksonville’s early firefighters and the sacrifice that shaped the department’s history.
