Description
The comprehensive and detailed book San Francisco’s Fire Apparatus presents the Department’s life-saving pumping engines, ladders trucks, chemical engines, hose carriages and tenders, rescue squads, salvage units, searchlight units, water towers, specialty units and chief’s buggies of the Department’s first 161 years.
Each of the book’s three main sections contains a list of the Builders and Manufacturers, which includes twenty-one Hand-Drawn builders from 1849 – 1884; twenty-four Horse Drawn manufacturers from 1863 – 1921; thirty-eight Motorized manufacturers from 1901 – 2010; and twenty Chief Buggy manufacturers from 1893 – 1987. Each listing documents the Department’s company assignment of each unit by date, location, and additional details.
Another chapter presents the relatively unknown San Francisco Independent Fire Companies from 1850 – 1921 and their apparatus. In addition, a unique chapter presents the numerous United States patents of SFFD members with the patent numbers, dates, and diagrams that made apparatus and equipment improvements to the SFFD and throughout the national fire service.
Author Bill Koenig, SFFD retired Lieutenant and SFFD Museum Director Emeritus, has added historical notes and newspaper articles of the day to add to your reading enjoyment. Esteemed fire photographer Milton Yuen, SFFD Inspector, has been chronicling apparatus throughout the West, especially San Francisco, for many years. His numerous images are published throughout the book and captioned: “Photographed by Milton Yuen.”
About the Author:
Bill Koenig was born and raised in San Francisco. In 1970, he became a proud member of the San Francisco Fire Department. Throughout his career, Bill searched for material and photographs chronicling the history of the SFFD. Because of this passion, Bill has become known as the department historian.
In 1973, he was one of the four founders of the St. Francis Hook & Ladder Society, the first historical group in the Department in 30 years. In 1974, the San Francisco Fire Commission named the St. Francis Hook & Ladder Society the sponsor of the San Francisco Fire Department Museum. While actively working as a firefighter, Bill was appointed the Museum‘s volunteer director.
In 1977, the Chief of Department Andrew Casper named Bill the Fireman of the Year for his valuable contribution and dedication to the Department Museum. In 2005 Bill was honored with the title of Museum Director Emeritus.
Since his retirement in 2000, he has provided over 1,500 pages of content for the SFFD Museum’s website. Bill’s previous book, Everything Took Time: The Actions of the San Francisco Fire Department During the 1906 Earthquake and Fire was released in 2020, is also available at www.mtpublishing.com.
