The Smoke-Eaters: A History of Firefighting in Nova Scotia, c1750–1950

Richard Wilbur is author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and H.H.
Stevens, 1878–1973, and co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story. His latest book is Horse-Drawn Carriages and Sleighs:
Elegant Vehicles from New England and New Bruns

Our present-day society has no menace as serious as the fire scourge
that was a constant threat to all communities, large and small, during
the 19th and early 20th centuries. For proof, pick up any local history
and read about the devastation wrought by periodic fires. Mike Parker
provides a highly readable account of this theme from a Nova Scotia
perspective. In his introduction, he notes that Halifax had Canada’s
first fire department and first fire insurance company; Windsor and
Pictou had the country’s “two longest-serving volunteer firemen,”
while Upper Hammonds Plain “lays claim to the only all-black
incorporated fire department in the nation … facts and firsts that
make Nova Scotia the cradle of Canadian firefighting history.”

The first two of six chapters show how firefighting equipment
progressed from the 1785 hand-fire engine to the sleek pumper and ladder
trucks of 1950. Chapter 3 pays tribute to some of Nova Scotia’s most
renowned “smoke-eaters,” while Chapter 4 surveys the “engine
houses” found in communities of all sizes. The final chapter, “Great
Fires and Disasters,” uses lengthy descriptions and before-and-after
photos to show how fires wiped out the core of many Nova Scotia towns,
which without exception swiftly rose from the ashes.

A firefighter’s life was not all doom and gloom. A chapter titled
“Firemen’s Sports and Leisure” and Appendix 3 (“Fun and
Games”) convey how firefighters—most of them volunteers—celebrate
holidays and special occasions with their fellow citizens. This is a
great study.