Mayor Lenny Curry and District 11 City Councilman Danny Becton joined the crew of Fire Station 44, area businesses and community members to participate in a Firehouse tradition dating back to the late 1800s.
The station’s newest fire apparatus, Ladder 44, was “wet-down” by the crew, blessed, and manually pushed into the bay of the station by the mayor, the councilman, the station crew and the community.
The ceremony harkens back to when fire department’s used horse-drawn pumpers to fight fires. When new horses or pumpers were purchased, neighboring firehouses, department chiefs and citizens would attend a ceremony to celebrate the new addition. The unit would be washed down using water from the retiring apparatus, blessed by local clergy and pushed into the station to be ready for service.
