Santee Fire Department Honors Tradition

SANTEE, CA — Santee firefighters honored a firehouse tradition this week by pushing the Santee Fire Department's new red engine into the station for the first time.

The tradition dates back to the days before motorized fire engines, when "early hand-drawn fire apparatus — engines, ladder wagons and hose carts — had to be pushed back into the station by hand. The horse-drawn steam engines that followed could be backed up by the engineers, but it was difficult to align the steam connections on the engine with those in the station, so the horses were disconnected and the steamers were also often pushed back into the station by hand," according to a city of Santee blog post, which shows a photo of Santee firefighters doing just that in 1955.

The new engine will be stationed at Fire Station 4 on Cottonwood Avenue. All on-duty personnel, including the fire department's chief officers, were on hand to help push Engine 4 into the station for the first time.

Santee fire Chief Richard Smith said the new 2016 Pierce fire engine’s timely arrival is during the National Emergency Preparedness Month.

"Coupled with community education on wildfire and local disaster preparedness, the new engine is just one example of the city of Santee’s effort to maximize our service delivery to our community by utilizing the latest technology within our equipment."

Image via city of Santee