Up until 1917, the city's fire truck was drawn by a team of horses.
At a special council meeting called to discuss the purchase of a motor truck for the fire hall, Mayor Harry Perry proposed that a vehicle would be more efficient and less costly than a horse team. The discussion revealed that a truck could carry 1,500 feet of hose, which weighed about a pound a foot, chemicals weighing 500 pounds and a hose for the chemicals weighing 100 pounds, six men and two ladders - totaling a 3,500 pound load.
Annual expenditure for the truck was estimated to be $880, whereas the cost of maintaining and feeding a team of horses ranged between $1,500 and $1,600 a year.
From Settler's Effects, 2003 The Exploration Place at the Fraser Fort-George Regional Museum
The Prince George Fire Department sleigh was in service from 1918 to 1928 and is housed at the Central B.C. Railway & Forestry Museum in Prince George. The sleigh was later modified with wheels so it could be pulled by a team of white horses in the Elks' May Day Parade in 1960. The sleigh is made entirely of wood with a front bench seat. Only a couple of men could ride on the back and side runners. The cart has a hitch for the horses and space in the sleigh bed for equipment such as a chemical engine. It has a pump chemical tank on each side, a red fire lantern, and a tow bar on the front.
In South Fort George, the use of horse-drawn equipment became so streamlined that by 1913, a rope pull system instantly dropped harnesses onto the fire hall horses to attach them to the sleigh.
Julianna Weisgarber, Curator, Central BC Railway & Forestry Museum
