The History of Fire Poles

In the 19th century, firefighters in the United States generally had two options for descending from the second floor to get to their firetrucks (which at the time were actually horse-and-buggy firefighting apparatuses). They could either hurry down a spiral staircase (these were frequently installed in firehouses because they helped keep wayward horses from wandering) or slide down a tube chute. Both methods were actually quite slow. Then in the 1870s, a fire captain named David Kenyon came up with an alternative. Kenyon was the captain of Company 21 in Chicago. Although Kenyon was white, he led an otherwise all-Black battalion. At the time, competition between firehouses was fierce, especially for fledgling all-Black units, and Kenyon wanted to help his men get to fires quickly. After receiving a call about a fire, Kenyon and an unnamed colleague got to the ground floor of the firehouse by sliding down a wooden pole used to bale hay for horses. It was so effective that Kenyon decided to install a permanent pole for his firefighters to use as a quick, easy way to descend from the sleeping quarters to the ground floor when they got a call. He installed the first fire pole in 1878. Other firefighters around the city mocked the idea, but soon realized that Company 21 was often the first to arrive at the scene of a fire and saw the benefits of the concept. In 1880, the Boston Fire Department became the first to install a brass pole. Within a decade, firehouses across the country had followed suit. Firehouses in other nations also began installing fire poles, including in Canada and Britain. Today, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration considers fire poles “inherently dangerous,” and as a result they are outlawed in some states, but they are still used in many firehouses across the U.S. and remain emblematic of the profession.