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It was a simple enough question. I pointed to the small, skinny ladder on the side of a 1919 firetruck at the Firefighters Hall & Museum and asked what it was.
One of the volunteers, Steve Skaar, told me it was a pompier ladder. Then, with my 6-year-old son listening intently, Skaar launched into a tale of how a similar ladder had been used to battle a fire at the West Hotel in Minneapolis in 1905:
A firefighter hooked a pompier ladder over a window ledge and climbed to the first floor. Then, by flinging the ladder above his head, he climbed from window to window all the way to the seventh floor to rescue a panicked guest. As he carried the woman down, he lost his balance and fell to his death. But the woman landed on the ledge and was rescued by another firefighter.
My son looked with new appreciation on that bit of 100-year-old wood.
The Firefighters Hall & Museum in Northeast Minneapolis has an extensive collection of old firetrucks, apparatus and equipment like the pompier ladder. But the real accomplishment of the volunteer-run museum is making the old stuff come alive through stories and activities.
We saw early versions of fire extinguishers and breathing apparatus, a wall lined with old helmets and a 19th century steam-operated fire engine that would have been pulled by horses.
My son climbed up a short platform and slid down a brass fire pole. Then, he and his preschool-age sister crawled into a tiller cab that had been sliced off its
Tiller cabs are positioned on the rear of some large ladder trucks so a driver can make turns with a second steering wheel or "tiller" and avoid hitting things like curbs and cars. We learned the term comes from boating where you steer from the rear.
My daughter shut the cab doors firmly behind her and then flipped switches to sound the siren and flash lights on the dashboard. A television screen mounted in front of the windshield showed video filmed from the perspective of the driver's seat, so I think she felt like she was going somewhere. I had a hard time getting her to come out.
"I was concerned that everything would be off limits, since it's a museum," said Scott Denfeld of Hopkins as he watched his toddler, Noah, turn the wheel of another fire engine. "It's really nice they have the trucks (kids) can climb on."
Nearby, my 6-year-old was putting all his weight into pushing down the long, wood handles of a water pump from 1865. As he pumped, an intake hose sucked water from a metal tank, and he was delighted to see his effort rewarded with a big spray gushing out of a second hose.
"Whew," he said after 30 seconds. "This is really hard." No wonder, in the 19th century, it
The firefighters museum opened in a different location in Northeast Minneapolis in 1981, but it closed in 1995 after the lease ran out. All the trucks and artifacts went into storage for nearly a decade until the museum received funding from a trust fund set up by retired Minneapolis firefighter Bill Daniels. The new museum on 22nd Avenue also houses a small display of police artifacts and a library run by the Twin Cities Extra Alarm Association, an organization of fire buffs.
While the kids played, I read the information posted on the walls and asked questions of the half dozen volunteers wandering in the building.
My favorite bit of history concerned the fire alarm telegraph system. Long before 9-1-1, hundreds of cast-iron alarm boxes were scattered around the Twin Cities. When someone pulled the lever inside the box, it activated a telegraph system that ran a gong inside the nearest firehouse.
There's a working alarm box in a section of the museum set up like an old firehouse. My preschooler pulled the lever and set off gongs and bells at a counter across the room. A machine punched out a numbered code on a strip of paper, which would have told firefighters the location of the alarm that had been sounded.
The fire alarm telegraph system was installed in St. Paul in April 1873 and in Minneapolis a year later. According to the museum's Web site, the system was first used on the evening of May 7, 1873,
According to the next morning's St. Paul Pioneer Press, "The steamers were there in a moment and poured in water till in a few minutes there was at least two feet in the cellar."
Even as more people started using telephones, both cities used the telegraph systems until the early 1960s.
I wasn't the only one who appreciated the history lesson.
"It's interesting for the parents, too," said Matt Anderson of Ramsey, whose son, Christian, was celebrating his fifth birthday at the museum. "It's not like going to these places with the inflatables, where you just stand around. There's something here for the whole family."
Before we left, we headed to the back lot, where the kids played make-believe fire fighting and sprayed water with dollar-store water guns onto a miniature building façade.
Then, we took a ride around the neighborhood in an old fire engine. My son sat in the cab while my daughter and I bounced along on a wood bench in the open back. We felt like real firefighters when the driver turned on the siren.
Maja Beckstrom can be reached at 651-228-5295.
THE SCOOP
What: Firefighters Hall & Museum
Where: 664 22nd Ave. N.E., Minneapolis
Information: 612-623-3817 or firehallmuseum.org
Hours: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays; weekdays by appointment for groups of 10 or more
Cost: $6 adults, $5 seniors 65+, $3 children 3 to 12, free for ages 2 and younger
Target audience: Firetruck-obsessed toddlers and history buffs
Crowd pleaser: Firetruck rides around the neighborhood, April through October
Avoid: Paying full admission. Check out a Museum Adventure Pass at your local library good for two free admissions.
Tip: If your children are kindergarten age or older, try a tour. Or make sure to ask questions. The volunteers who staff the museum are full of stories and can tell you things you never knew to ask about hydrants, alarms and more.
