Vol. 4, No. 5, May 2007
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Fire Pirates
The genesis of the Atlantic City Fire Department
Every city relies on trained fire fighters to combat blazes. Atlantic City’s fire department has a long and distinguished history, since it has had to contend with the unique challenges brought by the city’s hotel and convention—and later casino—industry.
At first, Atlantic City had no way to extinguish fires, as an 1866 Philadelphia Inquirer report on a blaze lamented. In 1872, the city purchased several “Babcock fire extinguishers,” but didn’t hire professionals to deploy the early chemical fire-fighting tools.
Without a paid force, the city relied on several volunteer fire departments. Volunteer departments had a history in the U.S. going back to 1736, when Benjamin Franklin organized the nation’s first in Philadelphia. Several volunteer companies sprang up in Atlantic City in the 1870s and 1880s, in response to the ever-present threat of fire in a crowded city filled with wooden structures.
The Beach Pirates were one of the more interesting volunteer fire corps. Composed mostly of Boardwalk merchants, the company had a reputation as a rich man’s group: rival firefighters called the Beach Pirates “silk stockings.” The shoe probably fit, because the Pirates were not the most adept firefighters on the block; in 1899, their own station burned to the ground.
In their defense, the Beach Pirates were fighting another blaze when the fire started near their Boardwalk home, but still, this was hardly a good advertisement for the Pirates or the volunteer fire departments. The Beach Pirates weren’t fazed by the loss, however, and relocated to Captain John Young’s hotel with what could be salvaged of their gear.
For decades, volunteers responded to calls in Atlantic City’s hotels, restaurants, and private homes—they even doused a blaze that ironically consumed the city’s garbage incinerator. Frequently hailed for their selflessness, the volunteers often performed acts of daring in front of large crowds—rushing into burning buildings to save those trapped inside, or fighting back a wall of flames.
As brave as the volunteer fire companies were, by the summer of 1902 citizens were demanding the creation of a full-time professional force. In November 1903, City Council officially created a paid department and elected Louis H. Donnelly, William H. Fowden, and Hugh Genoe as commissioners to oversee it.
But the professional force raised controversy. In 1906, the state Supreme Court ruled the ordinances that created the paid department were illegal. Volunteer Chief Wiesenthal, who’d been fighting against the professionals since 1903, attempted to take possession of the department’s headquarters, but was put off by the fire commissioners. Within the week, the city hashed out a compromise by paying Weisenthal and others back pay, and the professional force resumed its duties uncontested.
Over the ensuing decades, the Atlantic City Fire Department had its hands full with fires in the city’s tourist and residential areas, though improved fire safety regulations mitigated fire damage and prevented widespread blazes like the famous April 1902 conflagration.
The department recently made history again when it hired the city’s first professional female fire fighter, Anne Gramlich. Though Adelheid von Buckow had helped a volunteer company in 1875 and eventually joined under her married name of Adelhied Specht, she was not paid, so Gramlich is truly making history.
