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AT THE FORKS OF THE GRAND A big blaze, particularly at night, was truly an awe-inspiringi spectacle. Against a red glare, each brigade manoeuvred with the precision of a crack regiment or a group of pyramid-builders, obey- ing smartly the commands of its captain, who bellowed through a trumpet. The engine-companies, heaving up and down on the pump-bars, would strive to see which could shoot the heaviest and longest stream of water into the flames. And the hook-and-ladder companies, after hooking their ladders to projecting window-sills and eaves-trough, would swarm over the building, chopping, hack- ing, and splitting - trying to rob the fire of its prey, and hoping against hope that they would have an opportunity of rescuing a fair damsel in distress. Unfortunately we have no record of a damsel's ever having been rescued. Tradition does say, however, that one company almost achieved the ultimate. It seems that one dark night about 1855, the home of the village belle on Dumfries Street began to burn, and that the hook-and-ladder company from the old Village Hall was the first to arrive on the scene. Suddenly, just as the company came to a halt, the members were electrified by hearing a female voice crying, "Help, save me!" Mo- mentarily, fifty eves stared incredulously at the belle's bedroom window. Then fifty eager hands, with astonishing exactness, yanked I a long ladder from the wagon, rushed it forward, and with precision placed it against the window sill. Then, as one man, the whole company essayed to mount to the rescue. After a moment of wild jostling, back clambering, yanking down, and finger squashing, the shivering ladder exploded into splinters and the company was tumbled down into a writhing heap. Mean- while father, who one presumes, had become weary of yelling the 1855 equivalent of "Fireman, save my child!", had thrown up an orchard ladder, down which the lady gracefully descended. What bitter recriminations were hurled back and forth when the : company had slunk back to its lair! -To become a public laughing- stock! To miss a rare and noble chance! Until about 1875, these first fire-companies served the town well. Then, in that year, the councillors decided that a steam-powered pumping-engine would be more effective. During 1876 and the spring of 1877, they carried on negotiations with manufacturers such as Ronald & Co. of Chatham and A. G. Gilbert of Gananoque; and finally they arranged a competition among rival engines as part of the celebrations of May 24, 1877. On the great day, the three competing machines were lined up on the bank of the Nith, a short distance above the River Street Bridge. The intake-hose of each lay in the river; the nozzle-end of the outlet- hose lay a thousand feet away at the Town Hall. Large crowds milled around both the engines and the nozzles. 122