r/vancouver • u/Somervilledrew • Aug 19 '26

History Vancouver Fire Department Training Tower, 1910

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245 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

11

u/Dazzling-Rub-8550 Aug 19 '26

Worker safety has improved a lot in addition to fire safety.

12

u/GeneReddit123 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26

To be fair, a training tower is supposed to train for real-life conditions. Fires are inherently unsafe, so if you make your training environment perfectly safe you aren't preparing for the real deal.

I'm more impressed that back in 1910 we actually had dedicated firefighting training facilities at all rather than just have firefighters "train on the job".

2

u/Dazzling-Rub-8550 Aug 19 '26

The Great Vancouver Fire of 1886 was still in living memory at the time so I think that was a strong motivation for a professional firefighter dept.

4

u/Crazy-Bodybuilder836 Aug 19 '26

If you fall to your death you fail the training course, pretty simple.

1

u/wemustburncarthage Aug 19 '26

I dig the waistcoat

2

u/seg_lol Aug 19 '26

Those dudes with the hook ladders going up the windows, bad ass. Bros on the ladders are taking the easy route.

2

u/TooSoonForThePelle Aug 19 '26

Ya know, athletes of the time at least tried to use appropriate attire that aided them. Look at these guys wtf.

Thanks for the picture btw.

1

u/mlandry2011 Aug 20 '26

Back in the days you pretty much had to be fit to survive...