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Fire has always been the most feared of disasters by pioneers because
firefighting equipment was all but non-exsistent. This fire burned down Collacotts Store on Broadway Street on March 10, 1915. Yorkton’s early
councils put some emphasis on fire fighting equipment, however, and the equipment of the day included a horse-drawn chemical engine holding two 40-gallon tanks, with a one cylinder gasoline engine, two or three ladders and about 500 feet of hose. A year after this fire, the city purchased its first fire truck, a 1916 Ford chemical truck with two 25-gallon tanks. In 1918 a
60-horsepower Studebaker hose truck was purchased for the fire brigade, a piece of equipment which was to serve the fire department for the next 29 years. Until 1947 the fire chief was the only full-time member of the
department, with the first brigade made up of volunteers.Photographs courtesy of City of Yorkton Archives
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