By Terri Jo Ryan

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Benjamin Franklin popularly gets credit for forming the first volunteer fire department in the New World, with his colonial Philadelphia force in 1736. But the idea proved so valuable to urban dwellers across the country, the concept of dedicated community firefighters spread like, well, wildfire.

Waco, founded in 1849, was home by the 1870s to two separate volunteer forces — an engine company in East Waco with a steam pumper valued at $7,500 ($128,000 in today’s dollars) and a hook and ladder brigade in downtown Waco, with a $1,200 truck ($20,500 in today’s dollars). The citywide Waco Fire Department was established in March 1874 as an all-volunteer company.

The work was hot and hazardous, of course. One of Waco’s early newspapers reported on the death of a man named Hume Fields “Bud” Worsham, who died in November 1898, at age 35.

“He was the first driver of the Waco Fire Dept. Leaves a widow and one child. Burial by the Waco Fire Department at Oakwood Cemetery,” the news account continued.

One of Waco’s early fire chiefs was Arthur MacArthur Prescott, a San Antonio native who came to Waco in 1876, initially to farm. The son of a British father and a Scottish mother, the Texan served many years with the volunteer force here before he was finally named fire chief in December 1886. He held the post for 30 years.

His work on improving fire response times and protecting property was lauded by city leaders for the impact it had on insurance rates. In the 1914 Illustrated Municipal Handbook of Waco: The Happy Prosperous City of Central Texas, Prescott reported that the city’s entire holdings of fire equipment was valued at $84,500 ($1.7 million in today’s funds) — not counting three homes attached to fire stations, and 36 horses.

In that era, according to the report, the only paid fire house personnel staffed the stations from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. All other shifts were covered by the efficient, well-trained volunteers.

Alert citizens could help in fire suppression by reporting blazes, from some 70 call boxes strategically located throughout Waco.

Two of Waco’s oldest fire companies, Engine No. 5 and Engine No. 6, celebrated their centennials in November.

Sources: A History of Texas and Texans, by Frank W. Johnson, (1914); iafflocal478.org; Waco-Texas.com; Texas Collection at Baylor University; Illustrated Municipal Handbook of Waco: The Happy Prosperous City of Central Texas (1914).