The Indian Industrial School operated on the site of what is now known as Carlisle Barracks from 1879 to 1918. The school has been extensively documented and its best known student, Jim Thorpe, put Carlisle in the international spotlight for his performance at the Olympic Games in 1912.
One aspect of the Carlisle Indian School that has not been documented is the Fire Brigade operated by the students. The brigade was organized to protect the school's facilities from fire and it also provided fire protection to the surrounding area and assisted at a number of fires in Carlisle in the 19th century. It was not the first, nor the last, fire department to operate at the facility but is certainly one of the more interesting.
Over the years Carlisle has received firefighting assistance from the various tenants of Carlisle Barracks. The first documented reference to a fire department on post is in a newspaper article in March 1845. The night of the Town Hall fire the Barracks, as it was referred to then, sent an engine and crew to assist and was credited with helping to save the town as noted in the account published in the Volunteer:
The sparks and flakes of fire were carried by the wind down to the extreme lower end of town, and we understand one stable roof caught within a short distance of the spring. In preventing the further spread of the fire we must not forget to mention the timely and effective assistance rendered by a detachment of the US troops from the Barracks, who were dispatched by Captain Washington, with their fire apparatus, to the aid of the citizens.
Carlisle experienced another major fire in 1851 that destroyed dozens of buildings in the block to the rear of North Hanover Street between Louther and High Streets. At this fire "the soldiers from the barracks marched into town and rendered most valuable aid."
Little has surfaced regarding fire protection at the Barracks after the 18 51 conflagration until the establishment of the Indian School. The town provided assistance to the 'garrison" as it was known in 1857. Based on the newspaper account of that fire it does not appear that they had any fire apparatus of their own at that time:
On Thursday afternoon last a fire broke out in one of the U.S. Garrison buildings near our borough. On hearing the alarm our citizens hastened to the scene and the firemen got out their engines and hose carriages with all possible speed. The cold, however, was intense, (the thermometer standing at about zero) and the road to the garrison (today's East North Street and Garrison Lane) being banked up with snow drifts it was at a very slow rate, and with great difficulty, that the firemen succeeded in dragging their machines to the ground. Before they arrived the fire had attained good headway. One end of the building was completely enveloped in flames and the fire was insidiously making its way under the tin roof along the whole extent of the building. The garrison is well supplied with water from the Carlisle water works, but unfortunately one or two of the fire plugs were frozen, and a limited supply only was to be obtained from the others. The hose was speedily attached and the machines put in operation, but great difficulty was experienced in keeping them at work, owing to the almost instant freezing of the water as it was supplied to the engines. Col. May, with his junior officers and private soldiers exerted every effort and rendered all the assistance in their power to the firemen, who labored zealously for several hours, under the most trying circumstances, to check the progress of the fire. But the intense coldness of the weather made the handling of the hose and engine apparatus almost impossible, and completely frustrated the labors of the firemen. The whole building had finally to be given up to the flames, but the spread of the fire to other quarters was effectually prevented.
The suffering endured by the firemen and soldiers who were actively engaged in managing the engine and hose, was very great. Two of the soldiers were so nearly frozen that they had to be carried off the ground to the hospital, and many others had their ears, hands or feet frost bitten.
There is no evidence of any attempt at firefighting when the 'post' was burned by the confederates in July 1863. Until it was clearly established that southern troops had left both the barracks and the area of the gas works to the east of town which was also burned, those areas would have still been considered an active combat zone. As most of the town's volunteer firemen had been under arms they would not have risked capture by the enemy. By the time it was established that the rebels were gone the fires had likely burned out.
Carlisle was an optimistic town on the move in the early 1900’s and as the new century dawned it was welcomed with “Such a clanging of bells, blowing of whistles, shooting of guns, etc., as was never heard before, even on mornings of the glorious fourths.”12