By Lt. Bill Koenig and Milton Yuen

The comprehensive and detailed book San Francisco’s Fire Apparatus presents the Department’s life-saving pumping engines, ladders trucks, chemical engines, hose carriages and tenders, rescue squads, salvage units, searchlight units, water towers, specialty units and chief’s buggies of the Department’s first 161 years.

The book’s three main sections contains a list of the Builders and Manufacturers, which includes twenty-one Hand-Drawn builders from 1849 – 1884; twenty-four Horse Drawn manufacturers from 1863 – 1921; thirty-eight Motorized manufacturers from 1901 – 2010; and twenty Chief Buggy manufacturers from 1893 – 1987. Each listing documents the Department’s company assignment of each unit by date, location, and additional details.

Another chapter presents the relatively unknown San Francisco Independent Fire Companies from 1850 – 1921 and their apparatus. In addition, a unique chapter presents the numerous United States patents of SFFD members with the patent numbers, dates, and diagrams that made apparatus and equipment improvements to the SFFD and throughout the national fire service.

Author Bill Koenig, SFFD retired Lieutenant and SFFD Museum Director Emeritus, has added historical notes and newspaper articles of the day to add to your reading enjoyment. Esteemed fire photographer Milton Yuen, SFFD Inspector, has been chronicling apparatus throughout the West, especially San Francisco, for many years. His numerous images are published throughout the book and captioned: “Photographed by Milton Yuen.”