Fire Department Gear

Fire department gear is easily found on the Internet with just a few clicks of the mouse. If you're a firefighter looking for a Tactical Bag or a layperson looking for an FDNY T-shirt, the Internet is the right place to be looking. All types of fire department gear is available online with stock and prices that are guaranteed to beat your local retail stores.

Fire Department Gear Through Time

Fire department gear used to be primative, and sometimes nonexistent. Fire departments in early colonial America used to be all-volunteer. There were no special outfits. Certainly there were no oxygen tanks or gas masks. Fire fighting used the simplest tools, usually a bucket and water.

In many cities, there were water-filled cisterns at regular intervals standing by in case of fire. As technology developed, these cisterns were dropped below street level and equipped with hand pumps. When a fire broke out, water would be pumped up and handed down a line formed by a volunteer bucket brigade. As hard as those early firefighters worked, the technology made their battle an uphill one.

Buildings were made of wood. Every home contained an open fire for cooking and heating. Huge blazes were commonplace. The centers of what were to be major American cities burned again and again. New York, Boston, Chicago--they all were burned and rebuilt in sections over and over again. Finally, gear evolved and fire departments became the amazingly effective force they are today.