The Map and More

Next to the badges is the Map. Today, modern fire trucks have GPS terminals to show them the directions and details of the incident.

Before GPS, firefighters used this map to determine which direction they'd go to the call. Notice the little pegs that you see on the map. They indicate the fire hydrants that were available on each street.

There is one other feature on this map that should be pointed out.

It shows the Grand River running through the centre of Galt.

Parallel to the river, there are little lines of elevation showing the different heights that the river water had risen to during various floods in downtown Galt.

More information about the floods can be seen in our Flood Exhibit titled May 17th, 1974, located in the centre of the back section of the museum.

International Firefighting.

In the back half of the museum we show badges, caps and different pieces from various fire departments from around the world. Included is a large collection of old fire helmets from as far away as Japan, France, Belgium and Great Britain. Take a moment to notice the different shapes, colours and emblems on these helmets.

At the very back of the museum you will find one section of a large wooden pipe. It is an example of one of the first water supply pipes in the city. 

In the Fire service, before the use of hydrants, location points were used on maps to guide firefighters to the area above the pipe where they could hand drill into the soil and eventually into the pipe for water access.

The water would pool in the hole where firefighters would fill their buckets to use for fire suppression. A wooden plug would then be tapped into the pipe hole to stop water flow out of the pipe.

The hole was then buried, and marked to indicate where the pipe access holes were, to allow for future access to the pipe to be made, utilizing the previous drilling hole and plug.