The Steam-Engine Smoke Eater

A tribute entry for the ordinary firefighter of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the "smoke eater" who went into buildings long before modern breathing apparatus existed.

These were stokers, pipemen, ladder men, and drivers, frequently immigrants and tradesmen, who worked long shifts for modest pay. They fed coal into steam pumpers, hauled leather and later cotton hose up stairwells, and earned the nickname by doing their jobs inside smoke that would send anyone else running.

They rarely appear in history books by name. They appear instead in the line-of-duty rolls, the muster rosters, and the group photographs where every man in the back row has the same set jaw and the same mustache.