The St. Cloud Fire Rescue Department held an uncoupling and wet-down pushback ceremony recently at its new Station 34, located on Nora Tyson Road on the east side of the city, the department said in a Facebook post.
The new Station 34 will help reduce response times for medical and fire emergencies on the east side of the city, particularly the Narcoossee Road and Nova Road corridors. It is staffed full-time by a team of 18, an engine, and a rescue squad.
An uncoupling ceremony is the fire service’s equivalent to a ribbon cutting ceremony, where two fire hoses are separated – uncoupled. It represents when firefighters finish extinguishing a fire, unhook the hoses, drain the water and put the hoses back on fire trucks to be ready for the next time they are needed.
The wet-down pushback tradition dates back to the late 1800s, when fire departments used horses to pull a fire apparatus to fires. After fighting the fire, the crews would wash and prep the horses and the apparatus for the next call and push the apparatus into the station’s bay. Today it is a ritual celebrated by many fire departments to commission a new fire apparatus by spraying it down with water and pushing it into the day.
