The city of Plainview Fire Department will be hosting an Apparatus Push-In Ceremony for its new pumper and brush truck at 1 p.m. Friday, May 10 at Fire Station 2 (2701 Dimmitt Road).
After the ceremony, the public is invited to tour the fire station, equipment and learn more about the fire department. The public is invited and encouraged to attend.
The ceremony continues a decades-old tradition in fire service history of pushing a new engine backward into the fire station bay for its first time in service. The tradition began in the late 1800s when fire departments used hand-drawn pumpers and horse-drawn equipment. Upon returning to the fire station after a fire call, the horses could not easily back the equipment into the station, so they were disconnected from the fire equipment and firefighters would push the apparatus back into the bays themselves. Before pushing the apparatus back into the bay, the firefighters would also wash down the apparatus and the horses before readying both for the next fire call.
