Perth Voice Interactive

LOCAL firefighter Andrew Duckworth has been researching the history of the North Perth fire brigade, uncovering stories of daring rescues and non-existent occupational health and safety standards in the early 1900s.

Mr Duckworth, who’s been in the fire brigade since 1994, had never been particularly into history until his union bought the old North Perth fire station to use as offices.

He volunteered to check out the Forrest Street building’s past, and four years later he’s unearthed a trove of tales about the hardships early firies faced.

“All the things that a modern fire brigade has weren’t around in those days,” the Leederville local says, “so their effectiveness was limited to water buckets and sand and beaters.

“There were no fire hydrants in the suburb and the water supply was limited to rainwater tanks and dams.

“In the early days they were on foot up until 1913 when they got their first motorised appliance, and prior to that they were running around dragging a little firecart behind them.”

They also didn’t have breathing apparatuses until the 1940s, so they would run into smoky buildings with nothing but a wet hanky over the mouth.

Despite getting around on foot and lugging buckets of sand around, they managed plenty of heroic endeavours, like the rescue of Eliza Lockyer in 1907.

“Eliza Lockyer was a woman who came from England as an 18-year-old girl, and shortly after arriving in the early 1860s she married an ex-convict and had children fairly quickly after that,” he says.

“Her life went from one disaster to another. It culminated in her attempting suicide in jumping down a well on Pansy Street in North Perth.

“She set her house on fire and jumped down the well, and was subsequently rescued by [Captain] Fred Maller and a fireman from Perth called Andrew Robertson, and a first police constable James Strapp.”

The well had just 18 inches of water according to the old paper reports, and after a 60-foot drop Ms Lockyer broke both her legs. The three men struggled to bring up her 100kg weight, and would likely have needed a horse to pull her clear.

The men were given gold medals by the council, while Ms Lockyer died a few days later.

“She was making her recovery in hospital until they told her they had to amputate her legs, and then she went downhill.

“She wanted to be left to die.”

While horses aren’t usually used in rescues these days, some things haven’t changed, Mr Duckworth says.

“A lot of the methods they used then, we still use. We’re basically putting water on fire, so that’s not changed a great deal,” he laughs.

Mr Duckworth will share his tales of the history of the North Perth fire brigade at the local history centre at Vincent Library, 99 Loftus Street, on June 11 at 10am, it’s free and book on 9273 6534. He’s tracked down the families of the men involved in the rescue, and two will be bringing down the medals on the day, reuniting them for the first time in a century.

by DAVID BELL