Early History

        Newark's first fire company (near the First Presbyterian Church) was formed in the winter of 1797 in response to a fire the destroyed the Boudinot house on Park Place.  The loss was described as between $10,000 and $15,000.  An article in the town newspaper from a citizen lamented the lack of fire-fighting facilities and deplored the pilfering of goods slaved from the fire.  Boudinot was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court and recognized as one of the leading men in the state.  The house was rebuilt and known as the Condit House.  In 1913, the structure became the property of the Public Service Corporation.  

        The new fire company's assessors raised $1,000 from the members and fire hooks, ladders and other apparatus was bought, and two fire engines were ordered from Philadelphia.  A year later one of the engines was delivered, a clumsy little tank on wheels with long wooden bars fastened to an iron pumping gear.  When in action, men lined the bars on either side of the machine and pumped out the water, which others poured into the tank from buckets, through an iron or pipe towards the flames.  Hose was introduced in 1815.

        The second fire company (4 New Street) was formed in 1815 and the third (Hill Street) in 1819, with the fourth (4 New Street) and fifth (106 Market Street) between 1830 & 1835.  By 1838 there were seven fire engine companies (Mulberry Street & 9 Bridge Street), a hook and ladder company (108 Market Street) and a hose company (106 Market Street).

        At a meeting of the Newark Fire Association (fire company) on February 13, 1797, it was announced that three hundred citizens had volunteered to join the Night Watch.  The volunteers were divided into squads of sixteen, one squad to serve throughout one night, each being called on in rotation.  Instructions for the Night Watch were as follows:

        "That they shall patrol every part of the town, silently, observing due order themselves, inspect into the cause of all lights appearing in any house or building at an unreasonable hour of the night; and in case a fire should happen to break out, the patrol on duty shall immediately give notice first to the family, and then to those in the Watch House, sounding the alarm as they pass along.  The key of the Church is to be kept by the different watches and one person of each watch is to be particularly appointed to ring the bell incase of Fire."

        The Night Watch was also directed to keep an eye out for all disorderly persons, night prowlers, thieves, etc.  If any such were found they were hauled before the squad captain, who for the night was virtually chief of police.  That functionary could lock up those so captured or let them go free, at his discretion.

        "The patrols," said the instructions, "are to take up all persons found out at an unusual hour of the night and, in case they cannot give a satisfactory account of themselves, or if anything should appear suspicious about them, they are to be taken to the Watch House to be disposed of at the discretion of the captain.

        "The captain of each watch shall make report in writing of every material thing passing under the observation of his patrols.  No member of the watch is to go home until regularly dismissed by the captain."

        In April 1798 the new fire engines got their first call.  A barn on the Gouverneur estate at the corner of the present Mount Pleasant Avenue and Gouverneur Street.  Many of the associators (firemen) had been directed by the association to supply themselves with leather fire buckets either had not done so or forgot to carry them to the fire.  A bucket brigade was formed starting at the Passaic River, going up the steep hill to the engines.  The scarcity of buckets made it impossible to keep the tanks supplied with water, with the pumping crew exhausting the supply faster than it could be replenished.  The barn, of course, burned to the ground but an adjacent dwelling was saved.

        As Newark grew, little ramshackle shops and mills were set up here and there and anywhere except in the very middle of the streets.  By 1805, the centre of Newark had become a veritable tinder-box.  Fires again, began to scourge the town.  Major Samuel Hays, who fought in the Revolutionary War, and his family were driven from their home in their nightclothes.  Victims of the fires sought aid from their neighbors to get back on their feet.  

        The next step was to seek fire insurance.   A few people took out policies from companies in New York and London.  An 1807 stable fire on Market Street, in the rear of Archer Gifford's tavern at the northeast corner of Market & Broad Streets, was the first insured building to burn in Newark.

        In February, 1810, a mass-meeting was held in the Court House.  Preliminary steps were taken at this meeting to form a fire insurance company.  By April, 1810, the Newark Mutual Assurance Company was formed.  After a few name changes, it became known as the Newark Fire Insurance Company.