By PAUL NELSON
Myrtle Beach Sun News
Fire-grenade bottles were tossed at the base of a blaze in an attempt to put it out long before there were fire extinguishers. Fire officials barked out commands to firefighters through speaking bugles at fire scenes instead of the portable radios of today.
Through the years, technology has made the profession of battling fires considerably safer. Some of the vintage tools and equipment on display at a modest fire museum inside a Myrtle Beach fire station offer a glimpse of a bygone era when meticulously kept hand-written fire logs were the norm of the day for some departments.
Fire museums are more common at larger, centuries-old fire departments across the country. Charleston, Columbia, Anderson and Taylors have fire museums in the Palmetto State, according to fire department Web sites.
At Station 6 on 38th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach, several simple and neatly organized glass display cases along a wall inside the community room make up the Chief Barclay McKeough Memorial Museum.
Named for the retired New York firefighter who served as a volunteer with Myrtle Beach for about two decades beginning in the early 1970s, the keepsakes have a decidedly New York flavor.
There are, however, a clutch of timeworn helmets and hand tools - such as an antique spanner wrench once used to open hydrants and fire hose nozzles - that capture some of the history of firefighting at the beach.
McKeough, who donated the mementos in 1994, died a few years later, said Lt. Dan Walker with the Myrtle Beach Fire Department.
Retired Myrtle Beach Fire Chief Lynwood Womack, who knew McKeough well during his nearly 20-year tenure, said the items McKeough collected are priceless.
“It’s just to show these and future generations how things operated in past generations,” he said.
He added that in the old days, “You did what you had to do with what you had.”
The museum previously was housed in more private quarters at the fire administration office on Oak Street.
“We wanted to get it out where more people could enjoy and see it,” Walker said. He estimated that between 300 to 400 people, including some firefighters from other states, have visited the museum since it opened last summer.
Local schoolchildren and other youngsters seem to be fascinated and ask about the oddly-shaped fire helmets from the past.
Along the Grand Strand, fire officials in Conway and Horry County Fire Rescue say they are planning similar museums for the future.
“We’re starting to pull stuff together, mostly equipment and tools we’ve used,” said Todd Cartner with Horry County Fire Rescue.
The Conway department has a vintage 1952 Mack firetruck that it retired in 1990 and mostly uses for parades and other special functions, Capt. Jeremy Carter said.
“It shows the tradition of the fire service and the pride that firefighters have for what they do,” Carter said.