Leather Fire Bucket
Datelate 19th century
DimensionsOverall: 17.9 x 30.5 cm
Credit LineTransfer from the London Public Library, London, Ontario, 1958
Object number1958.001.225
Label TextAn 1838 London by-law required every London building to have a leather water bucket like this to fight fires. As with other Canadian towns and cities, London experienced many fires. Efforts to fight them did not always succeed. Bucket brigades, water tanks on street corners, and early fire engines, all had the same problem. They did not provide enough water.
This bucket belonged to Hugh Sevenson and a "London Free Press" article from December 17, 1902 states that the bucket "was used in the ineffectual fight made against what has passed into history at the big London Fire." That would be the fire of April 13, 1845, during which flames consumed one fifth of the town.
NameBucket, Fire
