Fire/Rescue Museum Opens on April 4

The Frederick County Fire & Rescue Museum, located at 300B South Seton Avenue in Emmitsburg, will open for the 2025 season on Saturday, April 4. The museum will be open on weekends, from noon to 4:00 p.m., except for holiday weekends.

The collection on display includes several pieces of apparatus and equipment from the early days of firefighting in Frederick County. The collection also includes some motorized apparatus, such as the 1919 Ahrens-Fox, originally owned by the United Steam Engine Co. No. 3 of Frederick, now owned by the Gladhill family. An antique brush fire fighting jeep, previously owned by the Lewistown District Volunteer Fire Department, now owned by Doug Riddle, a Lewistown member, provides some insight into wildland firefighting.

Several pieces of hand-drawn apparatus on display are over 125 years old. A hose reel built by the Silsby Company of Seneca Falls, New York, was believed to have been purchased by the Junior Fire Company when the 1876 Silsby Company steam fire engine was purchased. The 175-year-old “Old Lady” hand pumper, used by both the United Fire Company and an early fire company in Libertytown, was received in Frederick in 1860 from the Mechanical Fire Company of Baltimore. A metal water tank, believed to be originally owned by the Washington Hose Company in Frederick, dates to approximately 1837.

This year, the museum will also be displaying the homemade hose cart of the Vigilant Hose Company. This unique piece of equipment was built in Emmitsburg and used as early fire protection prior to the organization of the Vigilant Hose Company. The cart carries a leather riveted hose, a very early means of firefighting. See many pictures and artifacts from Frederick County fire and rescue companies, including a tribute wall to all the fire and rescue personnel in Frederick who have died in the line of duty since 1839.

The 1919 Ahrens-Fox pumper, now owned by the Gladhill family, was one of the first motorized fire engines owned by the United Fire Company of Frederick.