For almost four months in 1936, Bess was the most famous mother of all the Brooklyn fire dogs in the Fire Department of New York. But then her own daughter took over the Top Mom title of the FDNY.
Bess was the prize-winning mascot of Engine Company 257, stationed at Rockaway Parkway and Farragut Road in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. In February 1936, she presented her firefighter friends at the circa 1903 firehouse with eight full-blooded Dalmatian puppies.
Not to be outdone by her mother, Peggy, one of Bess’s daughters from an earlier litter, duplicated her mother’s maternal feat. In June 1936, the blue-ribbon-winning Dalmatian also gave birth to eight puppies at her firehouse—Hook and Ladder 123, stationed at 423-25 Ralph Avenue and Bergen Street in Weeksville.
The father of Peggy’s pooches was Pal, another prize-winning Dalmatian attached to Engine Company 271 in the eastern section of Ridgewood.
Although the press did not give any additional coverage to Peggy and Bess beyond their maternal actions, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle wrote a short tribute to Pal following his death in 1939. Lieutenant Joseph Oesau of Hook and Ladder 170 also sung Pal’s praises in an article published in the Daily News in 1949.
According to Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Pal came to the firehouse at 392 Himrod Street sometime around 1931. Although he sustained a broken leg while still a pup, he was treated at the Ellin Prince Speyer Hospital. The leg completely mended, allowing him to chase the fire engines as they responded to calls.
Pal knew all the sounds of the fire engine and the alarm bells, and could distinguish between the engine company and the ladder company—Hook and Ladder 124—which was stationed next door to the engine company. According to Lt. Oesau, he would never go out if only the truck responded to a call.
Pal was also “the daddy of most of the fire dogs,” Lt. Oeasau said. He knew every brewery in the neighborhood, and he had a favorite sweetheart across the street in a peddler’s cart yard. When the yard moved to Bushwick Avenue and Siegel Street about two miles away, Pal would frequently visit his girlfriend at her new home.
During his final year of life, Pal started staying behind when the engines rolled. In September 1939, the men took him to the animal hospital, where he was diagnosed with uremic poisoning.
He died in the hospital on October 3 and was buried in a small private pet cemetery at Waldheim, which was James Speyer’s beautiful country estate in Scarborough, New York. Tammany, the New York City Hall mascot cat, was also buried at this cemetery a few months earlier, in April 1939.
It was reported that a heavy gloom hung over the firehouse following Pal’s passing. Unfortunately, none of the men that he worked most closely with were able to attend the funeral, but their thoughts were with him as he was “laid away among the tall pines.” All of the men agreed that Pal could never be replaced.
Did You Know?
According to the old records on file with the New York City Fire Museum, Brooklyn’s volunteer fire corps, which provided fire protection for what was then the City of Brooklyn, were among the first to employ Dalmatians. The Brooklyn fire dogs were intended to be pals for the horses, often sleeping in the stalls and sharing mealtime with their equine friends. The horses in turn took good care of the dogs en route to fires—although there were occasional accidents, some fatal, the horses almost instinctively avoided hitting the dogs racing alongside them.
Fire dogs, whether they were Dalmatians or mutts, acted as sheep dogs for the horses. At the sound of the alarm, the dog would get in front of the horses and bark at the team until they were in their harnesses and hooked up to the rig. The dog would then run out the door, look down the street to make sure the coast was clear, and return to the team to bark a few more orders.
When the men were all turned out in their gear and aboard the apparatus, the horses would start out the door with the fire dog running proudly out in front or nipping at the horses to encourage them on–just like a sheep dog would do.
One Dalmatian attached to Engine Company 22, at Quincy Street near Ralph Avenue, reportedly used to bark at anyone and anything to clear the street when the company was preparing to roll. The dog took this job very seriously, if not a bit too seriously: one time he bit a letter carrier who was walking past the firehouse just as the engines were about to respond. He was not about to let the carrier get in the way of the horse-drawn fire engine.
Massive, mechanical wheels of the the new gas-powered engines and trucks did not treat the fire dogs as kindly as did the intelligent fire horses. Once the horses were gone, the men felt their fire dogs were safer staying behind in the fire house.
By the late 1940s, the Dalmatian was slowly disappearing from the FDNY. According to fire officials, there were less than 100 (101?) Dalmatians attached to the many city firehouses in 1949. Most of these dogs served as mascots as they no longer had a real job to do (except, perhaps, have puppies!).
