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Call of the Wildfire | Highlands, NC History
Written By: Donna Rhodes | Issue: April - 2022
A hot time in the Old Town tonight? Not when Ole Betsy and Hose Buggy were on duty.
Have you heard about Ole Betsy and her sidekick, Hose Buggy? Maybe the pair didn’t set the world on fire, but they extinguished many a flame in Highlands history.
Ole Betsy and Hose Buggy were the makings of our modern-day fire department. Hose Buggy, Highlands’ first fire engine, arrived on the scene in 1909. The buggy wasn’t really a fire engine. Its only motor was fireman muscle. It rolled on a pair of wagon wheels supported on an axle. On that rested a box filled with fire hose. When the alarm sounded, Hose Buggy was on a roll.
The Fire Marshall at that time was Ed Potts, oldest son of Billy Potts. Hose Buggy’s first home was a $200 fire station, not even the size of a modern-day tiny house. It was more like a closet in a tiny house. It was located at the roadside near where the fire station is currently located.
What became today’s Volunteer Fire Department was created by town ordinance in 1939. Its staff included a chief, chief’s assistant, captain, and a lieutenant for each of two companies: the Hose and Chemical Company and the Hook and Ladder Company. The operation was run by 6-12 firemen. Ages ranged from eighteen to forty-five.
The town was eager for a fire station, but it still took over 2 years to elect a fire chief (Tom Potts). He had to be authorized to organize a fire department. He managed all this with no salary for himself or the crew. But townsfolk had a big investment in protecting the community by looking after each other’s property. Saving someone’s house was pay enough, and someday that someone might return the favor.
In 1953, Ole Betsy, a new, four-wheel-drive rural fire truck arrived from Wisconsin. The town paid a little over $12,300. Four wheels replaced two, but Hose Buggy retired as a Highlands Hero.
Eventually the fire department upgraded from closet to a proper station, but in the first half of the 1900s it was Ole Betsy and Hose Buggy who answered the call of the wildfire.
If you’re burning for more Highlands history, read Ran Shaffner’s Heart of the Blue Ridge. Or visit: www.highlandshistory.com or email: [email protected].
