Great old school video: When a fire dog was a fire dog

Jun 17, 2014

0 1 minute read

Below is a picture of Windsor the fire dog at Oxon Hill VFD in Prince George’s County, Maryland in the mid to late 1970s and early 80s. Windsor just wandered in one day and decided to be a volunteer fire dog. She was named after the preferred drink of one of our chiefs.

Like many who join she was gung ho at the start, helping sound the alarm by wailing when the house siren kicked in and usually being among the first on the rig. But, like some members, eventually she couldn’t be bothered with getting up for calls. Still we thought Windsor was pretty cool for a fire dog. But then again, we weren’t familiar with Bozo in Chicago.

Before someone tries to tell me that Bozo was so much better because he/she was a career fire dog versus Windsor, the volunteer, I make the case it was just a different era. According to the folks at CriticalPast who posted this video, it’s from July 6, 1931. That was well before OSHA and PETA and fire dogs were allowed to do so much more. Notice Bozo was able to jump on the back step. No seat belt or safety harness and certainly no SCBA. Bozo was definitely old school.