On a fall day, letting loose with a fire hose

By Charles Sercombe
What to do on a picture-perfect sunny and warm Sunday fall afternoon?
For a number of Hamtramck residents, the answer was to spend time at the open house hosted by the Hamtramck Fire Department.
Firefighters threw open the Caniff station’s front doors, and offered information about fire safety and gave out smoke detectors in the garage bay.
But the real excitement was in the street next to the fire station. That’s where kids could handle a fire hose and shoot water at a wooden cutout of a house with wood flames showing in the windows.
That offered kids something to aim at. The hose was the most popular offering on the day, as evidenced by the large line, and by the looks of things, the city has a number of aspiring firefighters that might be looking for a job in 10 years or so.
On hand too was the city’s Public Services Department, with various vehicles on display for the kids to climb into and toot their horns.
Of course, a fire truck was there for kids to climb into and clang the vehicle’s bell on the front bumper.
Hamtramck has a storied history in fire services. The department is actually older than the city, having been established 118 years ago when Hamtramck was still known as a village.
That was back when the city had a station on the southend of Jos. Campau, at Grayling. That station is long gone, having been torn down decades ago.
Today, the city’s only station is located at Caniff and Mackay, where it has stood for some 108 years and counting.
The fire station ought to hold up for a good number more years in the future – long enough to remain the home base for some of those kids who got a taste of operating that fire hose, and who may now be dreaming bigger.

Posted Oct. 2, 2026