W.S. Darley & Co.
In the 1930s, firefighting was not quite as complicated as it is today because more items were made of “natural” materials in contrast to the many petroleum-based materials in use today (for more about this, look at The Danger of Smoke in Fire Safety in Horse Barns). There were, however, many companies manufacturing firefighting supplies and equipment. W.S. Darley & Co. first published a catalog in 1908, and Jake McCann (if he was not a fictional fire chief) might have been referring to and ordering from the Darley catalogs. Thanks to Mr. Paul Darley, President of W.S. Darley & Co., we can take a quick look at one company’s contribution to firefighting over the years.
