NOVEMBER 16 ISSUE ANSWERS (photos to right): After consulting multiple sources, I have uncovered the story of the photo two weeks ago. The steam pumper in the photo was called “Romeo” by the village’s firefighters. When the church bell or other alarm bell rang, the firefighters ran to the station hooked up the trained team of horses with a swinging harness. One man placed a small amount of already burning fuel in the fire box and added oil soaked coal on top. This created a rapid fire for the boiler. As the horses ran to the burning building, the water in the boiler created pressure for the engine’s pump. Water had to be located at the site. Romeo had municipal water pipes as of 1892 which distributed water around the village in wooden pipes. The firefighters had to know where these buried pipes were. At the source they quickly dug down, located and drilled a hole in the wood pipe. They clamped a hose to the flowing pipe and connected the steam pump “Romeo” so they could spray water on the burning building. The wooden, metal bound 8 inch diameter pipe in the second photo was used in Romeo’s water system. After the fire was out, a “plug” was inserted into the pipe to stop the leak, thus the old name for a modern hydrant, “fire plug.” Richard Beringer, Romeo Historical Society staff