ARP Helmet
This artifact is an A.R.P. Helmet. It is leftover from the original fire department that formed under Hans Hoffmann as chief. A.R.P. stands for Air Raid Precautions, it was an organization made of volunteers devoted to civil defense and education in the event of bomb or gas attacks on the home front. These volunteers learned how to fight fires and provide first aid, and also ran training drills for the public, and observed war time regulations such as blackouts. These volunteers would wear a version of the WW2 Mark II Helmet (as pictured in this artifact). The Fire Department first formed as the A.R.P fire department following the bombing of Pearl Harbour with Hans Hoffmann as the first fire chief and Ted Ming his assistant. Before that it was the community who had to band together to try to put out any fires, or one had to wait until the closest fire department (Point Grey) was able to respond sometimes taking upwards of three hours to arrive! As there was no building available, the fire department operated out of Hans Hoffmann’s machine shop. Hoffmann and Ming purchased a Model T (or Model A depending on the source) truck and repurposed it into the first fire truck (which one can see every Pitt Meadows Day in the Parade). Once the war ended, the fire department was renamed as the Volunteer Fire Department by August 1946.
Details:
Latitude: 49.2256655388638
Longitude: -122.68973804178
Direct Link: https://www.pittmeadowsmuseum.com/locations/arp-helmet
