Mascotted by "Buster", a handsome English bulldog and horsed by "Doc" and Seal", the former a tried veteran of 19 years service, No. 12 engine house has settled down after a three months tryout to the steady routine of engine house live.
No. 12 is situated at the corner of Grandville avenue and Hall street, and is the latest acquisition to the fire department in engine houses. It was built last fall and January 22nd seven men were drawn from different houses and installed at that station.
The house fills a long felt want in that section of the city for residence building has progressed at a good rate during the last five years. There are also 15 large manufacturing plants with No. 12's responding limits, which add materially to the necessity for its existence.
The building is modern in every sense of the word. It is built of light paving brick, is of neat design and presents a handsome appearance. A tall elm tree on the east side affords ample shade in the morning. On the west side is an apple tree growing close to the inside of the walk. When the building was erected there was talk of cutting the tree down, but a strenuous objection entered by W. B. Weston, member of the board of police and fire commissioners, previously.

At present the house is equipped with but one hose wagon. Within the next few weeks a steamer will be installed, dependent upon the arrival of several auto trucks and carts that have been ordered. When the first arrives the steamer from No.3 house will be sent to No. 12, together with its horses. The steamer will conclude the equipment. Seven men comprise the force at the house now. When the steamer arrives three more men will be added.
The members of No. 12 and their years of service are as follows: Captain Peter Nagelkerke, 17 years; Lieutenant Wesley L. White, 17 years; Driver Fred Patterson, 6 years; Thomas McDonald, pipeman, 24 years; John F. Haggerty, pipeman, 12 years; John E. Cole, pipeman, 13 years, and Benjamin Emans, pipeman, 12 years. Nagelkerke was shifted from No. 6 house, Benjamin Emaus from No. 2, White from No. 5, and McDonald, Haggerty, Cole and Patterson from No. 1.
"Buster" who is considered by the men of No. 12 as the prize mascot of the department, is on the job at every fire. The first clang of the bell finds him pawing at the door, anxious to be the first on the scene.
"Doc", probably the dean of all the fire horses, has a good start on the --------------- life. Yet for all that he is as frisky, as good looking and as ready to respond when the alarm sounds as any house in the department. For 19 years he has headed the No. 1 chemical engine and in that time, besides exercising has responded to 4,106 alarms and has only seen one sick day. As the old hose wagon is being supplanted by new and modern auto apparatus, so will "Doc" soon be relegated to the ranks of "a has-been". This probably means that he will be in service on a milk wagon., statistics showing that the majority of antiquated fire horses usually are "canned" to the milk routes. Whether "Doc" will steady down to the slow going delivery horse at once or deliver up a few impromptu "milk shakes" when the fire alarm sounds, is problematical.