Little Chebeague Firefighting School


Navy pump house, Little Chebeague Island, 1947

Navy pump house, Little Chebeague Island, 1947
Item 67320   info
National Archives at Boston

The Navy used similar shipboard firefighting trainers at schools around the world through the Vietnam War era.

An apparently insignificant relic on the shore of a small island in Casco Bay was crucial to successful firefighting efforts on Navy ships in World War II.

In two years of operation, the Chebeague Island school trained some 15,000 sailors.

After the war, the government sold the island to a private investor. The state purchased it in 1972.

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