I just found some interesting stuff at the NYC Fire Museum website:

Engine Company #38, in 1840, was the first in NYC to use a double-decker, or Philadelphia style, engine. Named Southwark after the area of Philadelphia from which it was from, the engine was larger and more powerful than its predecessors. It utilized the pumping action of firemen more efficiently, providing a stronger stream of water. Upwards of 40 men standing on two levels, on the ground and on the engine itself, were needed to operate it.

Would they have had a shantyman to keep 40 fireman pumping in time?

In 1854 the insurance industry, one of the loudest critics of the volunteer department, established the Fire Patrol; a paid salvage company. The insurance industry also backed the use of steam powered fire engines, and around 1859 the first ones were put into service. Like the double-decker engine before it the steam engine was initially seen by many as too powerful and cumbersome, but what many firefighters disliked most about them was that they required far fewer men to operate.

As at sea, the coming of steam was not seen by all as an unalloyd blessing. Were these first steamers called bulgines?