The gradual development during the 19th century of the modern day fire department was reflected in toys modeled after the trucks and vehicles used by the early volunteer fire fighting companies. Like the full-size versions, the first miniatures were rather crude. Fallow's made a toy fire truck pumper of stenciled tinplate that was little more than two barrels joined at right angles -- extremely simple and crude. Early fire fighting toys by Brown and Ives were equally primitive. However, in the 1880s more sophisticated cast-iron fire-fighting trucks and equipment appeared. Ives offered a matching set of 5 cast-iron fire vehicles -- pumper, hose carriage, hook and ladder truck, fire patrol, and chief's wagon. Other major producers of fire-fighting toys were Carpenter, Hubley, and Pratt & Letchworth. Horse-drawn fire-fighting toys continued to be made well after 1900, although by then most communities had converted to collectible automotive vehicles. 

The most diversified of antique toy fire trucks come from a line of cast iron toys vehicles. Thousands of types by dozens of makers exist, yet these were the last cast iron playthings to appear on the market.  They called "fire wagons", the antique quality cast-iron versions ceased being manufactured in the early 1900s.

Also common were such highly specialized vehicles as antique fire engines and police cars, trolleys, motorcycles, racing cars, and even collectible sprinkler trucks for the city streets.

The pumper was advertised as Fire Engine, Three Horses in a Hubley catalogue of 1922, when full-size pumpers were drawn by motor vehicles instead of horses. Hubley and other toy makers also produced toys that combined a conventional 19th-century-style fire truck pumper or other piece of fire-fighting equipment with a truck body, an amalgam that resembled vehicles actually used by fire fighters of the then modern day. These are still highly prized vintage collectibles today. 

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the fire patrol wagon transported members of the company and equipment like buckets to the scene of a fire. At other times, when no emergency threatened, it carried firemen on rounds, enforcing fire laws in their district. 

Authenticity
Whether a collectible toy is what it is purported to be is a constant question in the field of collecting. Some very popular objects, such as cast-iron vehicles -- especially fire engines and trucks -- have been reproduced for many years, and an increasing number of toys restored with reproduction parts. 

Some of the More Famous Makers of Collectible Fire Trucks and Toys
Dent Hardware Co. -- Henry H. Dent formed the Company in 1895, and produced his first cast-iron toys in 1898. The firm first made horse-drawn fire wagons (fire trucks to you and me), then follow up with many versions of other vehicles. During the 1900s, Dent's die-cast toys gradually replaced those of cast iron. 

Hubley Company -- Founded by John Hubley in about 1894 made cast iron toys. Its earliest products were trains and trolleys powered by live steam, electricity, or spring mechanisms, but he later also added horse-drawn fire trucks and wagons before the 1920s. By 1940 Hubley had become the world's largest manufacturer of cast-iron toys. Hubley also switched to die-cast toys of a zinc alloy due to increasing freight charges and foreign competition.

Kenton Lock Manufacturing Co. -- In 1894 became Kenton Hardware and began producing cast-iron toys. The firm was well known for its horse-drawn vehicles, fire engines, nodding toys, and comic strip characters. Kenton used the trade name "Kentontoys", so look for that. 

Other Sources of Information of Antique & Collectible Fire Trucks...
The Fire Museum is not actually about antique or collectible toys, but if you can imagine miniature versions of the fire fighting equipment in their virtual museum,  you can easily see where the impetus for toys originated.  Fire Fighting Museum is not and American museum, but it's easy to see the similarities between all antique fire trucks and equipment.