by Paul R. Spitzzeri
On this 24th anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack on the United States, among those we remember, in addition to the nearly 3,000 persons who died and the police officers who were among the first responders, the fire fighters, many of whom who died, as they tried, in New York City, to reach persons trapped in the Twin Towers before they disintegrated. The heroism of these public servants, along with law enforcement personnel and others, should never be forgotten.
This post, the latest in the “Through the Viewfinder” series on the blog sharing historic photographs from the Homestead’s collection, features a circa 1906 cabinet card of a horse-drawn engine, decorated for what was almost certainly the spring La Fiesta de las Flores; young women in white dresses on the vehicle; about a half-dozen Los Angeles Fire Department personnel on or near the vehicle; a few bystanders; and a portion of the Engine Company Number One firehouse.
Fortunately, the firehouse clearly displays not only the street number of “1901” above the barn-style sliding doors, but at the left side a sign reading “Pasadena Avenue,” which indicates the northeast corner of Pasadena Avenue and what was once Hayes Street, now North Avenue 19, in what was then called East Los Angeles, but soon to be renamed Lincoln Heights. As for the estimated date, we’ll come to that later, but, first, we’ll share a little of the early history of the fire station, covering its first couple of decades.
Prior posts here have referred to the fact that, for about fifteen years, firefighting in the Angel City was handled entirely by volunteers, starting with a first engine company formed at the end of September 1871, followed by other companies, including the 38s, which was launched within a few years. This was during Los Angeles’ first boom, with a growing population, expanding city and a corresponding need for some form of fire protection.
Within fifteen years, however, as a much larger Boom of the Eighties loomed with the completion of the region of a direct transcontinental railroad link and as city officials recognized that it was more than high time for a professionalized force, it was decided to establish the Los Angeles Fire Department. Under the simple headline of “At Last,” the Los Angeles Times of 29 January 1886 informed readers that, the prior day, the Board of Fire Commissioners finalized the organization of the department.
This included a pair of engine companies, a hook-and-ladder company and a hose company comprised of about 30 personnel. All of them were Anglo, except one with the Park Hose Company, formerly a volunteer one and located near Sixth Street Park, now Pershing Square, in what was then the southwest corner of town, and this was “W. Sepulveda,” like Wenceslao O. Sepúlveda (1859-1934).
Engine Company Number One was created from the 38s, which, in 1884, a decade after its establishment, moved from an adobe fire station at Temple and Spring streets into what is now the Plaza Firehouse, located at the southeast corner of the historic center of pre-American Los Angeles. There were eight men stationed at the firehouse when the professional department was launched, including an engineer, engine and horse cart drivers, a foreman and four hose operators. The Los Angeles Herald of 14 March 1886 briefly noted that the first drill of the company was to take place that morning just to the north at Alameda and Macy (César A. Chávez Avenue) streets.
The New Year’s Day 1887 edition of the Los Angeles Tribune reported on the department and there were two new hose companies, the Morris Vineyard (this south of the downtown area along Main Street near Pico and Washington boulevards) and the East Los Angeles, situated on Daly Street near Downey Road (today’s North Broadway.) Engine Company #1 was still in the brick edifice at 26 Plaza Street—the address is now 501 N. Los Angeles Street.
From the days of the volunteer companies and the earliest one of the professional force, appearances at major municipal events, especially parades and holiday celebrations, were common for fire-fighters and their apparatuses. An early reference to such events for Engine Company #1 and its fellow companies, after professionalization, was listings in the Tribune as it covered the Angel City’s celebration of Independence Day, with the paper reporting that, as part of the second division,
The fire department came next [after the marshal and staff, a band and “the Nadeau ‘bus bearing the exempt firemen], Chief [Dan A.] Moriarty riding ahead, and made the best display of the parade next to the showing made by the National Guard. All of the engines, and horses and men, were gay with flags and bunting . . .
The great boom, however, was at its end and the inevitable bust followed, which also brought declining tax revenues to the city as property values plummeted. Not surprisingly, the 5 September 1889 edition of the Tribune noted that the Fire Commission, which included four City Council members and the fire chief, Thomas Strohm, held its meeting that prior morning and “Chief Strohm reported that he had reduced the force of engine company No. 1 to five men,” with two firefighters dismissed.
Not quite two months later, the paper observed that,
Engine Company No. 1, corner Hayes street [North Avenue 19] and Pasadena avenue, is the only branch of the fire department detailed to look especially and particularly after the East Side. Fires are infrequent and the service first-class and always ready. The fire limits extend east to Gates street [the southern terminus of which meets at North Main Street as that thoroughfare meets North Mission Road at the west end of Lincoln (formerly Eastlake) Park] and north to the Arroyo Seco . . . They have an Amoskeag engine, six men [so, one more was added, possibly due to community protests], and 600 feet of good hose.
Despite the hard economic times, the Los Angeles Herald in its issue of the first day of 1891 pronounced, under the basic headline of “In Good Shape” that “The City Fire Department [Is] Well Organized.” The paper, moreover, asserted that, “of all the departments under the control of the municipal authorities, perhaps no one is of more importance than that which is maintained for the sole purpose of protecting property from the ravages of fire.”
Beyond this, it was observed that “nor is there one that which more justly deserves to be congratulated upon the good work it has uniformly performed throughout the past year.” The Herald commented that there were 76 members of the department, with a little more than half comprised of “call men,” who literally were “on call.” Permanent employees totaled just under 30 and their salaries ranged significantly from $60 to $175 a month, while those part-timers were paid $20 to $25 “for their services, which seldom interfere with their duties elsewhere.”
There were nine companies and Engine Company No. 1 “is equipped with a second-class Amoskeag engine, drawn by two horses, and a two-wheel hose cart, drawn by one horse, carrying 800 feet of hose.” Staff there included a “foreman, engineer, two drivers and four call men.”
When the Times issued, in October 1892, its “Columbian Number” to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ stumbling on the “West Indies,” it made the observation that the original volunteer fire engine from 1871 “is now in East Los Angeles,” meaning at Engine Company No. 1. The piece continued that, when the professional department was launched in 1886, there were two steam engines, a hook-and-ladder vehicle, and a horse-drawn hose carriage. In March 1889 [probably 1888], a pair of engines were acquired.
A major fire in a furniture warehouse at the start of that year led authorities to buy three more engines and the same number of hose carts and it was added that
Since then the efficiency of the service has been further increased by the addition of steam heaters and releasing apparatus to the fire engines, the attachment of the water tower to the ladder truck, the purchase of two chemical engines, and many minor improvements, until it may safely be said that the Los Angeles fire department has attained a flattering degree of efficiency.
The inventory of equipment grew to seven steam engines, the hook-and-ladder truck, two chemical engines (with companies recently formed to work with these), a half-dozen hose carts, 2 hose carriages with four wheels and a hose wagon. It was clarified that he water tower was of a design by chief Walter S. Moore, while plans for further additions included “an extra hose truck for East Los Angeles [which] is being fitted with a chemical tank for emergencies.”
What was lacking, the paper advised, was an upgraded alarm system as the 52-unit Richmond boxes took too long to send calls and, in one case, a delay led to an engine going to the wrong location. Also mentioned was a lack of decent water supply “on the western hills” and outlying sections of the Angel City, but “all the interior fittings at the engine houses are of the latest design” with personnel and animals properly trained.
The department then had 80 fire fighters and 37 horses and it was added that call men and firemen “are employed only during the day, but respond to all calls in their district. Salaries were given, from $20 to $25 monthly for those part-timers to $70 to engine drivers and captains to $150 for Chief Moore. Lastly, the piece remarked that “the Exempt Firemen’s Association is a charitable and benevolent organization, composed of members of the volunteer companies who served actively for five or more consecutive years.”
With regard to the horses, there are a pair of notable references to this equine employees during these early years. The 14 February 1895 edition of the Times reported that Chief Moore informed the fire board “that the horse ‘Ned’ on engine company No. 1, dropped dead on San Fernando street while returning from a fire yesterday morning.” It was added that the animal was bought eleven years before, during the 38s era and the year the Plaza station was opened, “and had been on duty since then.”
The Los Angeles Record of 10 June 1898 remarked that the assistant chief Edward R. Smith believed that a half-dozen horses were needed because “so many animals, besides those actually in use at all times, ought to be kept for relief purposes” as backups when needed. Of the nearly fifty animals in service, a trio of veterans were mentioned, two with a dozen years under their harnesses, while “Joe, a bay attached to engine company 1, was purchased in 1883.”
While the department was frequently praised for its professionalism, quality of service and other attributes, it is not surprising that there were occasionally problems with firefighters. the 14 April 1887 edition of the Tribune published in detail an issue reported by Moore, who was chief engineer, regarding the unpermitted absence from Engine House No. 1 of Edward Kinney and L. Barthol, while P. Meyer was charged for not reporting his missing colleagues.
Kinney told the board that he was gone for an hour-and-a-half, but had a replacement at the station and that he was “not out all night.” Barthol testified that he also found someone to fill in for him and “was only at meals with the girls twice” and “had one small bottle of wine,” of which the unnamed females, who “boarded at the same restaurant with us,” did not imbibe.
Meyer was found to have known nothing about the whereabouts of his wandering cohorts, so the charge against him was summarily dismissed. Barthol and Kinney were subjects of a resolution passed by the board that they left their posts without permission, even if they found substitutes, and this, being a violation of department rules, meant that “a repetition of this offense will be punished by dismissal.” The offending firefighters were then summoned before the body and “reprimanded by the President, and the above resolutions were read to them.”
Another early example appeared in the 3 May 1887 issue of the Herald, in which P.P. Froelich told the paper that “the foreman of engine company No. 1 had preferred charges against him with the Fire Commissioners for neglect of duty and visiting houses of prostitution,” leading to his firing, though he insisted this was false and “he had served faithfully for over a year.”
In November 1894, James McGuire of the company was suspended and fined $10 for having “used improper language to Assistant Chief McMahon,” though he was soon returned to duty. Not quite a year later, Charles Casey, an engine drive at the station, was reported by the chief to the board for carelessness in backing the vehicle into the building and colliding with a telegraph pole.
When he appeared and claimed that the horse was the cause, because “it was a particularly stubborn one,” the board was persuaded and he was cleared of any wrongdoing, according to the Times, though the Herald reported that he was censured. About the same time, in October 1895, E.H. Mather, probably a “call man” was fired “for having failed to respond to a fire call.”
Lastly, there was a rare issue with response time in the Times of 15 February 1894 concerning a house fire that started because a kerosene lamp exploded and the flames hit the wallpaper rapidly spreading the flames. The account went on that “considerable criticism was bestowed upon Engine Company No. 1,” which was only a block and a half north of the location on Downey Avenue (North Broadway), “but which took three minutes to get out of the engine-house.” The homeowner and neighbors responded quickly and effectively, so damage proved to be minimal.
We’ll return tomorrow with part two, so check back with us then!
Every year on 9/11, my memories are drawn back 20 more years to two individuals. One is my younger sister, who passed away from cancer on September 11th four year after the incident. The other is a member of my staff who once worked in New York for a company located in the Twin Towers. By chance, he was away on 911 while all of his colleagues tragically perished.