Fire & the Fighters

Ages ago, one of the first human inventions was man-made fire. Shortly thereafter, humans had to come up with ways to fight fire.

Millennia later, the same happened when Euro-Americans came to Humboldt County. Their buildings were largely made of wood – as timber was very abundant here – and these were lit and heated by fire in one form or another. Furthermore, lumber mills quickly sprang up creating flammable piles of wood and sawdust. At first, fire-fighting lacked any organization. Newspapers urged citizens to be vigilant, have buckets and axes at hand and be ready to rush to aid neighbors. The first mention of such an effort came in an 1854 report of a man who was disgruntled by lack of privacy when neighbors tore off his smoldering blankets that he had lit while smoking his pipe in bed.

Gradually, public agitation for a more structured approach led to the 1864 establishment of a Eureka Volunteer Fire Department that would be funded partly by taxes and partly by public donations. A hand operated, manually drawn pump purchased that year was soon used to extinguished a schooner fire on Vance’s wharf. Steam operated pumpers followed, and by 1877 the first horse-drawn ladder truck appeared. Gradually individual hose companies were founded around town until there were seven by 1908. Five decades later, a fire boat was added to the city’s continually expanded fire equipment. 

Most of those early firefighters were volunteers, though provided with uniforms and training. Some served in shifts at the fire stations, while the rest when needed were summoned from their homes by bells or sirens. With little regular government funding, operating money was raised through events like bean suppers, picnics and annual Firemen’s Balls. Firehose races between the various fire companies competing for a golden trophy brought crowds to the streets of Eureka to watch teams pulling hose carts. By the 1940s, many city fire fighters were paid employees.

Throughout Humboldt, other communities followed similar patterns. Arcata’s few early fires were handled by bucket brigades of neighbors, but an 1875 fire starting at Brizzard’s store destroyed three square blocks around the town’s central plaza. This galvanized community efforts to change things. By the next decade, fire hydrants were replacing dependence on the Plaza’s central well, and in 1884 the Arcata Volunteer Fire Department was established. Other smaller communities gradually followed suit: Ferndale in 1897, Fortuna in 1901, Blue Lake in 1912 and Loleta in 1923. As the 20th century progressed, other small towns did the same, building halls and raising funds for their volunteer departments. 

The fact that these departments and personnel were so important to their communities is made evident by the amount of information about them now in the archives of the Humboldt County Historical Society. There are a great many files, books and photographs recording the people, equipment and events plus the many blazes which these firefighters addressed around the county.

Mixed with this material are interesting nuggets about local firefighting, including the many fire department mascots over the years – not all of which were the traditional Dalmatians. One interesting tale from 1944 tells how an emergency call to Eureka Fire House # 5 brought fireman Lawrence Yost to a residence on Hawthorn Street to rescue a bird trapped in a tree. When the 30-foot ladder wasn’t tall enough, Yost continued the hazardous climb from limb to limb until he caught the robin and untangled it from a fishing line. He freed the bird but reportedly kept the fish hook.

Sometimes history can seem depressing when it reflects troubled times or people mistreating others. But history can also record instances of people binding together to solve problems, save each other from disasters or even free animals, including birds, caught in trees.

The Eureka Fire Department, 1925. In front of City Hall.