One of the main things a love about the San Francisco Fire Department is the history that still lives in these halls.
This morning, Christmas morning, I was doing my morning chores when I needed supplies. In this house the supplies are kept in the journal room. Most stations have a journal room which houses all the old records of the companies assigned to those stations. Some have those dating back to the 50s, some the 30s, and a few have them from the 19th century.
Engine 12 used to be Engine 30, so pre-1970s the journals are labeled Engine 30. The numbers were changed when engines were moved to co-habitate with Truck companies, taking the truck number kind of like a wedding. Only completely different.
Not far away, in fact, is the old firehouse for Chemical engine 5 and Truck 12, which is now a Daycare but still has the old wooden doors and red lights out front, not to mention beautifully restored and maintained company insignia. I’ll try to get some shots up in the new year. I decided to take a moment from my morning toilet cleaning and share with you Christmas Day at Engine 30, 1909.
Staff at 8am: 1 Captain, 1 Lieutenant, 2 Hosemen, 1 Stoker and 1 Driver.
The exact type of apparatus is not listed as we do now, but it was a single steamer company.
The horses were exercised at 10am, one of the Hosemen took leave to attend church, they had 4 alarms for service.
Merry Christmas from Old Engine 30.
Also on The Happy Medic…
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Back when virtually all literates had beautiful penmanship. Very cool! Thanks for sharing. We recently discovered a photo of a fire station on Hilton Head Island circa 1863 (during the Union occupation). Merry Christmas!
Tom
Back when virtually all literates had beautiful penmanship. Very cool! Thanks for sharing. We recently discovered a photo of a fire station on Hilton Head Island circa 1863 (during the Union occupation). Merry Christmas!
Tom
Very nice! Thanks.
Mike
Very nice! Thanks.
Mike
One more reason for me to make it to San Francisco some day. My wife and I are both suckers for any kind of history !
That's fantastic. We just recently got our admin to move our old journals out of rotting boxes in a store room and into a nice bookshelf behind glass doors. Our oldest extant journal is from 1968 (we had five stations plus a shift commander but we only have one journal from that year) and we have partial collections from each year up to the '90s. No one has any idea what happened to the missing books or anything before 1968 (we went paid in the 1930s). I wish we had the respect for history that some departments do.
HM, thank you for sharing that! I meant to comment earlier, but the old iPhone was acting up. What a wonderful tradition! I wish our company had something like that. At least I'd have something to do on long nights
-MsP
HM, thank you for sharing that! I meant to comment earlier, but the old iPhone was acting up. What a wonderful tradition! I wish our company had something like that. At least I'd have something to do on long nights
-MsP
I tend to get lost in the old journals myself. We've got them dating back to the 1890's, but I can't find those, somebody must have snuck off with them. The providence Fire Department is the second oldest continuiously operating department in the country. Cincinatti is first, I think. Thanks for posting those, and the penmanship really is something!
This gives me a great idea!! We don't do this at our station and I'm not sure if anybody would take the initiative on any other shift, but I'm going to start one myself. Maybe we could start now for others to look back on a hundred years from now and marvel over. Thanks!!
This gives me a great idea!! We don't do this at our station and I'm not sure if anybody would take the initiative on any other shift, but I'm going to start one myself. Maybe we could start now for others to look back on a hundred years from now and marvel over. Thanks!!
This gives me a great idea!! We don't do this at our station and I'm not sure if anybody would take the initiative on any other shift, but I'm going to start one myself. Maybe we could start now for others to look back on a hundred years from now and marvel over. Thanks!!