Less than two years after a devastating fire in Sausalito, two national fire service leaders came to town to speak about fire prevention. Their presentation included several fire-related films to cap off the evening, and this week we are sharing one of the films. Remember that films and the ability to project them had only been around for about 20 years, and sound in films would not be included for about five years after this night.
"The Garage" starred Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and includes scenes of Fatty playing a fire chief and pulling a hose cart to a fire. One can imagine the same type of scene playing out in Marin County in the early 1900's. As an example, we have also published the story from the Mill Valley Record of "Quite a Serious Fire" in Corte Madera in 1913, when several homes burned down. At that time most of the fire departments only had hose carts and hand tools, and very limited water systems if any at all. This week we start to tell the story of the massive and devastating fires throughout California during the week of September 17th. Over one thousand homes lost, including 30 out of the 35 in Woodacre, and over 600 in Berkeley. The main contributing factors were the north and northeasterly winds, very low humidity (5% at Noon in Berkeley on the 17th), and high temperatures. It was one of the largest fires in the history of Marin County, where a smoldering fire in Ignacio was kicked up by strong north winds, running over Big Rock Ridge into the Lucas and Nicasio Valleys, over Loma Alta into Woodacre, around Forest Knolls and Lagunitas, and over the Bolinas Ridge to Bolinas.
Several entire towns were destroyed at the same time elsewhere in California, including in Sonoma County with Boyes Springs, and in El Dorado in El Dorado County. Petaluma and Ukiah were surrounded by fire, large fires in Trinity County, Placer County, Fresno County, Santa Barbara County, and more. We will be adding to this page over time with more research. For now read a detailed account of the Marin fire, and watch old films taken of the Berkeley conflagration. We have also posted a review of the fire weather that was written by a local meteorologist a few weeks after the fires. Today we are publishing the story of the transition from horse or man-drawn fire equipment to motorized engines in Marin County. The story is told in the larger context of the transition within the fire service at large. Thanks to retired Larkspur Chief William "Bill" Lellis for this interesting feature.
At the time of the transitions in the early 1900's, the population in Marin County was very small but growing, due in large part to relocations from the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire. Roughly 15,000 people called Marin home in 1900, only 6% of what it is today. As a result, Marin fire departments never had any steam fire engines or 'hand tubs' in use, also known as 'hand engines'. Only hose carts and wagons were in use by the time the first motorized engines came on the scene. However, there were fire departments around the San Francisco Bay, such as in San Francisco, Oakland, and Santa Rosa, that have did have hand engines and/or steamer engines, and therefore underwent a more complex transition. Read all about it by going to the More menu>Historical Fire Apparatus>The Transition to Motorized Apparatus, or by clicking on the button below. |
AuthorOur Blog announces new site content, and gives the context of the topic and it's relationship to fire service history. Written by Bill Lellis & Paul Smith Archives
August 2022
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