This week our new content includes a biography page on San Rafael's own Dr. Stephen Mizroch, M.D., an avid fire memorabilia collector and also a long-time San Rafael Fire Commissioner. Thanks go to Dr. Mizroch for sharing images of his collection and for also being a contributing member of our Marin County Fire History Committee. Fire Patch collecting is a very popular hobby, and especially with fire departments, who often have large displays of patches from other FD's in their stations. Dr. Mizroch also collects badges, fire speaking trumpets, antique photographs, and other documents like ID cards.
One of the largest fire patch collections in the fire world can be found at and near the National Fire Academy campus in Emmitsburg, Maryland. In addition to patches at the NFA, the local Vigilant Hose Company VFD in Emmitsbug is known as the most visited fire house in America. Visiting firefighters often leave patches for their massive collection. Next door to the FD is the Ott House Bar and Grill, whose walls and bar tops are filled with thousands of fire patches from around the world. Enjoy some images of current and historical Marin County fire service patches on Dr. Mizroch's page. Also from his collection shown below is a membership card for Lorin Hall from the California State Firemen's Association in 1963. He was a Captain in the Marin County FD, and a volunteer fireman in Larkspur. One basic action has not changed much over the years in firefighting - as the old saying goes, "put the wet stuff on the red stuff". Water and distribution systems for fire protection are so important in firefighting that the Insurance Services Office (ISO) gives it 40% of the total rating for fire protection when evaluating for property insurance ratings. Most of the urban and suburban areas in the county receive water through a very old water district system that includes a fire department to help protect the watershed regions.
Marin County has the oldest municipal water district in the State of California, originally chartered in 1912. The Marin Municipal Water District, or MMWD, today serves 195,000 people in a 147-square-mile (380 km2) area that includes ten towns and cities. With most of the water collected in West Marin on watershed of thousands of acres, most of the distribution occurs in the eastern urban corridor. We've started the history page on MMWD's fire protection under our "Current Departments" menu, with thanks for contributions of photographs and history to MMWD Ranger Matt Cerkel. Matt also pointed out a Line of Duty Death we were previously unaware of - MMWD Lake Keeper and Patrolman Ray Halderman died of a heart attack while helping fight a grass and brush fire on Bald Hill near Ross in 1967. Read about this on our Line of Duty Deaths section. Also, thanks to Matt for providing a map of the 1945 Mill Fire that shows the extent of the burn - check it out under the major fires pages. This week we are posting new content including a two-minute film. These two minutes of footage from 1967 give great insight into the Marin County fire service of almost 50 years ago. Narrated by retired Larkspur Chief Bill Lellis originally for an FD installation dinner showing in 2004, we’ll first see a panning overhead shot of the Redwood High School east parking lot. The county fire service had gathered for the 1967 Fire Prevention Day event, and the lot was full of fire trucks that are no longer in service today.
Look for engines that were built as early as the 1920’s, and some that were hand built by local FD’s in their stations. You’ll see an OES engine, and the Sausalito FD Snorkel Platform, considered state of the art at the time. While a few were saved, most have disappeared and were probably at some point scrapped. Open cab trucks were common, along with accordion hose loads, designed to drain and help dry cotton jacket hose at risk of mold. We’ll see the Hamilton Air Force Base Band, Technical Rescue Team, and Crash Rescue foam truck, all of which would no longer exist when the base was closed in 1976. An oil fire demonstration out in the field reminds us of simpler times, when that type of training was common and had only minor environmental or health concerns. |
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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