Although Mendocino was a bustling town by 1869 and had experienced several serious fires, it wasn’t until 1887 that a fire company was formed. In March, an executive committee was elected to oversee the formation. Twenty-eight men joined the charter company, including some of the most prominent businessmen in town.
By the next month, water cisterns were being excavated. The first, completed in July, was located at the side of the new fire engine house on the south side of Main Street, opposite the Central Hotel. In June, a fire bell arrived on the schooner WS Phelps; and the schooner Bob-O-Link delivered a hand pumper fire engine, along with a hose cart and a hook-and-ladder apparatus. The cost of the equipment was $1,835.50. The July 2nd Beacon reported that the new equipment “will very likely be assigned a place in the procession on Monday,” during the 4th of July parade. During a test of the new equipment and cistern, the engine threw water 20 feet over the flagstaff on top of the Jarvis Nichols Store building.
Main Street Mendocino, circa 1912. The first building on the left with the bell tower on the roof is the fire station.
The first set of bylaws for the new company was adopted in September. William Heeser was elected chairman, Thomas W. LeBallister, foreman, and Jack Frodsham, assistant foreman. Nearly all the town’s citizens signed a petition to the county board of supervisors asking for the appointment of three fire commissioners. The county soon responded and Eugene Brown, Henry Jarvis, and Jerome C. Ford became Mendocino’s first fire commissioners.
In May 1887, Fort Bragg was reduced to ashes by a bursting lamp. That same week, Mendocino’s new commissioners set to work on developing more water cisterns around the town. The first test of the newly organized company came in October—a grass fire on the lot of St. Vincent’s Catholic Church, located in the cemetery on the northeast corner of Lansing and Little Lake Streets. Ironically, it was suppressed by a bucket brigade! The company began regular training using their equipment. By 1888, there were hydrants in town served by water towers. A “Siamese coupling” and 20 feet of small hose enabled the engine to be attached to any of the hydrants.
Enthusiasm must have waned, however, because the March 9, 1889 Beacon reported “It seems to us that it would be a good idea to get the Mendocino Fire Company together and give the fire engine and hook-and-ladder truck a runout. It has been a very long time, nearly a year, since the company has met for practice.” In April 1893, an editorial read “The Mendocino Fire Company is dying, dying, dying … expired. Isn’t there enough blood and energy around the property owners to at least bring the engine out and practice occasionally?”
The call went out in December 1893 for citizens to meet at the engine house to reorganize the fire company, prompted by a fire in a building on Little Lake Street owned by William Heeser. Most of the building’s contents were destroyed before it was discovered. The reorganization worked, because on January 6, 1894, the Beacon reported that the new chief, Hector “Mac” McKenzie, a respected bridge builder and engineer of many difficult water projects in the area, was overhauling the equipment. In February, McKenzie was at work on the first of three new cisterns. The first tank was erected at the northwest corner of the lot behind the Masonic Hall. The fire company furnished the tank, which held 8,000 gallons, and the Masons provided the foundation. Pipes led to both Lansing and Ukiah Streets. Most of the work was volunteer labor by the firemen, so the cost was only $85.
By 1897, it was recognized that the fire apparatus needed overhauling. Despite the lack of equipment, community involvement was significant, as demonstrated in May 1898, when the high school graduation exercises were disrupted by a fire, and everyone present rushed to the scene to assist in extinguishing it. The fire was at the J.D. Johnson house at Evergreen and Ukiah Streets. Graduation was completed the following evening. Perhaps because it sometimes took the pumper some time to arrive, bucket brigades were still in use, as reported in 1899, when a structure fire on Howard Street was put out in that manner. According to a Beacon story, “the citizens should take more interest in this organization (the fire department) and see that it is placed on a more substantial basis … It should receive every possible encouragement.”
—Excerpted from The Volunteers: History of the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department by Walt McKeown and Linda Wilson
“The Volunteers: History of the Mendocino Volunteer Fire Department” by Walt McKeown and Linda Wilson. Heroic and colorful history recounting the great fires since 1870, the countless rescues, and the camaraderie and struggles involved in keeping an all-volunteer force ready for duty. $15.