Residents of the Fifth Ward brave the February 1912 cold to sift through the remains of what had been their homes. The Great Fifth Ward conflagration was the largest fire in the city's history. It consumed 40 square blocks of the Fifth Ward including St. Patrick's church at Conti & Maury, a school, eight stores, 13 industrial plants, 29 two-story dwellings, 90 single-story cottages, 116 boxcars, nine oil tank cars, and at least 40,000 bales of cotton. The estimated value of the destroyed property exceeded $5 million. Miraculously, no one was killed or severely injured. (HMRC)
The Ward System The First Firemen Historic Fires Lost Brothers
Old Fire Station No. 19
FIRE Station
No. 19 was one of three new fire stations to be built after a huge annexation by
the city. The two-story, three-bay station went in at the corner of Greg and New
Orleans in 1925. (A lean-to used as a fourth bay was added much later.) The
original building cost $19,298.34 to build.
In 1979, a new Fire Station No. 19 was built on the opposite side of the intersection where it sits today. It was a single-story, four bay building with a training center at the rear of the station.
Here
is Houston Engine 19, assigned one of the 1950 Mack 750/200
pumpers. Note the Dalmatian sitting atop the pump area. Duane Troxel photo.
Courtesy of : www.firepics.net
The "Ward" system dates back to the city's beginnings in 1838. The city's early charter specified that it would encompass nine square miles, and two aldermen from each of the four wards were to be elected. The early ward system used Congress Avenue and Main Street to divide the city politically. North of Congress and west of Main was First Ward. North of Congress and east of Main was Second Ward. South of Congress and east of Main was Third Ward. South of Congress and west of Main was Fourth Ward. In 1867, the Fifth Ward was carved from that part of Second Ward which was north of Buffalo Bayou, and east of White Oak Bayou. The Sixth (and final) Ward, officially designated in 1897, encompassed that portion of Fourth Ward north of Buffalo Bayou. In 1904, voters approved a commission form of government, ending the ward system in favor of a mayor and four commissioners: Finance & Tax, Police & Fire, Streets & Bridges, and Water & Utilities. Though the official ward system is no longer in place, these areas of Houston are still affectionately referred to by their former titles.
The First Firemen of the Fifth Ward
On September 24, 1874 the Brooks Volunteer Fire Company No. 5 was organized with 35 members and a jug of chemicals out of a station at McKee and Liberty. Their motto was "Always Ready." By 1875 the company had the city's first chemical engine, nicknamed "The Soda Fountain." This vehicle was useful in the Fifth Ward because of the neighborhood's scarcity of water. The engine was composed of several tanks of chemicals which, when mixed, produced carbon dioxide gas which smothered small fires. In 1877 the city purchased a brand new steamer for the company. Two years later the steamer was repossessed. The company has no apparatus for the next four years. Brooks Company No. 5 disbands in 1883 as membership dwindled for lack of new equipment.
Adams Fire Company No. 10 was organized in 1887 to cover an area of the Fifth Ward around Shea Place and Montgomery. Jones Fire Company No. 4 began in 1891 under the direction of Chief E.R. Parker to cover another rather remote neighborhood of Fifth Ward near Temby's Mill (near the present day intersection of North Main and Hogan). There is evidence that the company later changed it's name to North Star No. 4. This was the name of the company that used a hose cart out of a station on Montgomery until the department became paid in 1895.
April 21, 1875. The first record for a multiple-fatality fire in Houston occurred on this day, San Jacinto Day. Three people died in a Fifth Ward boarding house fire.
May 20, 1891. Houston's first conflagration. Erupted at the Phoenix Lumber Mill at Liberty & Moffitt. It spread to a second mill, three lumberyards, and six blocks of homes.
September 2, 1907. Another conflagration hit the Fifth Ward when fire spread from the five-story Standard Milling Co. grain elevator on Odin (Lyons) & Semmes to 27 other structures.
February 21, 1912. The city's
worst conflagration to date. The fire started in a vacant building at
1216
Hardy shortly after midnight and was quickly spread by a gusty northwest wind.
By dawn, the fire had burned a swath all the way to Buffalo Bayou four blocks
wide and ten blocks long. The loss was estimated at well over $5 million.
The Houston Chronicle featured a story about the fire in 1958 written by
Mike Thorne. He stated a gale force wind was blowing from the northwest
when the fire started in the abandoned building located at Hardy & Opelousas,
across the street from the city's largest railroad yard. The two-story
"Mad House" had been a saloon for railroad workers. Only vagrants from the
railroad yard used it for shelter. The building was quickly consumed by
fire and it began to spread. An engineer in the railroad yard saw the fire
and sounded his whistle. A fire alarm box at Hardy and Lyons was pulled
and bells began to ring in the fire stations across Houston. Hose Company
No. 5 was just two blocks south of the fire. The chain drop fell and the
fire horses leaped from their stalls into their harnesses. Driver Phil Jay
and Engineer John Ward climbed onto the steam engine. With the crack of
reigns, the horses bolted from the engine house dragging their bridles and bits,
everything but the steamer, Jay and Ward. In their haste the two men had
forgotten to lock the harness collars. At the central station Assistant
Chief Allie Anderson and his driver headed north in the chief's car. They
could see the orange glow against the night sky. When the first
firefighters arrived, an entire block was ablaze. Anderson immediately
summoned a general alarm. A driver from Central was dispatched to
Galveston to pick up Fire Chief "Kid" Ollre, who was on a fishing trip.
When hose wagon No. 2 arrived, they laid hose from two blocks south of the fire.
Before the line was charged, it caught fire. A large church on Conti
caught fire. The water pressure was good, but the wind kept pushing the
fire block after block. The conflagration spread south to Buffalo Bayou.
When it reached Clinton and Hill (Jensen), the fire appeared to be contained by
the bayou's natural barrier. Embers falling on the south side of the
water, however, started several spot fires, all of which were quickly contained.
Several fire engines and firefighters from Galveston were sent by rail flatcar,
but were never unloaded. The fire burned itself out by the time they
arrived.
February 21, 1968. Four multiple-alarm fires occurred in less than two hours in the Montrose and Fifth Ward areas of town, resulting in the equivalent of seven alarms worth of apparatus committed at the same time.
January 1, 1974. Simultaneous 2-alarm and 3-alarm fires, only four blocks apart on Lyons Ave. near Jensen.
December 4, 1978. Nine persons, including three adults and six children were killed in a house fire at 1927 Des Chaumes. This was the worst loss of life in a single-family dwelling in the city's history.
June 24, 1995. A fire at the
Houston Distribution Warehouse at 8550 Market slowly developed into the first
seven-
alarm
blaze since 1979. Firefighters initially deployed for an interior attack,
but had to beat a hasty retreat when the burning
chemicals stored in the warehouse poured into the large parking lot surrounding
the complex. In probably the largest redeployment of committed fire
companies in its history, the department lost only one ladder truck
(Ladder 19 pictured) to what
became a lake of flame.
July 9, 1995. Firefighters were
summoned back to 8550 Market two weeks later where they found the section of
warehouse
which they had worked so hard to save during the first fire on
June 24th nearly fully engulfed in what became a four-alarm fire, itself.
December 5, 1995. HFD 's largest
response ever to a structure fire. The Electric Wire & Cable Company at
750
Lockwood
was heavily damaged by the 6-alarm blaze, demanding the response of 33 engines
and 12 ladder trucks, including nearly 200 firefighters. Two special calls
for engines above the sixth alarm was the reason this blaze actually had more
fire trucks on the scene than the seven-alarm fire on Market.
Long Lost Brothers of Station 19
Making EMS History Also
April 10, 1971. A19 made the first ambulance run in HFD's history. The new EMS section began operations at 12:01 A.M. on Saturday, April 10, 1971 with 125 EMTs. Within minutes, the first EMS call was received at Fire Alarm. It was a mother about to give birth. Ambulance 19, assigned to Fire Station No. 19, was dispatched. (Bill Hausinger was the dispatcher on that eventful night.) The OB call received so soon after EMS began was an omen of what was in store for the new service. (EMS responded to 197,185 incidents in 2000, and transported 131,259 patients.) The EMTs on unit 1119 were Glenn Morris and Otis Owens. The first citizen of Houston to utilize EMS turned 35 on this date, 2006. Read the article here.
Life of a Fireman in the 'Old Days'
Console Switches
Consoles in watch offices of the fire stations had three switches: An acknowledgment switch to signal when a box alarm came in, a switch for the house lights and a switch to sound the house bell. Each switch had a different colored handle. Red for the acknowledgment switch, white for the lights and black for the house bell. A rookie at a station sometimes memorized which switch by color. Sam Neal tells how they tricked rookies on watch at old Station 19. He said the men would switch the handles when a rookie was on watch that night. When an alarm tapped in on the joker, the rookie would acknowledge the alarm with the house bell switch, waking up everyone in the middle of the night. The rookie was usually raked over by the captain. Read More About Life in the Old Days Here.
One
Tiny OmissionSpeed leaving a fire station has been a goal of firefighters since the early days of fire departments. Stalls were moved from the rear to the side of a fire house, so horses were nearer to the front of the apparatus. Chains across the stalls were released by the watchman from his desk or automatically released when the fire bell rang. Harnesses were rigged from the ceiling and released after the horses were in place. One fire department even sloped the ground floor toward the front door, so the horses could quickly get the heavy steamer rolling. Anything to get out of the fire house faster. Houston's Fire Station 5 had a trip to drop the harness which worked great at the Great Fifth Ward Fire of 1912. The station was just two blocks from the origin of the conflagration, which was roaring in the near distance when the doors opened. The horses trotted to their position on each side of the tongue of the steamer. Phillip Jay raced for the driver's seat, and John Ward hopped to the engineer's position. Phil tripped the harness from the ceiling mount. It landed perfectly onto the horses. With a snap of the whip, the horses leaped off toward the flames. There was one small problem at this point. The reins were ripped from Phil's grip and dragged after the horses. Phil, John and the steamer remained in the station. Someone forgot to buckle the harness. It was not disclosed who was responsible for snapping the harness, but Phil showed up three years later as watchman of Fire Station No. 7. John was still engineer at 5's. Read More About Life in the Old Days Here.
A special thank you is owed to the Houston Fire Museum for allowing us to use information contained in the "Houston Fire Department 2000, Tradition & Innovation." All information contained on this page is property of the Houston Fire Museum and has been used with their permission. No portion of this page may be used without written permission from the publisher and editor of "Houston Fire Department 2000, Tradition & Innovation." Thank you to the Museum for allowing us to compile information contained in this book which allows us to proudly display the history of the Fifth Ward and Station 19.
For more information on HFD visit www.houstonfiremuseum.org.