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24 HOUR SHIFT DUTIES DESCRIBED
When reading the mid-1940's logs, one can see a routine in each day:
Roll Call with members present usually listed; Daily M & M report
complete; apparatus, floor and appliances cleaned & dusted/ brass
and nickel polished; cell-block cleaned; bed quarters aired and linens
cleaned (daily); at 4:00, trucks dusted, floor swept; 7:00- stand by.
In the log, all alarms are written in red. Included in the log would be
special duties, water sold; and at 10:00 the curfew was made by ringing the fire
bell. The chief
-would sign the log on one day, the assistant chief the next day. Meals
were often cooked in the fire house. Rules sometimes would allow men to
go home for lunch. During the on-call time the men would play various
card games, either in the rear of the station, or up-stairs. There were
always plenty of loafers and visitors around the fire house. Even in
the earliest of days of the department, the chief and firemen would
conduct inspections of buildings and schools. Fire drills were regular
yearly events for local schools. The fire house featured a fire
prevention bulletin board on front of the building. Old newspaper
articles described special shows
at the Lincoln and Will Rogers Theaters. If tradition went back as far
as
was in the 1950's, firemen and their families used to get season passes at the theaters.
Firemen were wanted at public gatherings. Perhaps a feeling of safety
and protection would result.
Mel Taylor reported on-duty January 24, 1948, with the 7:00 roll call.
The old log tells that he would be on the crew with Neal Hutton and
Onyx Quinn. On the first day he got his locker, #7 and received oral
explanation of
fire equipment and procedures. Hutton also set him up with a set of
turn-outs. At 12:45 PM he would respond to his first alarm. The call
was to Thudium
Motor Sales, at the 300 block on Sixth Street.
FIRES IN 1948 WERE SMALLER -KIMBALL
RECEIVES BURNS
Paul Kimball, a
mechanic at the garage was working at the work bench when a fire
started. Kimball
received first and second degree burns on his hands. The garage only
suffered
smoke damage. The men returned to the fire house at 1:00 PM. There
weren't
many big fires during '48, but the year included losing a chief, having
two temporary chiefs (Turner and Hutton) and the final appointment of
John
Turner as chief.
COMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS DURING THE SHIFT
After six men became the permanent full-time fire department, with two
crews alternating 24 hours, a new concept called compatibility would
come
into being. In the older large group volunteer organization, officers
were
elected every two or three years, or on occasion, even yearly. I could
only
find a couple of instances where a man was "fired" or removed from the
volunteer roster. In one case, the man was accused by the mayor of
being a public drunk. The mayor asked the volunteer association to
remove the man. They did. After forming the new department in 1941, the
problem would arise with two chiefs. Specifics -were not provided on
Chief Wright. The pages were ripped out. Chief
Faust recorded, himself, the fact that he was being removed and because
of
compatibility problems. It took a "while to finally appoint Chief
Turner. The city council and mayor were now in charge. It -would be
1948, before politics
would finally be eliminated from the hiring and firing of firemen. The
chief
would remain a political item, but after 1948, few problems arose in a
chief
being "removed". The story will continue now with the formation of the
first
Civil Service Fire/police Commission and the first Civil Service Fire
Department.
Melvin Taylor and five other men were hired onto this first historical
department.
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