|
NOTE: This Article was published in the Record-bee
about 1992. This same information was
video taped in an interview with Orval about 1988 done by Martha Webster and
Bill Wink both of Middletown. Charter member recalls 62 years of Middletown Fire Department history By DONALD GOERTZEN R-B
staff writer (c. approximately 1992) MIDDLETOWN
— A grass fire on July 7, 1930, entered the town and destroyed seven houses and
a church before it was extinguished. The blaze prompted the organization of
Middletown's first volunteer fire department. Through
a gentlemen's agreement the local landowners agreed to pay an annual 12 cent
tax" to support the fire department, reminisced Orval Brennen, 89. The
first firehouse, a small wooden structure located behind the metal-walled
fire station still in use, was built a few years later with the labor
provided by the depression-era Works Progress Administration and local volunteers.
Brennen said the materials used for the building cost $84. Brennen
was a member of Middletown's first fire department, and he is probably the
only one of the original 15 charter members.
He was chief of the fire department from 1941 through 1946, and became
inactive when his son Robert Brennen joined the department in 1956. Brennen
moved from Willow Harbor, Wash. with his late wife to Middletown in 1928, and
went to work for auto mechanic Pinky Wilkinson. The
county had provided then-supervisor Ed Herrick with a Packard truck with hard
rubber tires, an 800- gallon
water tank, a Star four-cylinder engine and a Viking one-and-a-half-inch
high-pressure pump. A hose was inserted into the tank and the Star engine
fired the pump. The
county also provided a 50-gallon four-wheel soda and acid trailer. The soda
and acid would boil, creating pressure and releasing water. The
bell of the Presbyterian Church, now a United Methodist Church, served as
Middletown's fire alarm. However,
there was no organized fire department. When
a fire broke out, Herrick and his two employees at the garage he operated
would pull out the equipment and go fight the fire. The
1930 grass fire broke out near the home of Pinky Wilkinson's sister, near
Stewart and Lake streets. She ran to the shop for help and Brennen grabbed a
bucket of water and a wet sack. This
was not very effective. No
one else was around, so Brennen ran back into town and saw the fire engine just
leaving toward the fire. He followed and saw water splashing out of the top
of the truck. One of Herrick's employees had left the top off the tank. The
Star motor was wet and failed to operate the pump. "But I'd read that if
you sprayed a distributor cap with the pyrene from a hand extinguisher it
would dry it out. I tried that and we got the motor to running!"
Brennen's eyes still flash at the memory. Unfortunately,
by that time the fire was beyond their control and Brennen went back to town
again. He
found the Standard Oil distributor and took one of his empty gasoline trucks,
filled it with water, and then went around town filling the buckets and sacks
of people who were by then turning out to fight the fire. By
this time the fire was spreading over the north end of town. Brennen feared
they would lose the town, so he took his wife and infant son Bill Brennen to
his mother and step-father's ranch in Long Valley. The
townspeople did put out the fire, but not until after it destroyed seven
houses and a church. The
concrete [cut stone] blocks from the walls of the church were sold for $75
and used to build two new houses near Bush and Brennen streets and also to
surface the walls of the home Brennen still lives in. Within
a few days after the fire, the Middletown Fire Department was organized. Bill
Abercrombie was voted in as the first chief. The new chief donated a Dodge
touring car on which the soda and acid unit was mounted. Brennen
removed the Star motor from the Packard truck and installed a power take-off
unit to power the pump. Five
fire commissioners were appointed: Sim Chapman, Newton Booth, Charles Kepner,
Anton Hartman and Charles McKinley. According
to Brennen's son Bill, Booth was then the owner of Harbin Hot Springs and
Hartman owned the ranch on which the Hidden Valley estates are built.
McKinley and his brother operated the McKinley Ranch and Flour Mill on
Highway 175. The
annual 12 cent tax was levied — "and no more" — Orval Brennen
emphasizes, to finance the department. The
following year the first "Firemen's
Frolic" (see pictures) fund-raiser was held in Central Park, now
site of the Senior Citizen's Center. The
first new piece of equipment was a siren that was mounted on top of
Wilkinson's Garage where Brennen worked. A
1926 Chevrolet truck with pneumatic tires was purchased at around 1932,
Brennen recalled. Three Standard Oil gasoline tanks with a total capacity of
500 gallons were mounted on the truck along with a pump. The
truck was parked at Highway 29 and 175. "And within a year or so all
four tires were stolen," Brennen said, shaking his head. A
few years later the fire house was built by the WPA. It is now used by Lake County
as a garage for its maintenance yard. The
large metal-walled structure in front that now serves as the fire station was
completed in 1961. According to retired volunteer Paul Montmarquet the
foundation and concrete floor were set by volunteer labor. Total cost came to
about $28,000. A
larger structure is now being completed just outside of town on Highway 175.
Chief Don Sylvia said he hopes they can move in "before the end of the
month." The South Lake County Fire Protection District now numbers 35
volunteers and 12 salaried personnel, including uniformed and support staff. Local
realtor Earle Wrieden, 82, was one of several community volunteers, who, with
the WPA, built the first fire house in the 1930s. "It was a real
community project, everybody pitched in to help," he said. Wrieden
joined the volunteer fire department a few years after it was founded,
although he said that when the siren went off, lots of people show up at the
station, whether they were officially members or not. "It's surprising
how well it worked," he said. The
early volunteers met monthly, and there were no specific duty assignments.
"It was first-come, first-serve," Brennen said. The first to arrive
after the siren took out the equipment. "Businesses
were left open when the volunteers heard the siren," Brennen said. If
the fire lasted into the evening, passersby would lock up the stores and
businesses left open by the volunteers. In
1936, a Chevy truck chassis was purchased and used to build a new fire truck. Similarly,
in 1941, a Ford truck chassis was purchased. The county provided the
material, and Brennen, now running his own business, built a new fire truck
and installed the equipment at no cost. Old
timers report that Brennen, the builder of the truck and chief, got priority
in driving it. He was always accompanied by his mostly-bull-terrier dog,
First Mugs, and later Mike. When
Mike heard the siren he would run several blocks to the fire station. On one
occasion, former supervisor Herrick's three fox terriers took off after Mike.
The fire dog didn't have time for the terriers. He shook each one in turn in
his powerful jaws and then continued on to the fire house. When
Brennen resigned as chief in 1946 the department presented him with a new
rifle. He retired in 1956 after over 25 years of volunteer service. "We
had some fun in those days," Brennen said. Bill
Brennen, Orval's son, proudly states that since the founding of the volunteer
fire department, Middletown has never again experienced a fire as severe as
the one on July 7, 1930. Read
another true story about the MVFD |
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March 1, 2002
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