Oil, Orchards and Flames: The History of Firefighting in Santa Paula

Copyright © 2000 by Bill Nash.

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Contents

PRELUDE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES

CHIEF’S CHRONOLOGY

DIRECTORY OF SANTA PAULA FIREFIGHTERS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book is dedicated to the men and womenwho have fought fires in Santa Paula.

It is a distinct privilege to serve the communitywhere you live and to know the people there—

friends, family and neighbors—

count on you for their safety.

This book honors their service.

PRELUDE

Hear the loud alarm bellsBrazen bells!

What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!

In the startled ear of night

How they scream out their affright!

Too much horrified to speak,

They can only shriek, shriek,

Out of tune,

In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,

In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire

Leaping higher, higher, higher,

With a desperate desire,

And a resolute endeavor

Now-now to sit or never,

By the side of the pale-faced moon.

Oh, the bells, bells, bells!

What a tale their terror tells

Of Despair!

Edgar A. Poe

CHAPTER ONE

Beginnings: The History of Santa Paula

Fire drives a thorn of memory in the heart.

Thomas Wolfe

Gunshots sliced the night followed quickly by the ringing of church bells and shouts of Fire! It was 3:30 in the morning on December 6, 1903. Southern California’s infamous east winds, the Santa Anas, had been blowing for days wearing nerves and fanning the flames of brush fires in the hills and mountains surrounding Santa Paula. But now the fire was on Main Street. It was a blaze that would change forever the appearance of downtown Santa Paula and usher in with the 20th century a new era of protection for the lives and property of its citizens.

Changes were coming to Santa Paula in many forms. Some arrived quickly, made their mark, and disappeared, but others occurred slowly, inexorably, stirring the mix that would eventually be used to build the Santa Paula of today.

As the city grew, so did its industry and wealth. But with growth came new problems. A fledgling city government had to deal with water supplies, calls for paved roads, new bridges, and fire protection.

The city board of trustees recognized the importance of fire protection and fire safety codes very early. The credit for this recognition, however, belongs less to the men who comprised the board than to the 1903 fire that destroyed City Hall and many of its records. One of the board’s first actions following the fire was to enact a stringent fire code. The fire code was successful, for while Main Street has had its share of fires through the years, never again were entire city blocks consumed. While the city fathers attempted to make order from the shambles of downtown, others were building as well.

Oil had been discovered in Santa Paula some years earlier, and agriculture was already becoming recognized as a significant force in the region’s economy. These and other businesses, coupled with the arrival of the railroad, soon had the city’s economy booming.

The Fire Department, like Santa Paula, was evolving. With development came an increased exposure to hazards. Agriculture was expanding, and packing plants were being built. With the oil rush came wells, pumps, and refineries. Santa Paula was ready to become the Citrus Capital of the World and the cradle of the California oil industry.

The people who would propel the citrus and oil industries into the 20th century were the same type of people who would organize, manage, and staff a Fire Department that would protect the city into the next century. Strong-willed, intelligent, dedicated, and caring people built Santa Paula and protected it as well.

The area which now comprises the City of Santa Paula has had a number of different names through the years. Mupu, Rancho Santa Paula, and Boulderville all described what was finally to become Santa Paula. Local history suggests that the city was probably named after a follower of Saint Jerome, a Roman matron, Saint Paula. The Chumash Indians referred to the setting as Mupu, but as early as 1828 the San Buenaventura Mission records call the site Santa Paula. An April 1840 land grant also refers to the area as Rancho Santa Paula y Saticoy. While the official post office, established on June 14, 1877, was called Santa Paula, early editions of the Ventura Star-Free Press refer to a period in 1867 when the town was called Boulder or Boulderville.

The modern history of the town begins in 1873 when the Ventura Signal newspaper reported that A new town has been laid off on the Santa Paula Creek (and) it will be called Santa Paula.

Founded by pioneer settler Nathan W. Blanchard and his partner in business, E. L. Bradley, the town began to grow rapidly.

Bradley and Blanchard erected a flour mill in 1873 on a site that would eventually become the city’s Mill Park. In 1875, when the townsite was officially recorded at the Ventura County Courthouse, Santa Paula’s population was 75.

The advent of the Southern Pacific Railroad line provided the impetus for growth in Santa Paula. When the track reached the center of the city in January 1887, several present-day landmarks resulted. The Mill, a farmers’ supply and warehouse store, opened in 1886 just north of the route the tracks would take through town and remains open, still operating as the oldest continuously run business in the city. Soon after the railroad appeared, so did a prefabricated redwood building from Sacramento. When erected, this building became, and is still referred to as The Depot. A Moreton Bay Fig tree was planted across from the Depot at the southwest corner of 10th and Santa Barbara streets to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday. Still standing more than a century later, the tree dominates the corner and offers shade to the thousands who pass it.

But more important than the landmarks it spawned were the opportunities the railroad opened. With horse-drawn transportation supplanted by fast, efficient rail service, industry could now flourish, and it did.

By 1890 the population was growing. Fire protection was not yet a major concern and the thousand residents were protected only by a single hosecart with 200 feet of hose kept in a shed near the Presbyterian Church. Already the citrus and petroleum industries were making their mark on the city.

The Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company had completed laying their lines from Ventura to Santa Paula in 1891 and there was limited phone service. At the end of 1892, three independent hosecarts protected a population grown to 1,500.

Meanwhile, business continued to grow. Men like Blanchard and Wallace Hardison of the Union Oil Company were seizingopportunities that would make their fortunes and assure their places in the city’s history. The oil business was booming with new discoveries on an almost weekly basis. Blanchard’s success with citrus had turned Santa Paula into a thriving agricultural community as well.

By 1893, Santa Paula’s Main Street boasted a cement sidewalk and it was clear that the city was here to stay. On April 7, 1902, the area’s residents voted to incorporate the city of Santa Paula and on April 22 cityhood was officially proclaimed making Santa Paula the only other incorporated city in the county after Ventura.

In 1903 the tide of growth in the community was temporarily stemmed. With the population still at 1,500 in July, fire protection had dwindled to 250 feet of firehose kept at the Eagle Livery on Main Street, a fact that five months later would haunt the city.

In December of that year, the east winds heralded the disastrous fire that destroyed much of downtown, including City Hall. Starting in a saloon and sweeping down Main Street the fire threatened to destroy what Santa Paula’s pioneers had struggled to build. From its ashes would have to come the foundation to rebuild the city. In their first meetings after the fire, the town board of trustees established Santa Paula’s first organized Fire Department and created a fire district in the downtown area. Then, they set about rebuilding downtown and setting the town back on its course of growth.

The fire would not stop Santa Paula. In addition to trains, automobiles had made their appearance. From seven in 1903, the number of automobiles dodging horses on city streets grew to 24 in 1906 and 42 by 1907. In October of that year the Santa Paula Chronicle reported that The City Marshal and his assistants have finished putting up the street signs, and it is now possible to tell where you live . . . Nineteen hundred residents now populated the city.

Still industry grew, especially agriculture. In addition to citrus there were apricot and avocado orchards and many row crops were being grown with beans being the most prolific. The bumpercrops led by natural extension to the growth of fruit packing concerns in the area and the railcars left Santa Paula with fruit bound for the world.

Downtown was rebounding from the fire of 1903 with a vengeance. By 1910, the Santa Paula Chronicle told of a Main Street boasting five grocery stores, two furniture stores, three shoe stores, four dry goods stores, four livery stables, four blacksmiths, two plumbers, two restaurants, a hat shop, a bakery, two billiards rooms, two drug stores, three stationers, two butchers, two banks, as well as an assortment of physicians, dentists, dressmakers, and other businesses.

In addition, there was entertainment. Horse and automobile races were common, as were rodeos. The town had both a bowling alley and a skating rink. And by 1911, Santa Paula was a pre-Hollywood film center rapidly becoming famous for the Westerns produced in the local studios. Several major movie companies of the time had their studios in Santa Paula, among them, the St. Louis Motion Picture Company, Robards Film Manufacturing Company, Melies Moving Picture Company (later reorganized as Melies Star Film Company), and the California Motion Pictures Corporation. Santa Paula’s picturesque Main Street still attracts movie companies, television, and video producers which use the city and its surroundings for their projects. The easy drive from the Los Angeles area makes location filming in Santa Paula both attractive and cost-effective. Personnel and apparatus from the Santa Paula Fire Department have appeared in music videos and one beer commercial honoring volunteer firemen in the United States. The Fire Department also provides fire and safety supervision during filming in the city.

By 1912, the population had climbed to more than 2,200. The Chamber of Commerce was formed in 1915 with Fire Chief Frank A. Shipley elected as its first president.

Tragedy struck again when a deadly influenza epidemic infected Santa Paula in 1918 and 1919. At one point, local schools and theaters were closed, and residents were urged not to gather ingroups in an effort to halt the spread of the disease. The Red Cross opened a 30 bed emergency hospital at the Methodist Church. Fifty-five would lose their lives.

In May of 1920, Blanchard and Bradley’s flour mill burned to the ground. Being outside of the city and up the hill, it could not be saved. With a population of 5,500 by 1923, civic improvements were appearing also. Twenty-eight lamp posts were erected between Seventh and Twelfth streets along Main