“After each recurring conflagration, great or small, the fact is more and more emphasized that Santa Paula needs a regularly organized fire department, together with all the equipment pertaining thereto which the town is able to provide,” stated an early pre-fire and SPFD editorial in the Santa Paula Chronicle.It was all too true: the fire that started in a saloon where 912 E. Main St. is today leveled a considerable part of the Main Street business district.As demonstrated by the recent firestorms, wind can play a major role in the spread of a fire and that early morning in Santa Paula it was windy. Before the fire was done it had destroyed not only the saloon but also a butcher shop, part of the Post Office, Cleveland Hall, Petrolia Hotel and Peter McMillan’s Livery Stable. Gone was Louis Keiser’s Harness Shop and residence, Al Atmore’s Blacksmith Shop, Hattie Crozon’s dress making shop, C.B. King’s Furniture Store and City Hall. All that remained for an entire block to 8th Street was the charred shells of buildings and ash where before much of the city’s business had been conducted.It was the next day that community-minded men formed the volunteer Santa Paula Fire Department.Saturday’s anniversary observance will feature speakers recounting the events of that fateful night as well as honoring present and past Santa Paula firefighters. There will also be a brief prayer for those who lost their property in the Main Street fire.Not only the SPFD was born of the fire: Chief Skeels noted that thereafter the city implemented strict building codes for fire safety that have “been very important in keeping fires from jumping from one building to another.”
SP Fire Department Centennial Ceremony to be held Saturday
December 03, 2003
Santa Paula News
The Santa Paula Fire Department will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a special observance on Saturday when fire engines from throughout the county will gather for a ceremony on Main Street, the scene of the destructive 1903 blaze that prompted the creation of the SPFD.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThe Santa Paula Fire Department will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a special observance on Saturday when fire engines from throughout the county will gather for a ceremony on Main Street, the scene of the destructive 1903 blaze that prompted the creation of the SPFD.The Dec. 6th observance will be held at Les Maland Plaza, on Main across from the corner of Davis Street, starting at 5 p.m.Fire engines from Santa Paula, Ventura, Oxnard, Fillmore and Ventura County will converge at the plaza in three directions to mark the 100th anniversary of the fire.“The plan is to simply hold a final event – this fairly short commemorative ceremony – to wind up the centennial,” of the SPFD, noted Chief Paul Skeels.The location of the ceremony mirrors the outbreak of the fire: “It was right in the area of the Odd Fellows Hall and clock tower, a little to the east on the south side of Main Street. We’ll be right there pretty much on the location where it started.”