Olden days

Marisa O’Neil

It isn’t often that a birthday adds some 20 years to your age.

But when Costa Mesa Fire Chief Jim Ellis asked unofficial

historian and fire engineer Fred McDowell to look into the

department’s history for its expected 60th anniversary in 2006,

McDowell went one better. While digging through old photos at the

Costa Mesa Historical Society, he came across a photograph of six

serious-looking men posing on a fire truck with “C.M.F.D.” emblazoned

across its hood.

The photo was dated 1929.

“It got me wondering,” McDowell said. “If we’re older than 1956,

how old are we?”

Further combing through papers at the historical society unearthed

a 1925 announcement placed in the Daily Pilot’s predecessor, the

Newport News, announcing the election of Fred Bush as fire chief for

Costa Mesa’s newly formed volunteer department.

Now the department is looking for former volunteers -- or more

likely, descendants of volunteers -- to recognize during May’s fire

expo for the 80th anniversary of fire service in Costa Mesa.

“These were butchers, auto mechanics, a pharmacist, the editor of

the local paper, coming together to serve the community,” McDowell

said.

Some, like former chief and later City Councilman Bert Smith, went

on to hold public office, McDowell said.

McDowell so far has found one surviving member of the

all-volunteer department. Costa Mesa resident Everett Brace served in

the 1930s and 1940s, starting when he was just 18.

“All citizens have a duty to take care of the city,” Brace said.

“Back then we did what we did with what we had.”

And what they had was a temperamental “chemical wagon,” which was

nothing more than an open-top truck with two fire extinguishers on

the back, McDowell said. They kept it in a garage next to a metal

shop on Newport Boulevard.

Annual dances would raise money to buy any additional equipment,

such as surplus military fire trucks that the volunteers had to get

up and running.

The firefighters didn’t even have coats and helmets to protect

themselves during a fire.

“These men had nothing more than a hat and a badge,” McDowell

said. “They struggled to keep their equipment.”

Whenever a fire struck, he said, a bell would sound. The first man

to the fire station would write the location of the fire on a

chalkboard for the next responder to see.

The first few to the fire got $3 from the county, Brace said. The

rest got nothing.

The City Council started a paid department in 1956 but continued

to supplement it with volunteer firefighters until 1965.

Ellis, who started his career as a volunteer firefighter in

Romulus, Mich., said he has a soft spot for volunteer firefighters.

“I applaud them and have the utmost respect for them,” Ellis said.

“If they could let themselves be known, we would love to pay tribute

to them.”

* MARISA O’NEIL covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4618 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.