First paid fire chief recalled

Elia Powers

Frank Crocker presided over some of the most notable fires in

Newport-Mesa history. As the first paid Newport Beach Fire chief, he

was on the job for the infamous 1935 Rendezvous Ballroom fire, which

destroyed the building for the first time.

Before he arrived, a fire at Newport Beach City Hall prompted the

city to get serious about putting the next chief on the payroll.

Crocker, a Massachusetts native, was working as a fire chief in

the San Diego area when he got the call that he had been chosen to

take over the Newport Beach Fire Department.

On March 28, 1927, he began his new job -- 16 years after the

first unpaid fire chief was hired.

“It had been a volunteer position,” said Crocker’s son, Don

Crocker. “He was very excited to move to Newport Beach.”

Don Crocker said he remembers that his dad could hire only two

other firemen to work alongside him.

Frank Crocker took his son with him on many of the fire runs.

“I was so excited riding with him,” said Don Crocker, one of eight

children. “Everyone would look as we passed by. My dad was calm

driving the truck.

“They were old pumpers,” he said of the firetrucks, which had few

amenities. “The department got all their money’s worth out of them.

I’m sure the trucks had been around for decades.”

Frank Crocker’s office was at 703 E. Bay St., which was, at the

time, the only station in town. Now there are eight buildings, and

that location isn’t one of them.

Don Crocker said one of the more memorable incidents involved an

explosion, not a fire. In 1947, wealthy Newport Beach residents

Walter and Beulah Overell were sleeping in the front section of their

yacht when dynamite blasted them from the boat.

Both were killed, and the attackers never were identified.

Still, not everything in Crocker’s job was life or death.

In 1930, the city of Newport Beach passed an ordinance calling for

strict clothing guidelines near the beach. Revealing swimsuits were

outlawed, and as the lifeguard chief, another aspect of his job,

Crocker was charged with overseeing the patrol.

Crocker also was a member of the United States Weather Bureau. On

occasion, he would head down to the water, tie a wooden rod with a

cup to the end of the Balboa Pier and gauge the temperature of the

water.

Crocker was in charge of alerting boaters of poor weather, as

well.

“We’d go down to the foot of the Jetty and raise a huge

storm-warning flag,” Don Crocker said.

Frank Crocker spent 27 years as the chief. In his spare time, he

was involved in the Elks Club and American Legion.

He fished with his family and enjoyed shooting fireworks from the

Balboa Pier, especially around the Fourth of July.

Crocker died in 1972, and the Newport Beach Fire Department held a

ceremony in his honor.