The
ENGINE NINE
Story

    Before this story reaches print, the last long ring will have sounded through the venerable old fire station at 916 South Santee Street.  The big red chrome engines will have roared out to the last big fire, and workmen will be stripping from the house the last of the things that make a building a fire station.  By now, to the casual observer it probably will look like an empty shell, but to the members of our Department who have known Engine Nine, it will never be empty. That old house will always be filled with the memories of the gags, the jokes, the big glories of the fire-fighting crews that for over six decades, devoted their lives to the safety of the City of Los Angeles.  Those men still with us and those who are now but a part of our history have made a legend of "Number Nine" that can never be torn down, replaced or relocated.

    The House at 916 South Santee went into service in November 1899, and since that time its crews have rolled out to more greater alarm fires than any other company in the city.  The shortest run they ever had from "Nines" was to their own building when it caught fire from its own incinerator.  One of their big ones was the Times Building bombing, but to try to list all of the big jobs that they have worked on would take more pages than we have in this magazine.

    One of the men who had a great part in the building of the spirit and legend of "Nines" was Art Franck.  Art was transferred to Engine Company Nine "A" and "B" shifts in 1923.  Ever since, he has either rode out with them or guarded the building when the company was out, and always had hot coffee ready for them when they came back from a worker.  Art has been a member in good standing of both shifts' meal clubs, and has "popped" for Christmas dinner ever since he joined up.  In fact, the call of "Art's here" was the regular call to dinner with both shifts.

    Having been so much a part of the gang for so long, Art just could not let the place close down without one more big get-together.  So, on the evening of September 29, Art gave a retirement dinner for "Number Nine."  The guest list at both the dinner and the open house included a good many of the alumnae of Old Engine Nine.  If "brass" present is used as a criterion, a hitch at 9's was a good spot for any young man on his way up in the Department.

    John H. Alderson, Retired Chief Engineer, said that he would never forget the good times that he had known there and called upon all the assembled guests to join him in a vow to remember not only the Old House, but the man, Art Franck, who had done so much to make it what it was.  Deputy Chief Harold Johnson said that he would like to go back to the day that he first went on duty there and re-live every day of it all over again.

    Top speaker of the evening was Barney Webber, Engineer and crew member for twenty years.  Barney did not use too many words, but his expression and manners indicated far more eloquently than mere words, what Barney thought about the House and the crew with whom he had spent so much of his life.

    Old Engine Nines has been a traditional source of pride for the Los Angeles Fire Department.  Although the new place may be a lot bigger and fancier, and to the Los Angeles Art Commission a lot prettier, it will take a lot of good firemen a long time to give it the pride and spirit of the old place.