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Engine Company No. 12


The Fire Houses The Fire Houses
  Engine Co.12
  Engine Co.12 Truck Co.15
  number change-T15 now Truck 12
.
  Task Force 12
.
.
  Task Force 12, RA 12

1903
1925
1932
.
1971
.
.
Present

5921 Pasadena Ave.
(Figueroa St.)
.
Roselawn x Figueroa
(temporary quarters)
.
5921 Figueroa Street
  (new building same location)

11/27/1903 - 1949
.
.
8/24/48
.
.
5/20/ 1949
 to Present


Engine Company No. 12
5921 Pasadena Avenue (Figueroa Street)


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection

Circa 1903
Engine Company 12
5921 Pasadena Avenue (Figueroa Street)

Date Opened November 27, 1903
Cost of Land $   900.
Cost of Building $6,550.

Circa 1905
Engine Company 12
Captain Ira Truesdale
Lieut. George Kelly

 

 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
Courtesy John H. Anderson, LAFD Capt. Retired

 

 

 

 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
Courtesy John H. Anderson, LAFD Capt. Retired

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circa 1908

 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
Turk & Haelsig Photo

 

    Babe

"Babe," the oldest horse in the Los Angeles fire department, has recently received his "honorable discharge."  He had served continually in that department for twenty years, and has not seen a sick day during that time.
    He is a large horse, finely formed, and has been one of the most intelligent and trustworthy horses in the department.  During his long service he never was known to lie down in his stall.  Frequently he has fallen asleep, but immediately sprang to his feet, seemingly much surprised that he had been caught napping.
    He had been serving in the different engine houses and had been transferred to the Highland Park house at its completion about a year and half ago.  He is now allowed his liberty in the yard and in the neighborhood and has the best of care by the boys of the house.
    But his recent discharge from active duty does not seem to suit his dignified horseship.  Every opportunity that is offered he will stalk into the engine house and show fight with the horse taking his place in the stall.  At these times he is forcibly ejected to the yard where he drops his head and appears as disconsolate as a rejected lover.  When the boys try to consol him he is as sullen and obstinate as a child.
    But "Babe" seems to think that, while he has been supplanted by another horse, in his estimation an inferior horse, he must not wander far away from the engine house, for the instant the gong taps his head and tail are up and away he goes in hot pursuit of the galloping horses attached to the engine, apparently determined to regain the rights usurped by the new horse
 

Los Angeles Herald, May 16, 1905

Captain Alvarez's Application for Retirement
September. 19, 1910

Recall early history of fire station here--
when horses pulled wagons.
Highland Park News-Herald, May 1949


Fireman Jeff Morrison Collection
Curtsey of Maurice Tretheway

   

 

To The Rescue  

This dramatic dash down North Figueroa Street (then Pasadena Avenue) by the men and hoses of Engine House 12 was likely a frequent occurrence in the Highland Park of 1909 when this picture was taken.  The fire station in the background is on the same site now occupied by Engine Company 12.

Northeast Newspapers Collection
 

 

    Chief Lips of the fire department slipped out to Avenue 63 Tuesday and turned in an alarm.  The boys of Engine house 12 made one of the quickest runs on record, and earned the praise of the chief.

____

The Highland Park Herald,
April 14, 1906

____

    The boys at engine house No. 12 were called to Hayes and Avenue 60 Tuesday morning, and found it to be a drill. They were Johnnie on the spot, and no kinks in the hose.

____

____

    Engine House No. 12 has a new hose and combination chemical wagon.  The boys are now making quite a show when they go out on dress parade.

____

The Los Angeles Herald,
March 24, 1906

The Highland Park Herald,
April 8, 1906

    The fire boys at engine house 12 have hit on a happy way of exercising their muscles and flushing their hose between times.  They just attach the hose to the hydrant and irrigate Pasadena Ave. for miles around, more or less, so to speak.
    The boys at Engine House 12 were called to Ave. 56 and Monte Vista street on Thursday by an alarm turned in by Assistant Chief O'Donnell, who wanted to see what they could do.  The run was made in three minutes, and water was spouting over two hundred feet in the air in five minutes from the time the gong sounded.  Captain A. H. Moore has everything in the line of speed constantly on tap.

The Highland Park Herald, November 17, 1906

The Los Angeles News, September 22, 1906

Water-spewing "tower' fought early day fires in Los Angeles
By Roger Swanson
Highland Park News, May 9, 1981
 


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