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Pier Blaze Gives Trouble

Boat No. 2 Has a Hectic Day,
With the Helping of Long Beach to Subdue its Blaze;
Then a Ship Fire in the Outer Harbor

By
William R. Gross
Trustee Battalion No. 1

    The Los Angeles Fire Department played the part of the good neighbor in the recent disastrous fire that destroyed Pier No. 2 of the City of Long Beach's harbor facilities.  The fire is believed to have started when something went wrong with the oil lines firing the boilers on the wharf being used by the Consolidated Steel Corporation and the U. S. Maritime Commission.  Although the dock was separated down the middle by a concrete fire wall the necessity of removing several transports and hospital ships tied up there delayed the start of fire fighting operations and by the time effective operations commenced more than a thousand feet of the pier was involved.

    Los Angeles Fire Boat No. 2 responded at 11:27 p.m., December 6, 1945, under the command of Captain Allen.  After making a run of a little over four miles Boat 2 went to work operating four 3 1/2-inch rail standee lines and the bow and stern turrets.  Long Beach's fire boat was out of service at the time and although there were several other fire boats operating at the time they were mostly Navy tugs with small pump capacity and limited stream appliances.  Boat 2 cruised the length of the pier, pouring water from its heavy calibre streams into the well involved creosoted pilings, capping and cross bracing of the structure and although the fire was pretty well knocked down several times there were no provisions for closing in and finishing it off and each time the fire would spring to life anew.  At 6:49 a.m. Captain Allen ordered the crew to make ready to return to quarters as all hands were near the point of exhaustion from the better than seven hours of continual fire fighting under heavy smoke conditions.

    Late that evening Boat No. 2 was again dispatched in response to urgent requests for help to Long Beach outer harbor where United States Maritime Commission's training ship, the American Engineer, had an uncontrolled fire burning aboard.  After bringing this fire under control the crew had to tie up alongside an aircraft carrier for a while due to the heavy fog and general congestion of the harbor with naval vessels. All in all the crews of Boat No. 2 put in a couple of busy and tiring days between the fire fighting  operations and the large amount of cleaning up such operations make necessary.