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Hose Company No. 5


The Companies

The Fire Houses

  Hose Company No. 5 - Organized
  Disbande
d


  Reorganized
  Disbanded



  Engine Company 46 opened
  (Same site - new building)

1900
1904


1909
January 1, 1915


1924
1401 S. Central Ave. & Fourteenth St.
(Hose 3 on this site  1904-1914)
(Engine 30 on this site  1914-1980)

1409 W. Vernon Avenue
(Building moved to Terminal Island and put into service as Engine 40)

(Engine 46 on this site 1924- ? ) 
1900
1904


1909
1915


1924

Hose Company No. 5
Central Avenue and Fourteenth Street
1900 - 1904



Source: OFFICIAL LAFD PHOTO
 

Hose Company No. 5
Corner Central Avenue and Fourteenth Street

1900

 


Vincent Photo
Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
 

Hose Company No. 5
Corner Central Avenue and Fourteenth Street

1900


Source: LAFD Illustrated 1900

1900
Lieutenant Wm. S. Rowan, Driver H. H. Hemb, Hoseman C. H. McFeely

 

Apparatus Floor

 

Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
Courtesy of Pinky Morse's Daughter
 

 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
 

 


Source: Fred Allen Collection

Hose Company No. 5
Circa 1900
 


 

Hose Company No. 5
1409 West Vernon Avenue
1909 - 1915


 

Firehouse Site Wanted

    The City Council has instructed the City Clerk to advertise for a lot in the vicinity of Moneta and Vernon avenues for use as a fire engine house site.  This will be the building provided for the Fifth Ward in the appropriations made for the ensuing fiscal year.

The Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1906
 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
Circa 1910
 


Source: Fred Allen Photo Collection
Courtesy Captain Duane Warth, LAFD Retired

Circa 1910
 


Source: Fred Allen Photo Collection
 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
 

Hose Company No. 5
Circa 1910


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
 

Hose Company No. 5
Circa 1910
 

Crew: Driver Tommy Welch
Lieutenant Welts
Fireman Jim Terrell
Fireman Walter Stokes
Fireman Johnny Matthews
Apparatus: Gramm Commercial truck with hose. 


Source: LAFD Photo Album Collection
 

Hose Company No. 5
Circa 1914




Hose Company No. 5
1409 West Vernon Avenue

Source: Fireman Henry F. McCann
Scrap Book Collection
Circa 1914




Hose Company No. 5
1409 West Vernon Avenue

Source: Fireman Henry F. McCann
Scrap Book Collection
Circa 1914


Source: LAFIRE Collection

Hose Company No. 5
Circa 1914
 

Fireman Ted Schneider, standing on the running board third from the right.  Next
to him, just to his right is Fireman J. J. Terrell, future best man at Ted's wedding.
Circa 1914

 

Call Fireman T. F. Schneider

 Theodore (Ted) Fredric Schneider was born May 27, 1895 in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The son of German immigrants, who raised him strict but fair, the tall and lean Ted had the military bearing of a Prussian officer and the gentleness of a traditional southern gentleman.   

  Ted came to Los Angeles sometime in 1912 and worked downtown as a plumber’s helper.  Each morning he would go to the stables located at 9th Street and San Pedro Street (site of the L.A. Produce Market today), fetch horses, hook them to a plumber’s wagon and then pick up the plumber.

  Ted also worked as a night attendant in a garage located on Vernon Ave. and Menlo Ave.  Few people were mechanically inclined in these early years of the automobile; however, Ted built a roadster and owned a motorcycle.

  Eventually, Ted was hired by the Bell Telephone Company and trained as lineman and telephone installer. 

  In the early years of the Los Angeles Fire Department only two telephones were allowed in the engine house.  One was “The “Business Phone” and it was black, the other, “The Fire Phone”, was red.  Both phones were direct lines to the Signal Office and neither had a dial.  The Business Phone was used for official department business only and the Fire Phone was used for dispatch information.  Use of these phones for personal use was strictly forbidden.  Naturally, the firemen circumvented this rule by secretly installing their own phones.  These phones were hidden, usually out behind the firehouse on the back fence.  Soon, all of the firehouses had illegal phones and now, connected together like a grapevine, news, gossip and rumors shot fast as lightening throughout the department.  These illegal phones came to be known as “The Grapevine” and Ted installed them.  This obviously made him popular amongst the firemen and this affiliation enamored him with the Fire Department for the rest of his life.

  In about 1912 Ted became a “Call Fireman” on the Los Angeles Fire Department at Hose Company No. 5 located at 1439 West Vernon Avenue, (the future site of (the original) Fire Station 46).  A Call Fireman worked part-time to cover manpower shortages caused by members off sick, injured or on vacation.  They were fully paid on a per shift basis and also for any fires that they reported to on a day off.  Most Call Firemen eventually became fully appointed.  The first fireman killed in the line of duty on the LAFD was a Call Fireman assigned to Engine Company No. 2.

  Hose Company No. 5, originally a horse drawn company, was motorized in 1911.  The apparatus was a Gramm Auto/Fire Extinguisher Combination Hose Wagon and along with Engine Company No. 26 was one of the first motorized companies on the LAFD.

  In those years Vernon and Normandie, as well as most streets in the out laying areas of Los Angeles, were unpaved.  The firemen installed chains on the rear tires of the apparatus to add traction for driving through the dirt and mud.  . 

  A Hose Company did not have a fire pump.  It carried 650 feet of 2 ˝” hose, 100’ of 1” rubber hose loaded on a hose reel and connected to a 60-gallon soda/acid water tank and several small portable fire extinguishers.  If the small hand held extinguishers could not control a fire, a fireman would activate the soda/acid tank by turn a lever on the side of the tank.  This caused a small container inside the tank containing bicarbonate soda and acid to mix.  When these chemicals mixed they created a gas that would pressurize the tank and provide a water stream for the rubber hose. 

  For larger fires, the company would lay a 2 ˝” line off the nearest fire hydrant and utilize hydrant pressure for its fire stream.  Eventually, an Engine Company, Engines 7, 18, 22, 26 and 31 were the closest, would arrive, connect to the hydrant and increase hose stream pressure. 

  Prior to the organization of the Department of Water and Power (DWP) private water companies supplied domestic water to Los Angeles.  These companies used pumps instead of gravity (later utilized by the DWP) to provide water pressure and were not very reliable for the fire service.   In Hose 5’s district the local water company would switch the water system pumps to low pressure at night due to the decrease in demand.  If an alarm sounded, Hose 5 would pull out onto the apron and search the night sky for smoke.  If they saw a loom-up, they would first drive over to the water company a few blocks away and switch the pumps to increase pressure. Then, they would respond to the fire. 

  On September 4, 1912 a fire broke out on the famous Fraser’s Million Dollar Pier in Ocean Park.  Fanned by a strong westerly breeze, the fire soon threatened the city of Venice.  Chief Engineer Eley answered the request of the Venice Fire Department and the Santa Monica Fire Department and dispatched the motorized companies, Engine Company 26 and Hose Company 5, and the horse drawn companies, Engines 4 and 13 from downtown.  Hose 5 responded west on Vernon and soon encountered heavy traffic as thousands of spectators headed to the coast to watch the fire.  Ted said that it was the longest run of an LAFD company at the time.  

  When they arrived they found six city blocks in the vicinity of Rose Avenue and Trolleyway (Speedway) fully involved with fire.  Chief Eley ordered the LAFD companies to attack the fire on Pier Avenue.  Engine 26 broke out a plate glass window of the “Indoor Plunge” and, using their hard suctions, drafted from the enormous pool.  After an hour of battling the fire, a 300-gallon gasoline tank exploded and skyrocketed over their heads.  Operating off hydrant pressure, Ted and his crew fought the fire one block at a time.  After knocking the fire in front of them, they would use their Hose Wagon or Pacific Electric Red Cars to drag their 2 ˝” fire hoses to the next block.  Then hook to a hydrant and continue fighting fire.    By nightfall, the glare of the flames could be seen from most of Los Angeles.  The fire burned for nearly four hours and destroyed the pier and damaged or destroyed 225 structures.
 



Source: LAFIRE Collection

Circa 1914

Fireman Ted Schneider, standing on opposite of apparatus, just to the right of the bell.


Source: LAFIRE Collection
Circa 1914

Fireman Ted Schneider,
the Orignal
LAFD FIRE HOG.

 


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