How Fire Safety Became a Hot Issue for Chula Vista

By Rachel Perez

On February 2, 1923, Chula Vista was hit by a fire that would come to change how our city faced natural and unexpected disasters as a whole. While the rainy southern California winter weather is not the time of year you would expect a huge blaze to occur, Chula Vista residents were blindsided by the scent of smoke and loud cracks of unexpected flames on one rainy San Diego winter evening.

The Randolph Lemon Packing Plant on K Street had caught fire, thought to be due to a short circuit in the building. The plant was destroyed and every light in Chula Vista went out, leaving the city completely in the dark and most likely sending panic around the neighborhoods. Volunteer firefighters, with the help of the heavy rain that night, successfully put the fire out and no injuries or fatalities were reported. Sadly, the city was hit by another large fire in November 1923, when four buildings used for storing cottonseeds for the San Diego Oil Products Company on D Street caught fire. The city su ered a huge financial loss, which was the first huge impact on the city’s budget at the time.

Disasters such as fires are unfortunately inevitable in any community, but it is how they come back together and strengthen themselves after the matter that makes the di erence. After the chain of disastrous fires, Chula Vista City Council worked diligently to improve the fire department’s equipment and processing systems. These fires proved the city needed a new fire safety system to keep residents safe. Before 1922, there were no fire hydrants around the city at all, and the fire safety equipment included a horse-drawn cart with buckets to fill with water to throw at the flames. The horse cart was replaced with a Model T Ford firetruck in 1922, and in 1924 this same firetruck was swapped for a 1916 model Seagrave Pumper known today at the CVFD at The Old Goose. The use of the Seagrave model truck itself was a huge shift towards modern fire safety in the city: this truck had a six-cylinder engine, a state-of-the-art pump that allowed the firefighters to draw water from ponds and other water sources. The Seagrave could carry more equipment to a fire scene than previous truck models used.

Fire safety itself was revolutionized fairly close to 1923, with the first fire alarm box system being created in 1852 by William F. Channing. This type of alarm system would have eventually been used in the city’s public works as well, but the first documented fire alarm in Chula Vista was a large metal ring that was hastened in a locomotive wheel. This fire alarm was placed in front of the Chula Vista Realty Co. on Third Avenue and would have been in use beginning in 1921.

The fires of 1923 brought new infrastructure changes to our young city. The Chula Vista Fire

Department was relocated to 292 Third Avenue, next to the Police Station. The first full-time firefighter hired was Howard Jordan, who was noted as being present at the station at all times except when he was relieved by Fire Chief Smith.

Today, Chula Vista has ten fire stations ranging from F Street in the west to Millenia Avenue in the east. Chula Vista has always held a deep appreciation for first responders, with both the Chula Vista Fire and Police Departments being committed to the highest levels of safety, professionalism, and community-orientated services possible. Chula Vista’s firefighters have a strenuous job that brings a new scenery each day; anything from responding to crash emergencies, battling brush fires from strong Santa Ana winds during the hot summer months, and more serious matters. Our fire safety equipment, stations and technology may have evolved since February 1923, but the passion of Chula Vista’s firefighters to keep our city and citizens safe has remained the same.

Additional resources used for this article: (https://www.wltx.com/article/news/seagrave-the-fire-truckthat-witnessed-history/101-43489020-588f-4189-b2a4f06e14395db6)

(https://www.merrimacknh.gov/about-fire-rescue/pages/thehistory-of-firefighting#:~:text=In%201852%20William%20 F.,29%20of%20that%20same%20year.)