Ford Garage Fire ...as told in "Growing Up In Union City" by Ross D. Pendill

Back in 2011 I posted on the blog ..."Growing Up In Union City" by Ross D. Pendill a collection of short stories Ross wrote for the Union City Register Tribune between 1982 and 1983.  His daughters, Penny and Linda, reprinted the collection in a booklet at the time of his death, September 23, 1997.  Linda gave me permission to add the book to my blog ... to view the entire book go to Short Stories.   

This posting on the blog deals with the Ford Garage Fire ...recently Cheryl (Bartlett) Proctor contacted me in regards to the Ford Garage fire mentioned on page 21-23 of the booklet.  She had a picture of the building taken shortly after the fire, that she shared with me to put on the blog.  My brother Marty scanned the picture, and inserted it and a few other pictures relating to the Ford Garage Fire in Ross Pendill's story regarding Union City fires to make up the blog posting below. 

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Memories of Ross Pendill:

I can remember three major fires that occurred in the twenties. At that time, the fire department used a hose cart, a two-wheeled unit with the hose wrapped around an axle reel. The firemen would pull the cart to the nearest fire hydrant, couple the hose to the hydrant, and then pull the cart, unreeling hose as they went to the fire. At the fire they attached the nozzle and signaled for water to be turned on. A second hose could be run from the hydrant if needed.

The first fire was at the E. J. Gwin & Son Shoe Store (Emmett and Errol), located where Bopp's Drugstore [Miller's Pharmacy] is now. It was a two-story building with a basement. On the second floor, in the front, was a dentist's office. During the fire, which destroyed the first floor and much of the second floor, the dental chair fell from the second floor through to the basement. This was great news to us kids who didn't like dental chairs too well. After the fire, the building was cleaned out and left vacant until John Ennor bought it (used as a movie theater).

Engle & Spoore Ford Garage from about 1920 before the fire

The second fire was at the Engle & Spoor Ford Garage, where Hawkins Furniture Store [Dearth Library] now is. The west half of the building was a wooden structure with a curved wooden roof covered with roofing felt, the walls were concrete, about five feet high.  There was a full basement.  The fire started late at night on the first floor of the west half of the building.  This area contained the repair shop, storage room for cars, and some tractors.  The fire got a big start before it was discovered, so, by the time the firemen arrived, all they could do was try to keep it from spreading to the hotel, (where Merchants’ Hardware now is), to Chan Brown’s machine shop (where the water tank now is), and to Smith’s house (Where Merchants’ warehouse now is).  The roof of the hotel caught fire several times but the flames were quickly extinguished. It was said the flames went up 150 feet in the air.  An unusual part of the fire was the explosion of the gasoline tanks in the many cars that were inside the building.  As the heat increased around a tank, the gasoline vaporized and eventually exploded, breaking the tank and throwing several gallons of gas into the fire.  One would hear the boom and see the flash at almost the same time. After the fire, all that was left of the west end of the building were the five-foot walls and the basement. When Bray Motor Sales owned the building, the businessmen sponsored free movies on the concrete floor are of the burned building.  Later, a tennis court was marked out on the same spot.  I can remember playing tennis with Dr. Finlay on this court.  Not many people know that he was a very good tennis player.  No one in the area could win against him.

Building after the fire (picture provided by Cheryl (Bartlett) Proctor

Spoore's Garage

Parking area used by the Ford Garage after the fire - picture from 1937

[After the fire at the Ford Garage, the repair shop was moved into the basement of the east part of the building on Broadway.  One morning a fellow called “Sleepy” Kline was backing a car out of the south door of the repair shop.  He intended backing to the south, then going up the hill to West High Street.  The car used a gearshift, not pedals like a Ford.  When backing south in the street, he got mixed up and, instead of going up the hill, he continued to the west, across the sidewalk and through a wood fence, and dropped about six feet into the riverbank.  The car landed right side up and was later hauled out.]

Aerial View from 1955

The third fire was at the cement plant.  It broke out some place near the engine room or the east end of the kiln room.  The company had their own firefighting equipment and men.  On this occasion, however, they asked for help from the village.  Some other boys and I stood on the tracks to the “wet end”, watching the scene.  They called for more hose, so someone from the company drove his car back to the fire barn and got several coils of hose.  When he arrived at the scene and hauled out the hose, Lucille Wilbur (now Mrs. Granger Anderson) helped roll out the hose and connect it up.  She was the first woman firefighter I ever saw in action.

There were several small fires that I observed around town.  At one of them, the hose cart ran over a fireman’s foot as they turned off Broadway onto Ellen Street.  He limped to Dr. Hancock’s office in the Watkins-Maxon Building for treatment. He continued to limp for a month.

One Sunday afternoon, during the summer of 1929, a bunch of us were at Whiting’s Drug Store when the fire siren blew.  We tore out of the store to the fire hall.  We stood at the firehouse door for a while, but no one showed up.  We waited some more, still no one came, so we opened the door and Lee Bartlett started the engine of the Reo fire truck to get it warmed up.  The first fireman to arrive was Max Woodruff.  He “bawled” us out for starting the engine.  Then, as he waited for more firemen to come, he softened up and said “Don’s do it again”.  Another minor fire was in the engine of a Model T.  While coming up the hill from the bridge, to East High Street, the engine stalled.  While the owner was trying to start it, it backfired and set the carburetor on fire.  A fireman with a soda-acid extinguished couldn’t put out the fire.  Another fireman, named Drake, (a baker for Smith Bros. Grocery) came out of the grocery store with a sack of flour and threw it over the engine.  That put out the fire.