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Chief Corning was replaced on April 1 26, 1938.
In his Place Mayor Art Langlie appointed a man who was to become an institution, holding the position as Chief of the Seattle Fire Department for more than twenty‑five years. William Fitzgerald was raised from the rank of Battalion Chief One of his first improvements was to have installed on the fireboats both marine and police radios. Another “First” In 1938 was the appearance of recently replaced chiefs buggy in a downtown station, equipped with a mechanical Pulmotor and a standard first aid kit. The auto was staffed by a crew of two, one man detailed from the engine company and one from the truck company of its assigned station, and responded to calls for aid in the downtown area. Here was the beginning of the Seattle Fire Department’s long association with emergency medical services. The following year brought another “aid car” into the Department, and in 1940 a third “aid car” was installed, which began operation of this service in the neighborhoods. World War 11 put a severe strain on the Seattle Fire Department, as it did to fire departments nationwide and worldwide. The emergence from the Depression years, the long‑deferred maintenance and replacement of older apparatus, and the lack of new vehicles available to local fire departments because of war needs, all combined to make an obsolete fleet of trucks more obsolete. Burgeoning industrial activities, to meet wartime demands, increased the potential for fire enormously. But Seattle, remarkably, sustained only a few major fire losses during the course of the war. Part of the reason for this is due to the vigilance of the Seattle Fire Department, and also the Seattle Harbor Patrol, which came under Chief Fitzgerald’s command during that period. A portion of this success is also due to the Boeing Aircraft Company, with headquarters and major production facilities at King County Airport (Boeing Field) in the city of Seattle, for maintenance of its own fire department, coupled with its insistence that their smaller sub‑contractor industries adhere to the same strict safety standards as they themselves. Finally, the low wartime fire loss can be partly attributed to industry itself. Although strained to the limit, around‑the‑clock operating permitted crews on duty at all times, thus assuring that while fires were occurring more frequently, their discovery would be early enough to permit extinguishment before a major loss was sustained.Chief Fitzgerald recognized the need for a new fire station on heavily industrialized Harbor Island. The Island, situated at the mouth of the Duwamish Waterway, was home to two large shipbuilding plants, several petroleum distribution bulk plants, the huge “Fisher Flour Mill”, as well as many smaller lumber plants and metal‑working facilities. He was able to get Government funds to construct a 2‑bay fire station with a landing for a fireboat on the northeast corner of the Island. The station opened June 1, 1942, with Hose Company 31 utilizing an old high-pressure hose truck. Shortly after, the fireboat “Duwamish”, Engine 31, moved in and both ran as a two‑piece company. The land‑based unit was manned by Coast Guard personnel. In September a brand new Kenworth 1250 GPM pumper, Seattle’s first apparatus of that manufacture, replaced the hose wagon. Orders were for the engine to respond to any fire alarm on Harbor Island. The Coast Guard company would not appear on any box assignment card. Station 30 opened its Mount Baker district doors again on June 12, 1942, this time not with a hose company only, but with a full engine company. Thursday, February 18, 1943, brought Seattle firsthand experience with a new danger being turned out in aircraft factories worldwide. The local Boeing Company was the largest American producer of bombers during the War. A new heavy bomber, a 4‑engine model, took off that morning on a test flight. What happened delayed the date of actual operational involvement of the model, B‑29. While enroute back to Boeing Field, a fire developed in one of the engines. The fire was initially smothered by the plane’s own C02 system while over LakeWashington, but flared up again and spread over the entire wing involving the other engine. The extinguishing systems expended, test pilot Edmond Allen attempted to maneuver the plane back to the field. The problem was that it could not gain altitude. As the plane approached downtown Seattle, a group meeting on the 21st floor of the Exchange Building looked out to see the stricken “bird” heading directly at them. Allen was just able to miss the building and steer out over Elliott Bay. He was then able to turn the plane toward the southeast on a landward course for Boeing Field. The inability of the plane to gain altitude caused three of the test crew to bail out over Seattle’s Industrial area. They perished, however, as they were too low for parachutes to open. The plane, now at rooftop level, ripped through several major cross‑town power lines. It slammed into the north wall of the 4‑story brick Frye Packing Company at 2203 Airport Way, demolishing that wall and immediately igniting wood frame cattleways adjacent to the big slaughter house. Burning fuel set fires in the sawdust and frame structures throughout the upper levels of the plant. Burning fuel ran down stairways and cattle ramps to lower floors. The time was 12:28 p.m., two minutes before the bulk of the crew of “Frye Packing” returned from lunch. A nightmarish scene greeted the first arriving fire units. A major fire engulfed the large brick building. Screaming hogs, their hair afire, ran everywhere. The truckmen, using their pick‑headed axes, killed the hogs whenever they could. Dead men lay on the ground. There were unsung heroes that day, men who risked their lives to enter the burning plant and carry out employees overcome by smoke or the ammonia escaping from ruptured refrigeration lines. Some of the heroes were “Frye” employees, some were servicemen, but as always there were the fire fighters. Fire Fighter Luther Bonner entered the basement searching for victims once too often. He was overcome by ammonia. Fortunately, another “unsung hero” of the day, Coast Guardsman John Massman, found Bonner, Captain Rod Graham, and three other overcome fire fighters, and dragged them to safety. Massman was overcome himself in the process and was transported to the hospital along with the others. Luther Bonner died that evening. In life loss, this tragedy was the largest in Seattle Fire Department history, a statistic still standing today. One fire fighter, all eleven B‑29 crew members, and twenty “Frye” employees died. Twenty‑five employees, eight fire fighters, and two servicemen suffered hospitalizing injuries. The War, with its ever increasing draft of young men, managed to deplete Seattle’s fire fighting force. The fireboat “Duwamish” was placed in reserve at its Harbor Island station because of lack of manpower on March 24, 1943. Arrangements were made with the Coast Guard to man the boat as they did with the land‑based Engine 31 at the same station. On this accord, Boat 2 was back in service again with Coast Guard personnel on April 1st. One measure to compensate for the depletion of manpower was found in the Seattle Fire Department Auxiliaries. These volunteers gave up the little spare time available in a war time nation for drills and to assist the regular companies in fire fighting. Each fire station in Seattle had a hose‑carrying vehicle, usually an old commercial delivery truck, and a trailer‑mounted pump, manned by its own Auxiliary fire crew. Besides “Frye Packing”, one other spectacular fire visited Seattle during the War, and it was also in 1943. The fire involved several industrial buildings in the Duwamish Waterway Basin. At 9:20 p.m. on Sunday night, May 30th, fire of unknown cause broke out in the Nettleton Baldwin Construction Company, a manufacturer of prefabricated defense housing units, at 6803 Fox Avenue. Fire fully engulfed the large open building, formerly aboat works. The large factory, equivalent to three stories in height, was completely destroyed along with a large inventory of refrigerators, kitchen ranges, and other appliances destined for temporary wartime housing units. Fire spread into and destroyed the adjacent plant of the “Western Mattress Company” at 400 Holly Street. Three fire fighters were injured when a part of the 2‑story brick wall of that building collapsed. Fire spread into and destroyed four I and 2‑story frame buildings on the property of the Johnson Manufacturing Company; a large machine works at 6701 Fox Avenue. Several other surrounding buildings suffered minor damage. At 9:29 p.m. on the night of May 20, 1945, an incendiary fire destroyed the large four‑story frame salvaged goods plant of “Goodwill Industries” at 1400 Lane Street. Fire spread into several dwellings and other structures behind the plant on Weller Street as the building collapsed into a flaming ruin. A 3‑11 response plus special calls brought a total of twelve engine companies, one hose company, two ladder truck companies, and the water tower into the fight. The fire was not “tapped out” until three minutes before midnight. The salvaged‑goods industry was struck again shortly after midnight on September 9, 194 5. The “St. Vincent de Paul Society” maintained a collection center and shelter for transients in a row of old mercantile apartment buildings at 701 through 721 Taylor Avenue. One of the indigents, who had been evicted from the shelter for belligerence, set fires in two of the collection trucks which were full and awaiting unloading the next day at the warehouse loading dock. Fire spread to the buildings on the property, destroying the warehouse, the dormitory center, and a service building for the trucks. Fourteen trucks were also destroyed. The rapid spread of the blaze trapped many of the transients in the dormitory. Four were killed and many others suffered varying degrees of injury and smoke inhalation. The first alarm at 12:42 a.m. was followed by a 2‑11, a 3‑11, and special calls bringing three more engine companies before the fire was “tapped out” at 1:57 a.m. The War was over. A peacetime economy was once again the norm. Men returned from the front lines to resume their positions with the Department. The Coast Guard ceased its manning of Station 31 on September 30, 1945. The “Duwamish” remained quartered there as Boat 2, alone, with no land‑based unit. It was time for the City to consider replacing the oldest of its antiquated fire apparatus. It was also a time when fire fighting personnel considered improving their working conditions. The year of 1945 ended with the City signing a contract for six new Kenworth 1250 GPM pumpers, and Local 27 hitting the streets with an initiative which called for a 48‑hour work week on a 3‑platoon system. Since its 1913 inception, the 2‑platoon system had been only slightly altered to a 70-hour work week.
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