Alameda County Biographies

OAKLAND FIRE DEPARTMENT

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

	Oakland may well point with pride to its fire department which under the able direction 
of its chief, N. A. Ball, is today one of the best managed, most perfectly equipped and most 
adequate public service enterprises in California. In addition to this the fire-fighting force 
is composed of men of more than ordinary ability and intelligence, and the entire department 
maintains a standard of efficiency not equaled in this part of the state.
	There has been a remarkable growth in the department during the last ten years, for in 
1903 there were only six engine companies and two truck companies, whereas today there are 
seventeen engine and five truck companies and a permanent working force of two hundred and 
ninety men headed by Chief Ball, who is aided by two assistant chiefs and two battalion chiefs. 
The fire department has also three chemical and hose companies and two chemical companies 
provided with eight pieces of automobile apparatus and fourteen steamers. A salt-water, 
high-pressure fire protection system has recently been placed in operation, being designed as 
an auxiliary to the other fire-fighting facilities in a restricted area in which the number of 
fire streams required is greater than is demanded in the surrounding sections of the city. The 
pumping plant of the system supplies these additional streams and the design provides that as 
the restricted area increases the salt-water mains may be extended. Hose streams are taken 
directly from hydrants on the high-pressure mains, so that no steamers are required. Dependence 
for a supply for fighting ordinary fires is placed on the existing fresh-water system of mains, 
and the salt water pumping plant stands idle except when called on in emergencies. Damage to 
the contents of a building by salt water thus is avoided in all except large fires. The pumping 
plant is in a park on the shore of Lake Merritt, a body of salt water connected with San 
Francisco bay, and is at a distance of about one and one-quarter miles from the center of the
 area in which the mains of the salt-water system have been laid. Including the force main 
leading to the edge of that area, twelve thousand feet of mains are in service, protection thus
 being provided to sixty blocks of business property. An additional five thousand three hundred 
and forty feet of mains, including fire-boat connection on the water front, has been installed 
and the scheme for the system contemplates that mains eventually will cover an area of one and 
one-half square miles.
	The mechanical equipment of the pumping plant embraces two two hundred and fifty 
horsepower gas engines, each connected to a four-stage turbine pump. The two units are capable 
of delivering ten fire streams of two hundred gallons per minute each, against pressure of two 
hundred pounds per square inch. The specifications require that within two minutes of the time 
an alarm is given, five of the streams should be delivered and the additional five within two 
minutes of the call on the station. These requirements have been reduced by actual service so 
that one pump is placed in operation in thirty seconds and the second within two minutes. 
Recent tests showed that two pumps delivered twenty-four hundred gallons per minute through two 
hundred and fifty feet of hose in the center of the business area with eighty pounds nozzle 
pressure. The pressure on the mains at the pumps is two hundred pounds per square inch. The plans 
contemplate an additional engine and pump, which will be used as a spare unit, or to increase the 
capacity of the plant fifty per cent during a conflagration. In the design of the pumping plant and 
the arrangement of the distribution mains, the suggestions of the engineers of the Board of 
Underwriters of the Pacific were followed.
	The pumping station, which is also a park building, is a one-story reinforced concrete 
structure, sixty-four by eighty feet in plan and seventeen feet high to the eaves line, which is 
treated architecturally to harmonize with its surroundings. The exterior walls were given a plaster 
finish. The roof is of the low, Spanish type, with a covering of red tile on steel trusses. The 
ground around the building was graded to bring the latter naturally into the landscape, the effect 
secured being particularly satisfactory. The interior of the building also is finished in keeping 
with the exterior treatment. The building is divided into five rooms, one, forty-six by forty-six 
and five-tenths feet in plan, that contains the mechanical equipment, an engineer's room, a 
storeroom, and two public toilet rooms, with a sixteen foot porch on both sides. The pump of each 
main unit draws water from a separate screen chamber in a section well under the floor of the room. 
This well is built to provide for the installation of a third unit and is connected with the 
adjacent lake by means of a four by four foot concrete conduit extending twenty feet off shore into 
ten feet of water. The suction pipe of each pump is provided with a double flap foot valve designed 
to hold a pressure of two hundred and fifty pounds to the square inch. The discharge of both pumps 
has an eight-inch connection to a fourteen-inch force main laid on the floor at the end of the room 
and over the suction well. Each of these connections is provided with a check valve, which prevents 
the return of water to the pump in case the latter goes out of commission suddenly. Beyond this check 
valve is a gate valve provided to permit the pump to be cut off when desired, without interfering with 
the operation of the other unit. The valves by means of which the mains are divided into sections are 
in brick manholes having cast-iron tops and covers. They are of extra weight and are designed for the 
high-pressure salt water service, under a working head of two hundred and twenty-five pounds to the 
square inch. They have cast iron bodies, with bell connections, except for special lengths. Their 
double gates are independently adjustable and are arranged so the central pressure is removed entirely 
and the disks freed from their seats before being raised. All working parts of the valves, including 
the entire gate disk and all contact surfaces, are of bronze of a special composition selected to 
resist wear and corrosion by salt or brackish water, the wedging surface on the spreader being of 
harder bronze than those on the disks. The upper end of the spreader nuts and the inner surface of the 
top of the valve case are finished to a close fit when the valve is fully open, so that only slight 
leakage occurs when the stuffing box is repacked without shutting down the valves.
	A flush hydrant is placed at every street intersection in the area protected by the high-
pressure mains. The hydrants are each in a concrete manhole built at one side of the main and below 
the surface of the street, a location being selected in each case as near the center of the street 
intersection as possible. This type of hydrant was chosen because any possibility of damage to a hydrant 
by a wagon or other vehicle striking it was eliminated. These hydrants also avoid the difficulty 
occasionally experienced with the usual type of post hydrant, placed behind the curb at the corners of a 
street intersection, being rendered unsafe for use during a fire in an adjoining building. The hydrant 
manholes each have a cast iron cover, so that any part of the hydrant may be repaired or replaced without 
disturbing the surface of the street. The cover also is of such design that two men can lift it with ease. 
The fact that no frost occurs in Oakland, of course, should be borne in mind, since this condition 
permitted the employment of a hydrant of this type. Each hydrant has a manifold of eight-inch pipe which 
is connected inside of the man�hole to the main. A valve on this connection is provided with a hand wheel 
in the manhole, placed where it can be reached and operated readily. The quarter-turn on which the manifold 
is mounted is carried by a cast iron chair anchored to the bottom of the manhole. The blank flanges on the 
ends of the manifold also are both fastened to brackets embedded in the sides of the manhole. Five three-
inch hose connections are attached to the manifold by means of flanges. Each connection is provided with a 
gate valve so it may be operated independently. The manifold not only permits a quite satisfactory 
arrangement of these connections, but also reduces the loss of friction in the hydrants to a minimum. On 
each hydrant is a four-inch connection, by means of which standpipes for buildings can be supplied through a 
pipe laid underground and provided at the hydrants with gate valves. These standpipes have hose connections 
at the sidewalk which are left open for use with fire engines and fresh water. The connection with the high-
pressure system is made at the base of the standpipe, so the one above it can be left open without 
interference. Since the hydrants are ordinarily only two hundred and eighty feet apart on the mains, it was 
considered better to make the standpipe connections at them, where they are readily found, rather than along 
the main between the hydrant.
	The total cost of the high-pressure fire protection system, embracing the pumping plant and the 
twelve thousand feet of mains that were laid under the first contract, was ninety-five thousand dollars. 
This amount included approximately four thousand five hundred dollars for the replacement of pavements in the 
streets in which the main had to be laid. The cost of the pumping station building also was somewhat higher 
than would ordinarily be incurred under most conditions, amounting to a total of twenty-three thousand 
dollars. The contract for the entire mechanical equipment amounted to twenty-eight thousand dollars and 
included all of the apparatus in the station.
	The Oakland Fire Department is under the supervision of Chief N. A. Ball, one of the most able 
firemen in Alameda county, who, with the exception of four years, has in the thirty-three years since 1880 
been continuously a member of the department. He is a native of San Francisco and in 1862, when he was three 
years of age, moved with his family to Oakland, where he was reared and educated. Following the completion of 
his studies he engaged in the grocery business for a number of years and while still retaining this connection 
joined the Oakland Fire Department in 1880 as call man. Advancement came rapidly. In 1889 he was made assistant 
chief and on the 29th of March; 1898, was appointed chief. He still holds this responsible and important 
position, and his success is unquestioned, being evidenced in the excellent condition of the fire department and 
in its growth and improvement along all lines.

Past & Present of Alameda County, California � Vol II, S. J. Clarke Publ. Co., 1914, p. 33