Firefighting has long been a skill required of civilized men and taken up as a career by a brave few. Early homes used some form of fire for heating, cooking, or lighting so it isn’t surprising that unwanted fires were often responsible for the loss of homes, businesses, and lives. In 1736 Benjamin Franklin organized a group of volunteers who, using buckets and bravery, dedicated themselves to fighting fires in Philadelphia. In 1752 he formed a fire insurance company and was instrumental in promoting many early fire prevention practices.
As settlers moved west they brought their knowledge and fear of fire with them. Many towns had volunteer fire departments, fire insurance agents, and ordinances governing building construction. Major insurance companies mapped communities and made note of water sources, building materials, and local fire departments. Oklahoma City had a large volunteer fire department in 1889. Many smaller communities in Indian Territory quickly followed their example. The Indian Territory Firemen’s Association met in Ardmore in 1907 with W. C. Gruber, chief of the Guthrie fire department, as their president.
Fire was a double-edged sword in prairie settlements. It was the preferred method of farmers for annually cleaning fields of harvest debris. Trash and leaves were routinely burned by town residents. However, flames too often leapt with the wind to areas not anticipated, creating new fires and leaving destruction in their wake.
1900 was a year of many such fires. Durant and Caddo were both devastated by not one, but two downtown fires that wiped out entire blocks. George Ahrens was killed in one of the Caddo fires. Ardmore lost a business block that included the First National Bank. Shortly afterward the Ardmore city council formed a “Fire Investigating Committee”, Durant organized a fire department, and merchants in Caddo rushed to replace wooden buildings with more fire-proof structures of brick and cement.
Charles H. Huber moved from Texas to Durant in 1900 and became chief the Durant Fire Department the following year. In 1907 the department boasted “a combination hook and ladder truck carries a 40-gallon chemical tank, two hand extinguishers, 144 feet of ladders, six plaster hooks and poles, a dooropener and a pull-down hook and pole. The hose wagon carries 1,250 feet of hose, two hand extinguishers and four nozzles. There is a total of 1,500 feet of excellent hose in the department and 800 feet used since the department was organized.”
Other towns were forced to fight fires with bucket brigades. Some fires were small and successfully controlled by community volunteers. The Mead post office caught fire in 1906, destroying the building and all of its contents, but flames were prevented from spreading to other businesses. Other fires, such as the Alderson blaze of 1908, were so big that there was no hope of controlling it with buckets. The little community in Pittsburgh County lost their whole downtown block.
From the beginning the Durant fire department faced problems and coped with complaints, mostly about their response time. In November of 1905 Chief Moore requested that the Durant News inform people that their one and only phone was used for a multitude of purposes. The “proper and only way” to report a fire was to ring up “Central” and report its location to the telephone operator, who would then report it to the fire station. She could interrupt any conversation taking place on the phone; an outside caller would just get a busy signal.
Water was also a problem. Smaller communities often lacked sufficient water pressure, and it was years before some had fire hydrants installed. In 1905 Durant had a hydrant at Second and Beech. By 1927 there were 127 in the city and a map directed the firemen to their locations.
The twenties were busy years as the department fought a variety of blazes- from house fires to a blaze at the incinerating plant just north of town to an auto that caught fire on Main Street. Chief Huber retired in 1923 and was replaced by L. L. Moore. Chief Moore issued an urgent message warning citizens about burning leaves and trash after crews were called to seven grass fires in six exhausting days.
Arson was a common problem throughout the new state of Oklahoma. Louisa McGuire, 17, was convicted of arson in 1914 for burning the Bloomfield Academy. Locally, Albert Mendenhall and Arthur Pool were charged with arson in 1920. The state fire marshal, John Connally, reported in 1921 that 56 people in Oklahoma had been prosecuted for arson the previous year. “When times get hard,” he stated, “the unprincipled man begins immediately to think of an easy way to make money… he burns his home or business house to the ground to collect the insurance.”In 1928 the Caddo Herald reported that “several prominent Durant citizens” had been charged with burning “several stores, residences, and gins” for the insurance money.
A fire in August of 1933 damaged the building of The Durant Democrat and delayed work on the newspaper. Much of the damage to the second floor, occupied by several attorneys, and to the Durant Flower shop next door, was from water. Smoke also damaged both buildings and the May Music Shop.
In 1937 the Durant Fire Department was called to the Armstrong School house, but they were unable to save it. They did, however, prevent it from spreading to adjoining buildings. All eighteen of the students and their two teachers escaped without harm.
Firemen spent long hours together and often shared personal triumphs and tragedies, just like any large family would. In July of 1938 bridegroom Troy Tomlin was driven to his wedding on the hook and ladder truck by Chief Moore and accompanied by several of his fellow firefighters. They mourned together in 1943 when their Boston bulldog mascot, Chief, died after serving with them for twelve years. Two years later they gathered for the funeral of J. E. Helbach, twenty-three-year veteran of the department. He was tragically killed when the fire truck he was riding on was struck by a car at 5th and Evergreen, causing it to roll over.
1941 began with one of Durant’s most disastrous fires. The administration building and the south wing of the Presbyterian College were both destroyed by an early morning blaze in January. The college library “a rather extensive and valuable collection” was completely destroyed. Senior housing was also lost, but thanks to the quick action of Mrs. M. L. Padgett the girls escaped without harm.
Later in the year fire swept through Calera. The town’s two grocery stores were destroyed and telephone lines damaged. In reporting the story, the Durant Weekly News stated, “Reports from Calera citizens that the Durant Fire Department was twice asked to send help, but refused to do so, brought speedy action from a number of Durant businessmen”. The Durant Chamber of Commerce issued a formal apology, signed by fourteen members, expressing their deep humiliation that “the Durant Fire Department has failed to live up to our ideals of citizenship.” Chief Moore explained that his refusal was based on the knowledge that they could not have been of any help since they had “no fire plugs in Calera to which our hose could be attached”…”there was absolutely no way of getting any water to the fire with our equipment”.
There was a much happier ending the next year when the Masonic Lodge and the movie theater in Bokchito caught fire. Both the Durant and Bennington fire departments went to the aid of the Bokchito fire crew and were able to control the fire before it spread to three other nearby businesses. Unfortunately the building and all records of the Masonic and Eastern Star lodges were lost and the only equipment saved from the theater was Mr. Muden’s projector.
The department again responded in 1943 when the “fire proof” Mead school house was completely destroyed by a coal dust explosion. They rushed to the scene, but the fire was too advanced to be controlled. Ironically the stone building had been constructed by the WPA to replace the structure lost in a 1937 fire. The Durant trucks did not respond to that earlier fire because “it had no equipment it could have used to fight the fire”. Instead the fire was fought by 150 volunteers, including members of the girls’ basketball team. They formed a bucket brigade using water and snow and worked for three hours to contain the blaze.
The Durant Fire department proudly displayed a new fire truck in 1948. The 36-foot 1948 Seagraves was a welcome addition to the equipment barn, which had not seen a new truck since 1918. It carried much longer ladders than the older equipment and could pump water at a rate of 750 gallons a minute. Sadly, Chief Moore did not live to see the new truck. He died of a heart attack in 1946 and was replaced by Preston Greeson. However, Charles Huber, who began the department with horse-drawn wagons, did live to see it before he died in 1952. Dr. W. L. “Bill” Moore, Huber’s young driver in 1919, became the Chief in 1960. It was truly a “full-circle” moment for the fire department.