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Frank Fabj was elected
fire chief as the Civil War came to a close.
Union troops occupied Houston between June
and November, 1865. During the occupation,
the troops destroyed many of the city's
official documents that were stored in
municipal offices.
Hook & Ladder No. 1
moved into new quarters at Franklin & Travis
in 1865.
 The
first horse-drawn steamer was purchased by
Liberty No. 2 in 1866. It was a Silsby
steamer and cost $4,500. This freed
firefighters from having to provide the
manpower to pump water. (Manning the pump
handles, called brakes, was a hard task and
would exhaust a firefighter after about 10
minutes pumping at the normal speed of 60
strokes per minute. Firefighters had to
continually rotate at the brakes throughout
a fire.)
Fire Chief Fabj was
able to get the volunteer fire department
going again. Many of the former firefighters
were returning from war. Fabj held a
reorganization meeting in June, 1866. The
meeting allowed members to take stock of the
fire department after five years of war, and
provided an opportunity to plan for the
utilization of the new steamers. Chief Fabj
remained fire chief after the reorganized of
the volunteer fire department.
It was unlawful in
1866 to take water from a Houston public
cistern for any purpose, unless to
extinguish fire. Violations netted the
violator a $25 fine for each offense, or
imprisonment for 10 days.
There was an urgent
need for additional fire companies in the
latter '60s, and Stonewall No. 3 answered
the call. It organized in 1867. John
Kennedy, a wealthy mill owner in the Second
Ward, donated a hand pumper which was housed
in a building at Travis and Capitol.
Protection No. 1
traded in its hand pumper for a steamer
similar to Liberty's steamer.
Firefighters
elected Dr. Tom P. Robinson as fire chief in
1868, and the military appointed Joseph R.
Morris to be mayor. Chief Robinson soon
found it extremely difficult to deal with
the Morris administration. Turmoil spread
within the volunteer department, and the
department began to slip once again. Things
finally grew so badly that Chief Robinson
resigned as fire chief in 1869. Ed L.
Hopkins was elected fire chief in 1869. |
