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Jasper Davidson, a
25-year veteran of the department, was appointed fire chief
in 1935, after a new city administration took over. Fire
Commissioner Allie Anderson lost his bid for reelection, and
Frank L. Holton became the new commissioner.
A flood occurred again
in December, 1935, and rose eight feet higher than the flood
of 1929. It did knock out the central waterworks this time.
The two-story garage of Yellow Cab at 510 Louisiana caught
fire during the flood. The flooded streets slowed the
response of the firefighters, but they had no problem with
getting water. The drivers of the engines merely dropped
their hard suctions and drafted water from the
street.
On June 15, 1936,
fires destroyed Rabinowitz's Deli and heavily damaged the
Weingarten grocery store at Main and Texas; and later in the
year on July 13, a stubborn blaze in the basement of the
Gulf Building at 712 Main kept firefighters struggling for
several hours to extinguish the fire.
Several firefighters
were injured on April 5, 1938, when the canopy of Schulte
United Store collapsed on them as they battled a blaze in
several shops in the 500 block of Main.
 A salvage
wagon went in service sometime in the latter 1930s
and ran out of Fire Station No. 1. It carried large
tarpaulins, called salvage covers, which were used
to protect furniture and goods from water during a
fire. Salvage work had been performed by the Harris
County Emergency Corps. The salvage wagon was later
moved to Station 2.
Homer Lyles replaced
Chief Davidson in 1939 after a new mayor came in power.
Frank E. Mann was elected fire commissioner.
Working hours of
firefighters were reduced in 1939 to an average of 72 per
week. The new schedule had the two platoons switching
between the day shift and night shift each week instead of
monthly. They still worked 10 hours on the day shift and 14
hours on the night shift.
A fire damaged White
House Dry Goods and several other businesses on October 11,
1939. The dry goods store was located on the corner of
Travis and Prairie.
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