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The first black
firefighters were hired in August, 1955. There were ten, but
one flunked out of training. The remaining nine rookies were
assigned to Fire Station No. 42, a recently annexed fire
station located in a predominantly black neighborhood near
the Ship Channel.
With the Texas City
explosion still in mind, Houston Fire Department and the
chemical companies along the Ship Channel organized in 1955
into a group pledged to aid each other in the event of a
disaster. The group was called the Houston Ship Channel
Industries Disaster Aid Organization.
Six people died in a
predawn apartment fire on August 25, 1956. Six people died
in the fire at 2103 Kane Street just six blocks from Fire
Station No. 6. Four of the dead were children.
On the last day of
1956, Houston doubled its size with another huge annexation.
It included areas served by 13 volunteer fire departments.
Houston Fire Department kept seven of the stations as
permanent fire stations and assigned one firefighter to each
station. Volunteers at the fire stations continued to
respond to fires.
During 1957, there
were four multiple-alarm fires of three alarms and greater:
1) the St. Joe Paper Company at 1300 N. Post Oak on January
11 (four alarms plus four extra engines); 2) a boat company
and apartments at 6402 Harrisburg on March 1 (four alarms);
3) lumber yard at 5227 Jensen on September 13 (four alarms
plus four engines); and 4) Globe Box Company at 2601
Commerce on December 7 (four alarms).
Chief Lobue resigned
in December 1957 after the mayor lost a bid for
reelection. District
Chief Charlie Bullock was named fire chief in
1958.
On September 15, 1959,
a distraught father over marital problems detonated a
suitcase of explosives on the playground of Poe Elementary
School on Hazard Street. The explosion killed the father,
two school employees, and four students, including the
father's son. Another 16 students were injured out of an
estimated one hundred students on the playground at the
time.
 In the
following month on November 8, two explosions
ripped through the Amoco Virginia taking on
a cargo of aviation fuel at Amerada Hess Terminal.
Within minutes, fire involved the port side and
superstructure of the tanker. Some 500 firefighters
battled the flames for 16 hours before the fire was
brought under control. Bodies of seven crewmen were
found after firefighters were able to board the
ship. One of the firefighters searching for
victims, Doyle H. Chandler, Jr., drowned after he
accidently slipped into a hold partially filled
with gasoline. In all, 38 firefighters and crewmen
were injured. Damage to the 80,000-ton tanker and
the loss of most of its cargo totaled about
$6-million.
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