1975 - 1980

The union's bid for collective bargaining on March 22, 1975, was soundly rejected by city voters. The "strike" last year was still fresh in the minds of the voters.

On March 31, 1975, Linda Honeycutt began her training at the Fire Training Academy. She became the first female firefighter and was assigned to Fire Station No. 9.

A new fire alarm building opened in December at Preston and Bagby, across Preston from the new fire headquarters and Fire Station No. 1.

Chief Little retired in January, 1976, and was replaced by Senior Captain Joe Perino on February 12, 1976. Perino was a former president of the firefighters' union in 1969 and from 1971 through 1973.

An explosion and fire at the Goodpasture Grain Elevator in a neighboring city on February 22, resulted in the establishment of the Houston Fire Department as the coordinating authority of Channel Industries Mutual Aid (CIMA).

No one had been designated to be responsible for coordination at CIMA incidents. The many different fire departments that had responded to the $42-million fire pointed up the lack of an overall commander.

On May 11, 1976, a tank truck hauling anhydrous ammonia plunged off a freeway interchange ramp, and the tank split open when it landed on the Southwest Freeway below. The release of the toxic lading produced a giant cloud that killed eight and injured more than 150 people. Several subdivisions downwind were evacuated.

The Uniform Fire Information Reporting System, a computer program for recording and reporting of fire information, was adopted in Perino's first year. He also began to removal some street fire alarm boxes in 1976. Most of the fire alarms from street boxes for some years had been false. When Perino got through, only about 100 of the 832 fire alarm boxes remained.

Fire destroyed the plant of Redwood Chemical Company at 12254 Robin Road on October 26, 1976. An unknown number of different pesticides and other chemicals were involved in the fire that raged in a huge warehouse. Several firefighters were overcome by the toxic fumes. The fire went to four alarms. Much of the hose and bunker gear were contaminated. Some of the apparatus was also contaminated. Runoff water flowed into Sims Bayou and killed hundreds of fish.

In December, Houston firefighters responded to an explosion of a grain elevator at Farmer's Export in Galveston. The explosion killed 20 people. Galveston had responded several times to help Houston in the days of the volunteer fire department.

A deputy chief was put over Emergency Medical Service and the organizer and head of the section since its inception: District Chief L. O. Martin. It was rumored that the fire chief wanted to limit Martin's authority. Also, the fire chief removed the beds from the offices of the deputy chiefs and alienating more fire officers.

On February 25, 1977, a total of 26 townhouses at 11530 Chimney Rock were destroyed in two multiple alarm fires 10 hours apart. The fires, the first a 4-11 and the second fire a 3-11, were deliberately set.

District Chief V. E. Rogers was named fire chief in the first days of 1978 after a new mayor was elected.

A block-long warehouse burned to the ground at 2311 Polk on February 4. The four-alarm, 13-tap fire was the largest response of fire apparatus since the Lack's warehouse fire in 1970.

On February 23, fire spread over wood-shingled roofs in an apartment complex at 7575 Bissonnet. The fire went to four alarms and 4 taps before the blaze was brought under control. Forty apartment units were destroyed. Property loss was $2-million.

Code "Brushfire" was dusted off for a riot in Moody Park on Fulton Street in May. An ambulance had been dispatched for someone in the crowded park. Rioters overturned and burned an EMS supervisor's car and injured some newsmen at the scene. Help responded in convoy with police protection from a nearby staging area. Leonard's department store at 2900 Fulton was set afire and gutted. The crew of Engine 9 was fired on by rioters as the firefighters struggled to put out the blaze. The riot was finally quelled after several hours.

A large fire hit another apartment complex on May 13. It was the Trafalgar Apartments located at 2777 Briarhurst near Westheimer. More than 100 units were destroyed as the fire raced across the wood-shingled roofs. Four alarms and three taps were needed to stop the fire. Property loss reached $10-million. Then on July 4, another fire hit the apartment complex at 7575 Bissonnet again. Thirty more apartment units in the complex were destroyed.

In September, Chief Rogers had had enough warning, and he revised the dispatch policy to include a "heavy box" on large apartment complexes. Heavy boxes, which sent an extra engine and ladder truck on first alarms, had been dispatched only downtown and in the Medical Center. Now, apartment complexes anywhere in the city got a heavy box. Dispatchers later expanded on the policy by sending a heavy box on every alarm that they felt posed the potential for a large fire.

At the same time in September, Chief Rogers ordered the organization of a hazardous materials team. (Chief Rogers had been badly burned when a railroad tank car exploded at the Mykawa Road derailment in 1971.) After all, Rogers remarked, Houston is the petrochemical capital of the world. District Chief Max H. McRae was picked to organize the team. Volunteers were recruited and trained, and the Houston Hazardous Materials Response Team went in service on October 5, 1979.

It finally happened. A heavy box could not overcome a fire spreading across wood-shingled roofs in the largest apartment complex in Houston. Fire destroyed 30 of the 105 buildings in the Woodway Square apartments on July 31, 1979. An unprecedented sixth alarm was signaled, and it took another alarm and mutual aid companies before the conflagration was brought under control. Several buildings north of the complex were set afire by burning embers from the Woodway fire.

On the day of the Woodway Square fire, city council turned down a proposed ordinance outlawing wood-shingled roofs. Fire officials had been trying to get the ordinance for several years. The ordinance was back on the table the following day, and city council unanimously approved fire resistive roofs for future apartment complexes.

Many more multiple fires occurred during 1979, and more were to follow. All total in the two years, 1979 and 1980, there were more than 115 multiple alarm fires. Hours for the firefighters were reduced to 50 hours per week.