Mobile, Alabama
September 8,1888
1888—VOLUNTEER FIRE-FIGHTING SYSTEM ENDED
ON SEPTEMBER 8, 1888, a special committee of the
city formally organized a paid Fire Department
for Mobile— thus ending the volunteer system
that had been in effect since the community’s
earliest days.
The change came only after lengthy
controversy, during which existing fire
companies, through their parent organization—
the Fire Department Association—carried out a
threat to close their engine houses in protest
of what they contended was the city’s failure to
make proper payment for their services. Crowds
gathered at the fire stations on the night of
the closing, and records reveal violence was
narrowly averted when a demonstration was staged
at one of the headquarters.
Groundwork for the committee’s action,
however, already had been laid by
Mayor
J. C. Rich, who returned from Bladon
Springs just in time to take full charge of the
situation before the volunteer companies went on
strike.
In face of failure of the city council and
the fire companies to compromise their
differences, Rich proceeded to assure the public
of fire protection by purchase of whatever
equipment was available to him at the time.
According to The Register of September 1,
1888: “The mayor told the special committee that
knowing that the duty of providing a fire
service in this emergency devolved upon him, by
virtue of a resolution adopted by the General
Council July 5, he had set to work early in the
day, had seen the citizens’ committee, and
received assurances that the committee would
supply the city with all needed apparatus for
the extinguishment of fires. The citizens’
committee agreed with him that it would be
better, if practicable, to purchase engines of
the home companies than to buy from outside
parties. Therefore, he had at once opened
negotiations with Merchants’ Steam Fire Company,
No. 4, and later in the afternoon had purchased
all the apparatus of that company, consisting of
an engine, a hose truck and three horses, three
extra wheels, and tools, etc., the price paid
being $3,500. He would proceed today, he said,
to purchase other engines, if they could be
obtained. He would today organize a paid fire
company to use the engine already purchased, and
would take possession of the hook and ladder
truck owned by the city. The citizens’ committee
has on hand a hose truck, and the city owns all
the hose now used by the department and has,
besides, a number of nozzles. This apparatus can
be brought into service at once, the mayor
added, and, with the aid of water pressure in
plugs, a shift can be made to take care of the
city when the volunteer companies close their
doors at 12 o’clock tonight.”
Creole Steam Fire Company No. 1 was enrolled as
a paid company, in the service of the city, and
to serve according to the rules and regulations
governing the paid fire department. For this
service, the city was to pay the lump sum of
$160 per month, with the company owning and
operating its apparatus and providing 20 men on
its active rolls. The company surrendered all
association with the volunteer department and
became a paid servant of the city.
The payment of this Creole company, the
maintenance of the other two steam engine
companies organized and the hook and ladder
company, together with salaries of those
companies, cost the city a total of $9,890 per
annum. First Fire Chief was
Matthew Sloan,
whose salary was fixed by the city at $1,200 a
year. C. Walter Soost
was Assistant Chief at a salary of $400 a year.
The grand total of annual payroll and expense
was fixed at $11,990.
Sloan also played a rather important role in
actual proceedings of changing over from the
volunteer to the municipal basis. It fell his
lot to walk into the various volunteer stations
and take over in the name of the city. His
presence, with that of
Police Chief Slatter, at Fire House
No. 3 was credited by The Register with
avoiding violence at that place. The Register
said a group of young men had gathered at
the station at the closing deadline, for the
purpose of taking the engine, owned by the city,
from the fire house, which was owned by one of
the private companies.
Highlights of 75 years in Mobile, Mobile,
Ala.: First National Bank of Mobile, 1940, pages
36-37
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Mobile, Alabama
City Directories 1890-92
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