PORTLAND PLACES: Historic Belmont Firehouse by Robert D. West

Historic Belmont Firehouse

(NOTE: This website is NOT affiliated with the firehouse; see www.jeffmorrisfoundation.org for current info)

The Belmont Firehouse, at 900 SE 35th Avenue, on the southeast corner of SE 35th and Belmont, is home to the Jeff Morris Fire & Life Safety Foundation's Safety Learning Center & Fire Museum.

Jefferson D. Morris was born in 1928 and became a Portland firefighter. Rising to the position of Battalion Chief, "Fireman Jeff" was a pioneer in providing fire prevention education in Portland's schools. After succumbing to cancer in 1974, the non-profit Jeff Morris Fire & Life Safety Foundation was established to provide fire and life safety education and preserve the history of Portland Fire & Rescue. The Jeff Morris Foundation is supported solely through community fundraising efforts.

Original Belmont Firehouse, circa 1898

The first Belmont Firehouse was a wood-framed structure built on this site in 1898. It became home to Hose 5, which had been located a few blocks away at 34th and Yamhill since 1896. Hose 5 became Hose 9 in 1904. Three permanent firemen and seven callmen lived at the first Belmont Firehouse. They often visited the theater and restaurant across the street, where a warning light or bell would alert them if they were called to duty.

Belmont Firehouse, circa 1912

The old wood Belmont Firehouse was demolished in February, 1912, making way for the current brick firehouse that was completed by July of the same year. The station included 10 horse stalls and a 50-foot watchtower/hose-drying tower. The apparatus room had a wood floor. The firehouse was built without a kitchen, as firefighters of the time ate at nearby restaurants or lived in

Belmont Firehouse, circa 1962

nearby homes and ate there.

Motorized fire engines and trucks may have come to the Belmont Firehouse as early as 1914, and were certainly present by 1920, when the last horse retired from Portland's fire service. Hose 9 was renamed Engine 9 in 1921.

Belmont Firehouse, circa 1963

Truck 6 came to the Belmont Firehouse in 1928, making it a double

company alongside Engine 9. This arrangement lasted to 1963, when Truck 6 was transferred to Station 19 at 7301 East Burnside. That same year, the station doors were modified into a single large overhead door, to better accommodate the larger modern fire equipment. By this time, the hose-drying tower had been shorted by about 15 feet, due to rotting wood in its structure. In July, 2003, Engine 9 moved out of the Belmont Firehouse to a modern facility on SE 39th Avenue. About a year later, it opened as the Jeff Morris Foundation's Safety Learning Center and Fire Museum. A new apparatus/entry door system was installed in 2006, with new apparatus doors about the same size as the original doors.

This rhododendron is registered with the American Rhododendron Society as the "Fireman Jeff," named for Portland Firefighter Jefferson D. Morris, namesake of the Jeff Morris Fire & Life Safety Foundation. The "Fireman Jeff" commemorates Jeff Morris' commitment to public safety and the heritage of the fire service in Portland, Oregon.

These pictures were taken at Belmont Firehouse. They show a bell on display, one of the interpretive displays, and some overall views of the firehouse interior.

When firefighters are called to action, every second counts. Stairs are slow, and can be dangerous in a rush. Firefighters can get from the upstairs living quarters to the fire apparatus on the main floor in seconds by using a fire pole. This fire pole in the middle of the floor is one of four that Belmont Firehouse once had; the others were in the two front corners of the building and toward the back, from the living quarters, through the hayloft, and into the stable area.

The one-of-a-kind table shown above was handmade by an unknown Portland firefighter. It can be seen in the photograph on the right, which was taken sometime between 1913 and 1933 at Station #18 at 2200 NE Avenue.

Historically, fire hoses consisted of an inner rubber lining to control leaks and reduce friction, in inner cotton jacket for strength and an outer cotton jacket to resist damage. If not dried properly after use, they could mildew and rot, leading them to burst. After each run, the firefighters would clean the hoses, and the hoist them into the hose-drying tower to dry. The hoses are usually 50 feet long and 1-1/2 to 3 inches in diameter. The connections at each end were originally brass and weighed 7-1/2 pounds. Newer composite connections are easier to maintain and lighter, weighing 4-1/2 pounds. One fire engine can carry as much as a quarter mile of hose, so after a fire there could be a lot of hose to dry. In the early years, the tower was also used as a fire lookout.

Since the Belmont Firehouse was built with stables for fire horses, it also needed a place to store hay for those horses. An entrance to the hayloft is located near the hose-drying tower and is accessed by a wooden ladder.

The Belmont Firehouse was built without a kitchen. The area that is now the kitchen is where the horses used to be stabled. The manure room was where the stove now sits.

The Jeff Morris Fire & Life Safety Foundation recognizes major donor contributions to the Safety Learning Center & Fire Museum by displaying a fire helmet in their honor in the kitchen area. The color of the helmet corresponds to the different levels: Firefighter (yellow), Captain (red) and Chief (white).

Portland Firefighting History

Portland's first volunteer fire department, Pioneer Fire Engine #1, was formed in 1850 by Thomas Dyer, founder of The Oregonian. The department's 37 volunteers were called "red shirts," after their uniforms. Other volunteer departments also appeared in those early years, with varying success.

Initially, fires were fought with bucket brigades. On May 22, 1854, the city issued Ordinance No. 11: "Any person or persons may be called upon to assist the Fire Department and failure to comply with this order is punishable by fine."

In 1858, the Trevett & Company Flour Mill burned to the ground when the Willamette Engine #1 firehouse's small single fire bell failed to rouse the volunteer force. A new bell thousand-pound cast steel alarm was bought with donations from local businesses. By 1865, all firehouses were equipped with alarm bells.

The city ordered its first fire engine, a hand pumper, in 1859, funded by public subscription. A hand pumper was more effective than a simple bucket brigade, providing the capability to throw a constant stream of water on a fire from a great distance; however, it took many people to operate a hand pumper. The volunteer fire departments could not afford the cost of caring for horses, so the firefighters had to pull the engine to the fire themselves. Hoses were carried on a separate cart or wagon, again pulled by the firefighters themselves.

This 1860 hose cart was built in Portland by John Honeyman & Company. It was restored in 1990 by Al Carocci. It is carrying soft-sided hoses, carried by firefighters to attack the fire, unlike hard-sided hoses, which drew water from the source.

In 1867, the city purchased its first steam pumper, a Silsby Third Class Rotary Steam Fire Engine. A steam-operated pumper provided the continuous stream of water like a hand pumper, but needed far less manpower. One man stoking the fire was all that was needed to keep the pump running, freeing up men to man hoses to fight the fire.

Steam fire engines operated on similar principles as steam locomotives and other steam powered machines. The boiler heated water until it was hot enough to produce enough steam pressure to drive the fire pump. The pumps would use either a piston or a rotary piston to to pull water through the intake hose and into a pressure chamber. The air in the top of the inverted pear-shaped dome compressed, absorbing the pulsations from the motion of the piston and providing a smooth, steady stream of water. To save time, the pumpers were plumbed into the firehouse boiler to preheat the water at the station. The pre-heated boiler would build up a head of steam faster when needed to fight a fire.

Steam-pumpers came in various sizes called classes, ranging from Fourth Class steamers that could pump 350 to 600 gallons per minute, to First Class steamers that could pump 1,000 gallons per minute or more.

The volunteer fire departments still could not afford horses, so these early steam fire engines were still pulled by the firefighters themselves.

This Amoskeag steam pumper, built in New Hampshire by Manchester Locomotive Works in 1878 and delivered in 1879, replaced a hand pumper at Tiger Volunteer Engine Company #5 on SW 4th Avenue. This class 4 pumper was one of the smallest sizes made, pumping 350 gallons per minute. Built to be pulled by hand, it was modified for a team of horses after 1883.

Saturday, August 2, 1873 was a hot, dry day when a fire broke out in a furniture factory at the corner of First and Salmon. Portland's volunteers found themselves overwhelmed and sent word to Salem and Vancouver for help. The fire burned for twelve hours, destroying 22 city blocks in downtown Portland, including one-third of the business district. The damage was valued at over one million dollars.

Two months later, the city ordered a new 4,200 pound alarm bell, 800 pounds of which was pure silver. When rung, the bell could be heard as far as Oregon City. In 1875, the first telegraph system with fire alarm boxes was installed. Alarm boxes began appearing on street corners throughout the city.

The first alarm boxes had to be opened with keys, which were left with "responsible persons" in the neighborhood. In the event of a fire, one had to find the responsible person, retrieve the key, and return to the box, open it, and sound the alarm. Later models incorporated breakable glass, which sped up response times by allowing any citizen to sound the alarm.

The alarm box switch activated a clockwork motor that turned a notched wheel, the notches broke a circuit, transmitting a pattern of signals. The telegraph system was based on Morse Code, which was invented in 1844. If the fire alarm box was number 4353, for example, then its wheel had four notches, a space, three notches, space, five notches, space, three notches. This pattern was transmitted over the telegraph system to a receiver in the firehouse, which punched holes corresponding to the pattern in a moving strip of paper.

Every firehouse had a watch room, which was staffed 24 hours a day to provide continuous coverage of the telegraph system. The telegraph was triggered whenever an alarm was sounded in the city. The person on watch duty would monitor every call, identifying from the pattern the number of the alarm box the call came from and looking it up in a card system created by Battalion Chief Jay Stevens to see which fire companies should respond. The firefighter on watch duty used the status board to keep track of which fire companies were dispatched. If the alarm was from that station's area, the station's alarm bell was triggered, alerting the firefighters immediately.

This photo shows the status board and telegraph receiver on the watch desk, with a gong-style bell on the wall above. This bell may have been housed at the downtown fire station at 221 SW 2nd Avenue. It became part of a collection of maritime artifacts belonging to the founder of Doty's Appliances (now Standard TV & Appliance). After his death, part of his estate was donated to the Oregon Maritime Museum, which gave the bell to the Firehouse on October 27, 2004.

The telegraph and alarm boxes allowed firefighters to arrive earlier, saving more lives and property, and keeping fires from spreading.

In 1883, the city established the Portland Paid Fire Department, approving funds for personnel, equipment and horses. Fire Chief Thomas A. Jordan had 53 paid firefighters to lead the volunteers.

With funding from the city, horses were purchased to pull the fire equipment. The existing steam-pumpers that until that time had been pulled by hand, were modified to be pulled by horses. Using horses to pull fire engines instead of firefighters improved response times.

In addition to horses, the fire department also used dogs. Dalmatians were trained to run ahead of the horses to clear a path for them and help direct them to the fire, guard them at the scene and keep them company at the firehouse. Dogs are still used by the fire department today; arson dogs, typically Labrador retrievers, are trained to sniff out 114 different chemical accelerants.

In 1890, the alarm headquarters and the large tower-bell were located at the Truck #1 firehouse on Fourth Avenue between Morrison and Yamhill Streets. A central alarm station for the east side was established in the Engine #7 firehouse in 1892.

David Campbell

David Campbell was Portland's Fire Chief from 1895-1896 and from 1898 to 1911. As chief, he upgraded cisterns and hydrants and consolidated the alarm system. In 1898, the west side's central alarm station was moved to City Hall. Portland's fire department became a fully paid department in 1904.

The fire department's first motorized vehicle, a chief's car for David Campbell, was purchased in 1909. Many were worried that motorized vehicles would not be as reliable as horses, but Campbell consistently arrived at fires before the horse-drawn engines. Campbell had discovered that motorized vehicles were "faster than horses and cheaper to feed." A 1911 American LaFrance was the last horse-drawn apparatus purchased by the city. Campbell ordered two motorized American LaFrance chemical and hose engines capable of traveling at 45 miles per hour.

On June 26, 1911, Chief Campbell died in the line of duty, trying to save his men at the Union Oil fire. His sacrifice and that of other Portland firefighters is honored every June 26th at the Campbell Memorial at SW 19th Avenue & Burnside Street.

Portland's first motorized fire engine was delivered in 1911. Motorized apparatus were able to cover three times more of the city, get to fires 50 percent faster, and cost half a much to maintain as horses. The shorter response times made the difference between life and death and kept small fires from growing. Some of the existing horse-drawn steam fire engines were upgraded with a motorized tractor. The last horse left Portland's fire service in 1920.

Jay Stevens

In 1914, the Safety First Committee was organized, and Jay Stevens was appointed Portland's first fire prevention officer. The Fire Prevention Division was established March 19, 1915, with Stevens as Portland's first Fire Marshal. 1915's fire loss was down a half million from the previous year's total of $1,762,000.

In 1928, dispatch moved from the basement of City Hall to its own building. The new Fire Alarm Dispatch Center became communication headquarters. By 1930, 752 alarm boxes alerted 16 fire stations throughout the city.

The telephone was invented in 1876 and Portland's first exchange began operating on August 2, 1878, creating a new way to communicate in an emergency. However, communities assigned different numbers to emergency services like police, fire and hospitals, leading to confusion and delayed responses. The national 9-1-1 system was formed in 1968, but took decades to catch on, even with the White House urging national 9-1-1 adoption in 1973.

In 1993, all Portland fire stations went online, and a new Emergency Communications facility opened in southeast Portland, replacing the old 1928 Fire Alarm Dispatch Center. Today, all Portland Fire & Rescue emergency vehicles carry mobile data terminals: dash-mounted computers tied directly to the 9-1-1 center, allowing firefighters to instantly send and receive information about the emergency like the address, their response status, and other important facts.

Firefighting Equipment

This display of firefighting equipment includes a hose nozzle, an axe, an historic oxygen tank, rope, a Sherk Hose Belt, which was invented by Al Sherk, a Portland firefighter from 1909 to 1942, to help firefighters control hoses, and a fire helmet that belonged to F. W. Calvin, a Portland firefighter from 1915 until he retired in 1952 as a Senior Captain from Engine 17 at Station 19, and was donated by his son, Norman Calvin, himself a retired Portland firefighter.

This photo shows a Gatlin gun, a specialized nozzle used to spray foam to smother a burning flammable liquid spill. Gatlin gun is no longer necessary as foam can now be applied through a typical nozzle. On the left is a Hurst Tool, a hydraulic-powered spreader often called "the Jaws of Life," used as a mechanical levering device for forcible entry or spreading vehicle or structure parts to reach victims.

Before fire engines and trucks had sirens, firefighters had to ring a bell like this one to warn people. In the early 1900s, hand-cranked sirens were used along with the bell. By the 1950s, air horns started replacing bells and hand-cranked sirens, though some equipment still carried them. Electric sirens became the standard in the 1960s, which were replaced by electronic sirens in the 1980s.

American LaFrance donated this 2004 fire engine cab direct from North Carolina. Portland Trailer donated the materials for a frame, an axle, wheels and tires to make it a trailer that can be towed to locations. It was converted to a unique simulator called "The Fire Engine Experience" through a $125,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security, completed in 2007.

The LaFrance Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of hand pumps and rotary steam engines based on Truckson LaFrance's patents since 1873, merged with the American Fire Engine Company around the turn of the century. American LaFrance started producing gasoline-powered apparatus in 1910. Their 100-foot aerial ladder trucks, introduced in 1938, became an industry standard. American LaFrance introduced new equipment in 1939 with the cab placed ahead of the engine to improve the turning radius and visibility. The American LaFrance Century Series pumper, introduced in 1973, became the industry standard for today's modern fire engines and trucks.

Modern fire engines use pumps to supply the water needed to fight fires. The flow is available at different volumes and pressures, controlled by the levers, switches and valves on the pump panel. The necessary pressure is determined by the pressure coming from the hydrant and the pressure lost to friction as the water passes through the hoses, which is listed on the pump card attached to the panel. This pump panel was donated by H & W Emergency Vehicles.

Strength of America

This statue by local artist Rip Caswall, called "Strength of America," is a tribute to the 570 firefighters, police officers, EMS personnel, New York and New Jersey Port Authority personnel and Army and Navy professionals killed in the line of duty trying to save lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It and three smaller replicas at the Pentagon, New York City and Shanksville, PA, were sponsored by the Friends of Firefighter Eugene Whelan.

The sculpture depicts a rescue worker climbing up from the rubble of a collapsed building with with determination in his face and an American Flag draped over his shoulder. The flag is the subject of a battle between a serpent (representing evil) and an American Bald Eagle (representing the United States of America). The rescuer is holding a lantern to signify the light of hope and a brighter tomorrow. At his feet is the helmet of New York Firefighter Eugene Whelan who died in the collapse of the World Trade Center along with his Engine 230 crew.

"It is with great sorrow that we provide this list of service professionals who died on September 11, 2001. Please join us in paying tribute to their memory and the legacy of bravery they left for us to follow."

Strength of America Project

Avalon Theatre

The Avalon Theatre, on the northwest corner of 35th and Belmont, diagonally across from the Belmont Firehouse, was built in 1913 as the Sunnyside Theatre and renamed the Avalon in 1935. The main theater was split into three theaters in the '70s, and it became Wunderland Games' Avalon Theatre & Game Room in 1987.