Southern California Fires -- January 10, 2025

cnn.com

Driven by Santa Ana Winds, there have been several large fires burning in the Los Angeles area since Sunday. Right now we know of seven deaths. Over 100,000 people have been evacuated. Many neighborhoods have been destroyed. Will Roger's house burned down. Fire crews from Northern California are helping the locals. Aerial tankers from Canada are doing heavy work.

Update 12-January-2025.

T***p and other magats are blaming Governor Newsome and the smelt. Normal people are expressing concern. Firefighters from Mexico have joined the battle.

Dog is Member of Fire Department -- January 27, 2024

Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, 29-January-1924

Fireman Jiggs is ready for his shift with the Hollywood Fire Department. 

Lahaina Burned -- August 16, 2023

Much of the historic district of Lahaina, Maui as burned in a wildfire that destroyed large parts of the lee side of the island. Every day the death toll goes up. News reports are calling it one of the worst wildfires in US history.

A large part of the population of Lahaina has evacuated to the north or south. 

We visited in 1985 and stayed in Kaanapali. The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Kaanapali survived. We walked through much of the historic district. The Lahaina, Kaanapali and Pacific Railroad, which stopped running in 2019, lost its Lahaina depot, but the equipment, stored in Kaanapali, is reported to have survived. 

The postcard of the Baldwin House, built in 1835, was taken in the early 1900s. The house, serving as a museum dedicated to missionaries, burned in 2023. 

Too Darn Hot -- September 13, 2022

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

I didn't mention last week that California had an extraordinary heat wave. Many places set high temperature records that then got broken again later in the week. It never got that bad in Pacifica, but we had trouble sleeping. 

2020 Summary -- December 31, 2020

 

www.listal.com

2020 was a tough year. 

After our so-called president was impeached at the end of 2019, the Republican controlled Senate staged a farcical trial in January and February and acquitted him.  Mitt Romney was the only Republican to vote for conviction. 

In January, we saw that the new year in the lunar calendar was the Year of the Rat. 

We were sad to learn that Mercy High School in San Francisco was going to close at the end of the school year. My mother-in-law, my wife and our daughter all went there and got an excellent education.

We celebrated the 175th anniversary of the publishing of Edgar Allan Poe's. "The Raven." We noted the 150th anniversary of the Marias Massacre. We marked the 100th anniversary of the beginning of Prohibition and the founding of the ACLU. 

Pitcher Don Larsen died. 

BRExit happened and the UK left the EU.  Bad idea. 

www.listal.com

In February, we began to hear more about the Novel Coronavirus and COVID-19, now called the TrumpVirus.  I did a post about the related jerry collonavirus. Our so-called president insisted that the coronavirus was a hoax by the Democratic Party or nothing worse than the flu or something created in a Chinese laboratory. At the end of the month, the Archdiocese of San Francisco said wine would no longer be distributed at communion.  

We noted the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League. We celebrated the 75th anniversary of the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima. 

We noted Babe Ruth's 125th birthday and Bob Marley's 75th on the same day. 

In March, It became clear that COVID-19 was a pandemic. Our so-called president denied that there was a problem. I knew things were serious when Catholic churches stopped having in-person masses, baseball delayed the start of its season, the NBA and NHL suspended their seasons, the NCAA cancelled March Madness, and the IOC delayed the Tokyo Olympics until next year. Other things delayed or cancelled included the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the San Francisco History Expo, Disneyland and various film festivals. Museums, movie theaters, restaurants and bars closed. 

My wife and daughter, both teachers, were ordered to switch to distance learning using the Zoom application. I was impressed how quickly they both made the transition. 

The California primary was in March this year, so our votes counted. 

I noted the 100th anniversary of the publication of F Scott Fitzgerald's first novel. 

I wrote about the 150th birthday of General George Thomas. 

Pianist McCoy Tyner died, as did trickster Mal Sharpe. 

In April we were going to start celebrating the 150th birthday of Golden Gate Park. They set up a Ferris Wheel in the Music Concourse. It did not operate until December. 

It felt strange going through Holy Week and Easter Time without going to church.  We watched masses online.  It is not the same thing. I posted a 1920 article about San Francisco's anti-mask league. 

British Army photo

On his 100th birthday, 30-April-2020, Britain and much of the world celebrated Captain Tom Moore, a veteran of World War Two. While still recovering from injuries suffered in a fall, he decided that he would walk 100 laps in his garden. He hoped to finish the walk by his birthday and raise £1,000 for the NHS. He kept going and made 200 laps and raised £32,795,065. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. 

I posted an article about the 150th anniversary of what may have been the first game played by the Chicago Cubs' franchise. 

I wrote about the 75th anniversary of the martyrdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I also wrote about the 75th anniversary of Pete Gray's major league debut. I wrote about the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. 

I wrote about the 100th birthday of Ken Nordine, the Word Jazz guy. 

I noted the 75th anniversary of the death of FDR. I noted the 75th anniversary of the well-deserved death of Benito Mussolini. I noted the 75th anniversary of the suicide of Hitler. 

Many people died.  Too many died from the TrumpVirus, including Ellis Marsalis, Jr, Wallace Roney Bucky Pizzarelli, John Prine, Al Kaline, Lee Konitz and Adam Schlesinger. Bill Withers died of heart trouble. Stirling Moss, Mort Drucker and Phyllis Lyon died of something other than TrumpVirus. 

In May, we saw a video of a Minneapolis policeman kneeling on the neck of George Floyd, an African-American who was supposed to resemble the description of a man who passed a counterfeit twenty dollar bill. Floyd died lying face-down in the street, after trying to tell the policeman that he couldn't breathe. Other people tried to get the policeman to lift his knee. Protests were peaceful, but after dark, anarchists, right-wing agents provocateurs and thieves rioted and looted in several cities. San Francisco declared a curfew from 8pm to 5am. The policeman who knelt on Floyd's neck was arrested after a few days.

In May, the TrumpVirus forced many changes. The Indianapolis 500 got rescheduled. Restaurants and florists lost a lot of business when they had to remain closed for Mothers' Day. US deaths hit 100,000. 

California started on phase two of reopening businesses. Some states opened up right away and had a sharp spike in infections. 

I wrote about the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike ceremony and the world heavyweight championship fight between Jem Mace and Thomas Allen.

I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the death of José Martí. 

I wrote about the 100th anniversary of the death of Mexican president Venustiano Carranza. 

I wrote about the 75th anniversary of V-E Day.  

I noted the 50th anniversary of the Kent State Massacre. I also mentioned the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' album Let it Be.  

I wrote about the 100th birthday of Peggy Lee and the 75th birthday of John Fogerty. 

Richie Cole and Matt Keough died, as did Jorge Santana, Jimmy Cobb, Larry Kramer, Little Richard, Betty Wright and Jerry Stiller. 

In June, protestors pulled down several statues honoring Confederate traitors. 

In June, we began seeing reports that Russia was paying a bounty to Taliban members for each coalition soldier killed in Afghanistan. Our so-called president has ignored intelligence reports about this.

SpaceX made the first launch of humans into space from the United States since the last Space Shuttle launch in 2011.

The Market Street Railway's San Francisco Railway Museum, closed because of shelter in place, got vandalized. 

I started a new series of Coca-Cola ads. 

I wrote about the 150th anniversary of Charles Dickens' death. I noted the 150th anniversary of the first loss of the Cincinnati Red Stockings. I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the Paris-Bordeaux-Lyon auto race. I wrote about the 75th anniversary of the signing of the UN charter. 

I wrote about Jack Dempsey's 125th birthday. I wrote about the 100th birthday of Hazel Scott and Shelly Manne, who were born on the same day. I also wrote about the 100th birthday of Amos Tutuola. I wrote about Carly Simon's 75th birthday. 

Bonnie Pointer died, as did Art Curtiss, David Perlman, Vera Lynn and Mike McCormick. 

America's National Game, Albert Goodwill Spalding, 1911

In July, the major leagues began playing a 60-game season with everyone using the designated hitter. Almost immediately, members of the Florida Marlins tested positive for COVID-19.  

Our so-called president sent federal agents with no identification to snatch people off of the streets of Portland, Oregon. Many of the children locked in cages by ICE are getting sick and some are dying. 

We went to mass at Good Shepherd for the first time since March and met our new pastor, Father Suan. 

I started a new series about the paintings of Albert Bierstadt. I started a new series of items from The Annals of San Francisco.

I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the start of the Franco-Prussian War. I wrote about the 75th anniversary of the Trinity Test. 

I noted the 125th birthday of Buckminster Fuller and the 100th birthday of Paul Gonsalves. I noted David Sanborn and Debbie Harry's 75th birthdays. 

Representative John Lewis died. Dr CT Vivian also died, and I did not write about him. Singers Freddy Cole and Annie Ross died. 

Cincinnati Enquirer, 15-August-1945

In August, dry lightning started wildfires all over California.  

My wife and daughter had to start the new school year with remote learning. 

Catcher Joey Bart made his debut with the Giants. 

Good Shepherd Church in Pacifica began holding mass at 11am in the lower parking lot. We attended sitting in our car. 

I wrote about the 100th anniversary of the death of Ray Chapman, the only Major Leaguer to be killed by a pitched ball.  The next day was the 100th anniversary of the final ratification of the 19th Amendment. Detroit radio station WWJ celebrated its 100th birthday.

We noted the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the surrender of Japan. I wrote about the 75th anniversary of the demise of the Yosemite Valley Railroad. 

I mentioned the 50th anniversary of the attack on the Marin County Courthouse. 

I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the death of bad guy John Wesley Hardin. 

I mentioned the 125th birthday of Bert Lahr.  I wrote about Charlie Parker and Ray Bradbury's 100th birthdays. 

I wrote about the 75th birthday of Van Morrison. 

September was exciting. On September 15, the sky was dark red all day, because of the many wildfires. 

Donald Trump's tax returns were published, showing he paid little if any income tax.

The Giants missed two games because of a false positive result on a COVID-19 test. Later, a series had to be moved from Seattle to San Francisco because the smoke had moved north. The Giants were in contention until the last game of the weird 60-game season, but did not make the grotesquely expanded playoffs. 

I wrote about the 175th anniversary of the boxing match between Bendigo and Ben Caunt. I noted the 150th anniversary of the conquest of Rome, the last step towards Italian unification. I noted the 100th anniversary of the Wall Street bombing and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the NFL. I noted the 75th anniversary of Japan's formal surrender during World War Two. 

I noted the 125th anniversary of George Kelly and Juan de la Cierva's birth, the 100th anniversaries of Dick Bong and William Conrad's birth and the 75th anniversary of Jessye Norman's birth. I wrote about Roger Angell's 100th birthday. 

I wrote about the 50th anniversary of the death of Jimi Hendrix. 

A bad month for baseball history. Tom Seaver and Lou Brock died. 

Toots Hibbert died, as did Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stanley Crouch. 

Brooklyn Eagle, 11-October-1920

October was an odd month as the election lurched towards its conclusion. Texas Trump supporters in trucks with flags and banners tried run a Biden/Harris campaign bus off the freeway. California Trump supporters drove their trucks through Marin City in an effort to intimidate the people of color who live there. The Texas Trump Train was incited by the elder son, and our so-called president approved and retweeted a video. 

Covid-19 infections and deaths slowed down in California, but raged in several midwestern states. Restaurants in San Mateo and San Francisco counties opened for indoor dining. 

The Dodgers won the World Series after a bizarre season. I wrote about Bill Wambsgnass making the only unassisted triple play in a 1920 World Series game, as the Cleveland Indians beat the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the train which crashed through the wall of the Gare Montparnasse in Paris. 

I wrote about the 100th anniversary of light heavyweight championship fight between Georges Carpentier and Battling Levinsky. I also wrote about the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Black Sox being indicted. 

I noted several 75th birthdays, including Donny Hathaway. Don McLean and Huell Howser

Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Bob Gibson and Whitey Ford died. James Randi died. 

I wrote about the 50th anniversaries of the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. 

I noted the 100th anniversary of the death of journalist John Reed. 

I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the death of baseball pioneer Harry Wright. 

moveon.org

Days of counting proved that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won the presidential election, receiving the most popular votes in history. At the end of November, our so-called president was still insisting that the election was rigged and that lawsuits could overturn the result. 

COVID-19 infections were spiking all over the country. San Mateo County went from red to purple. We attended mass at Good Shepherd in our car, first listening to a low power FM broadcast and then a live stream on YouTube. Three vaccines were close to approval. 

Alex Trebek, the host of Jeopardy, died. Later in the month, coincidentally, I passed the third stage of the audition to be on Jeopardy. 

I wrote about the 125th anniversary of the first automobile race in the United States. I noted the 100th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, part of the Irish War for Independence.  I also wrote about the 100th anniversary of the hanging of Kevin Barry. I noted the 100th anniversary of the first formal broadcast by KDKA in Pittsburgh. 

I noted Stan Musial's 100th birthday. 

In December, our so-called president continued to claim that he won the election. There was a huge COVID-19 spike after people ignored recommendations and gathered together for Thanksgiving. Intensive Care beds in Southern California were at zero percent free. 

On Christmas Day, terrorists set a suicide car bomb in downtown Nashville. Many immediately attributed the attack the our so-called president's stochastic terrorism. 

The Cleveland Indians announced that they will change their name. The Commissioner announced that the Negro Leagues will be treated as major leagues. 

I posted an article about lynching in1920. I hope it will be the beginning of a series. 

I wrote about the 100th anniversary of the burning of Cork.

I wrote about the 50th anniversary of the death of Rube Goldberg. 

I wrote about the 100th birthdays of Dave Brubeck and Clark Terry. I wrote about the 75th birthday of Bette Midler. 

Chuck Yeager died. Wrestler Pat Patterson died, as did Phil Niekro and John le Carré. 

The Cliff House closed on the last day of the year. The operators could not make a new contract with the USPS. We drove by after dinner and saw that the sign on the roof had already been removed. 

usgs.gov

And to top off a tough year, we had an earthquake this morning. It may have awakened me, but it was pretty small. 

Beautiful Yvonne De Carlo acted, sang and danced in many Hollywood movies. I first saw her on The Munsters. 

Fires -- August 19, 2020

maps.google.com

Sunday we went to outdoor mass at Good Shepherd Church in Pacifica. When we got up, we had noticed that the ground was wet. Later we learned that there had been a thunderstorm during the night. We had the option to sit in our car in the upper yard and listen to the mass on a low-power FM station. That worked well.  As we sat during mass, we kept seeing lightning bolts over the ocean. We heard thunder. Right before the consecration, my wife said that Father should hurry up because it was going to rain in ten minutes.  She was right. 

Since then, there have been lightning-caused fires all over California. My wife found ash on her car this morning, probably from the CZU Lightning Complex fire in San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties. 

Fires and Power Outages -- October 11, 2019

PG&E did a poorly managed power shutdown this week to try to cut down on wildfires during high-wind periods. I would like to see them spend some money on tree trimming and modernizing their infrastructure.

There are some large fires in Southern California because of the Santa Ana winds.

Notre Dame de Paris is On Fire -- April 15, 2019

ABC News

Notre Dame de Paris is on fire.  I hope no one has been hurt.  The spire has collapsed.  I hope they can save the church.

Update 3:15 pm.  The fire is out.  The towers are still standing.  The church is gutted but the walls are still standing.  One firefighter was badly injured. Some of the art works and relics were saved.

Update 18-April-2019.  Fire Department Chaplin the Reverend Jean-Marc Fournier, led a group of 100 firefighters in rescuing relics and works of art. They had practiced this twice during drills last year. His two main targets were the crown of thorns and the Holy Eucharist.  Both were saved, along with many other relics and works of art.

Paradise Lost -- November 10, 2018

We were on our way to Five O'clock mass at Good Shepherd and I stopped to take a photo of the setting sun.  There is a huge fire in Butte County that has destroyed the town of Paradise is burning down towards Chico.  It is said to be the third biggest fire in California history.  There are other fires in Ventura County and Malibu. Someone is setting smaller fires in Golden Gate Park.

The air is full of smoke, even at the beach.

National Museum of Brazil Fire -- September 4, 2018

A huge fire destroyed much of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.  The museum had just celebrated its 200th birthday.  The museum had a collections on natural history and anthropology.  The collection of recordings of and information about indigenous languages is said to have been destroyed completely.  90% of the collection, including the oldest human fossil found in the Americas, is gone.

Lillie Hitchcock Coit 175 -- August 23, 2018

Wichita Eagle, 11-October-1889

Lillie Hitchcock Coit was born 175 years ago today, on 23-August-1843. Lillie Hitchcock's parents brought her to San Francisco in 1851. She soon became interested in the volunteer firefighters of San Francisco, especially Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5. They adopted her as a mascot and she became known as Firebelle Lil. She married a useless rich guy, but remained interested in fire fighting all her life. When she died, she left a chunk of her fortune to the City of San Francisco for civic beautification. Her bequest paid for a memorial statue of volunteer firefighters at Washington Square and the famous Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill.

MRS. LILLIE HITCHCOCK COIT. 

Her Ways May Be Astonishing to the World but Not to San Franciscans.

Mrs. Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who recently witnessed a slugging match in her drawing room in the Palace hotel at San Francisco, may have astonished the world by her act, but she has not astonished the 'Friscans. She has been too long accustomed to do as she liked, and has too long liked to do singular things for a woman, to astonish any one in the city of her residence.

Lillie Hitchcock went out to California with her father, who was an army surgeon, and her mother, when they were obliged to go by sea or overland in a wagon. They chose the sea route and their little girl captivated the passengers by her bright, helter-skelter ways and her proficiency in fancy dances. When they got to San Francisco Lillie suddenly developed a fireman's instinct. Whenever she would hear the alarm she would dash away to the fire, and soon got so well known with a certain company that she was often taken up in the seat beside the driver of a hose cart.

One day as Dr. and Mrs. Hitchcock were returning from a walk, who should go by perched on a high seat, her hair flying in the wind, shouting and gesticulating, but their own little Lillie. Naturally they made an effort after this to subdue the spirit that burned in her breast, but it was of no avail. She stuck to the company and was elected a member. She has ever since worn a figure 5 the number of the company and her plaster bust adorns their hall. They never have a dinner but a bouquet from their only woman member decorates the table; and none ever dies but her flowers are laid on the bier.

When Lillie Hitchcock made her debut in San Francisco society in 1867 it was with a silver figure 5 pinned on her shoulder. She took society by storm. Young women possessing a natural dash and independence, against whom there is no suspicion of impurity, are intensely fascinating to the majority of men. Lillie Hitchcock played a part which was natural to her, and which she couldn't help. Other girls may try to imitate her example, but trying will spoil it all, and they will most certainly fail. Of course the young debutante had scores of lovers at her feet, but for a long time she was a rover, with no disposition to go out of the game.

Alas for Lillie, when finally she succumbed, she chose in accordance with her reckless nature and chose consciously. Many splendid men, some one of whom might have worshiped her and made her a good husband, were obliged to give way to a man who could not appreciate the prize he had won. Howard Coit was one of those well born, good for nothing, large, lazy youths with no especial principle, who are apt to get more favor from young girls than they deserve. Dr. and Mrs. Hitchcock, surmising the condition of affairs, whipped their daughter off to Europe. But Lillie was a young woman to circumvent any one. On the evening before her departure 6he stole out and married her lover. A few weeks later he received a characteristic telegram:

"Howard, it's out."

Then she joined her husband, but was not blessed by her parents for several years.

It is said that Mrs. Coit, in company with her husband, once visited a cock fight; that she donned male attire in order to be admitted, but reckoned without her host. The scenes about the pit were altogether too much for her, and she beat a hasty retreat. So strong was her hold upon the hearts of her friends and acquaintances that even this breach of conventionality did her no harm in their esteem.

Coit soon began to show his true character. He was a libertine and first shocked his wife by a liaison with a well known actress. Then he further showed his want of appreciation of the brilliant prize he had taken from better men by special attention to the wife of Billy Emerson the minstrel. This last affair was too much for his wife and she left him. She did not ask a divorce, but went abroad with her father. Coit finally made some atonement for his past acts by dying and leaving his wife a widow. She withdrew from the world for a time, and has recently came out of her 5eclusion and resumed her old habits. Judging from the recent exhibition in her parlors, she was much of a natural sportswoman as ever.

She is a charming hostess, and holds her guests not only by her ability to make them comfortable, but by her own brilliancy in conversation, and by that recklessness, that contempt for conventionality necessarily observed by other women. In her peculiar sphere she is a ort of genius. Nine women out of ten who live such a life never succeed in divesting those about them of the belief that they are not pure. Miss Coit snaps her fingers at the world and the world adores her.

---

San Francisco Call, 19-October-1896

FIREMAN'S FESTIVITIES. 

Annual Reunion of Knickerbocker Engine Company.

The forty-sixth anniversary of the organization of Knickerbocker Engine Company No. 5 of the late Volunteer Fire Department of this City was duly celebrated on Saturday evening by a banquet at the California Hotel.

The spacious dining-hall was tastily and lavishly decorated with flags, flowers, etc... as also the festive board, the center-piece being n magnificent floral "horn of plenty," the gift of Mrs. Lillie Hitchcock Coit, an honorary member of the company. The fair donor was vociferously applauded for her elegant testimonial.

E. B. Vreeland occupied the presidential chair, and after ample justice had been done the bounteous supply of choice viands and fluids, called the assemblage to order and made the welcoming speech of the occasion. He reviewed the stirring scenes of early days, and the heroic and disinterested services of the veteran fire laddies in fighting the awful conflagrations which so often devastated the tinder box town of wood and canvas. Other felicitous remarks by the gray-haired pioneers revived reminiscences both pleasant and sad, the exercises being meanwhile enlivened by vocal music.

The presence of handsomely-gowned lady relatives of the "Old Knicks" added greatly to the enjoyment of the entertainment, which was prolonged until the midnight Hour.

The following named participated in the festivities of the evening: Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Vreeland, Mr. and Mrs. S. Bunner, J. Satchell and two ladies, E. T. Anthony and three ladies, Mr. and Mrs. C. Kimball, G. W. J. Kentzel, J. Grady, J. J. Mahoney, H. Wheeler, Mr. Giannini, T. J. McCarthy, L Hall, Henry B. Livingston.

---

San Francisco Call, 08-December-1912

excerpt from "Our Firemen of the Long Ago"

A natural confusion has grown up In distinguishing the different veteran firemen's associations in San Francisco. There ate three such associations at present. The "Veteran Volunteer Firemen" draw their members from all over the world; the "Veteran Firemen's Association of San Francisco" is made up of the veterans of the present fire department, which was organized in 1866, and the "Exempt Fire Company of the City and County of San Francisco" is composed of all that are left of the men who volunteered their lives that the young city might live in those often troublous years from 1849 to 1866. And who will question me when I say that they, perhaps better than any others, represent the nobility, the generosity, and the bravery of the pioneers?  Some of these last are men of one or both of the other companies but there are others who claim membership with the Exempts only...

This brings to mind the stories old timers have told me of Lilly Hitchcock Coit, Lilly Hitchcock at the time she became an honorary member of Exempt Company Knickerbocker No. 5. A society belle, she was often at some social affair when the big bell boomed warning of fire, but wherever she was, and however dressed, she would run out and join her engine. The other day at the Park Museum. Prof. Barron told me of her last run with Engine No. 5. In 1866, Virginia City bought this engine. A number of the members of the company escorted it by stage to its destination; with them went Lilly Hitchcock Colt, the only woman in the party. At Virginia City a dinner was given in honor of the guests, and Mrs. Coit was called upon to speak. "Gentlemen, I'm not a speechmaker," she said, "but I can say that I have one regret in life, that I cannot ride to another fire on Knickerbocker No. 5." As she sat down, one of the Virginia City men slipped quietly out of the room. In a few minutes, there was an alarm of fire. All jumped to the rescue. Mrs. Coit was seated on the engine and according to her wont rode to the fire. The blaze was soon extinguished and, needless to say, the man who had quietly disappeared from the room was not prosecuted for arson.

Sunset at Rockaway -- October 13, 2017

We had a nice picnic dinner at Rockaway Beach and watched the sun go down through the smoke.

Where There is Smoke -- October 12, 2017

Big wildfires have torn through Napa, Sonoma and Solano Counties since Sunday night.  Mendocino and Lake Counties also have big fires.  Santa Rosa got hit hard.  Relatives have had to evacuate.  The air in San Francisco is full of smoke.  We could smell it in Pacifica when we left the house this morning.  Kids are being kept in the classroom at recess and lunch time. 

I took the shot looking down Fremont towards the new Transbay Terminal.  

Career Day/Fire/Robbery -- January 28, 2015

It has been an exciting few days.  Monday morning the radio went off and the announcers on KCBS said that there was a four alarm grass fire in Pacifica.  They didn't say where except that it was near the home of one of the announcers.  Later they said it was in the canyon behind Rockaway Beach and that Terra Nova Boulevard was closed.  I decided to work from home.  My wife had to drive out to the beach in Linda Mar to get to Highway One.  The condos and homes up the hill were evacuated, but no homes were damaged. 

Tuesday morning the announcers on KCBS said thieves had driven an SVU through the front window of the Wells Fargo History Museum on Montgomery Street and made off with the gold nugget collection.  These jerks should remember:  Wells Fargo Never Forgets. 

Later on Tuesday I went to Saint Anthony-Immaculate Conception School in San Francisco for Career Day.  They sent us around in pairs.  My partner used to be a nanny.  Her talk about all the opportunities it opened up was very interesting.  First we spoke to 5th and 6th grades, then 4th, then K and 1st.  I adjusted my talk about Wells Fargo and IT for each group.  I didn't mention three-tier architecture to K and 1.  The kids asked good questions.  In K and 1 they all said what they wanted to be.  They mostly wanted to be police officers.  Later I told the policeman that he had been a big hit.  Someone mentioned that the fire department was coming later.  He said that then they would all want to be firefighters. 

Firehouse #45 - July 2, 2011

Station One and Truck One wear black wreaths to remember firemen Vincent Perez and Anthony Valerio who were killed in a fire in Diamond Heights. Perez and Valerio were the first San Francisco firefighters killed on duty in eight years and the first to die in a fire since 1995. I took the photo on 06-June-2011.

Fire Funeral -- June 10, 2011

Today the funeral of Vincent Perez and Anthony Valerio, the two firefighters killed in the Diamond Heights fire, took place at the Cathedral. As I walked to work this morning, four trucks and engines passed me going up Third Street. I don't know why this San Rafael truck was going that direction.

I took BART home. After we left the Daly City station, I saw a line of fire vehicles going down 280 towards Holy Cross. When I left the parking garage at Colma, I found that the ramp to the freeway was closed. I turned left onto Junipero Serra and found that the fire vehicles were going down Serramonte Boulevard, so I got over the left and went up Southgate until I could go over to Skyline and down to One. The ramps to get onto One North to 280 were jammed.

Incidentally, this is the 1000th post on this blog. Thank you to all those who read and comment.

Firehouse #44 -- June 3, 2011

The flag flies at half staff over Station One on Howard Street today, the day after fireman Vincent Perez was killed in a fire in Diamond Heights and Anthony Valerio was critically injured. Perez was the first San Francisco firefighter killed on duty in eight years and the first to die in a fire since 1995.

The New York Factory Fire -- March 25, 2011

From the Valentine, Nebraska Democrat, 06-April-1911. Today the Republicans are trying to destroy the right to collective bargaining and roll back workplace safety rules.

141 PERISH IN FIRE SCORES DIE BY JUMPING FROM BURNING FACTORY.

Fire Marshal's Inquiry Reveals Fact
Workroom Was Death Trap -- 86 Victims Are Identified.

New York. Of the 141 employees, mostly girls and women killed in a fire in Triangle Shirtwaist factory at the corner of Greene street and Washington place Saturday, 86 have been identified.

Seventy of the bodies were those of girls and young women, the remaining sixteen those of men. There are 12 injured in the hospitals. Scores of others more or less seriously hurt were taken to their homes.

The building was occupied by a number of factories , and at least 1,500 persons were at work when the fire started.

The victims were either burned to death or were crushed into lifeless forms on the pavements when they leaped to escape the swift rush of fire<>

Not since the burning of the excursion steamer General Slocum , off North Brother's Island In 1904 , when 1,020 persons perished, has the city been so excited by a fire horror.

At least fifty of the victims were killed by leaping from the windows of >the seventh floor, and floors above.

Many perished in the flames on upper floors, remaining, afraid to leap until the fire surrounded them.

A great crowd gathered around the scene of the fire. Factories in the neighborhood were soon emptied of their employes.

Some of the revelations, brought out >by Fire Marshal Beers in his public inquiry into the causes of the fire show that the poor girls in that panic rush to escape from the flames found traps at every turn.

It seemed that the very arrangement of the workroom was a trap, with 700 women, jammed back to back at their machines. When the panic started, the narrow aisles became blocked with chairs and the girls were in confusion before they even started for the doors. Then there was a scarcity of exits, the inward opening doors and the death-trap "fire escapes."

"The fire, without any question, started from a cigarette or a match thrown into a pile of lawn clippings -- light cotton stuff , " said Marshal Beers.

Pneumatic Fire Alarm Signal -- March 12, 2011

Doctor Peter Henri Van Der Weyde wrote the series of articles which gave this blog its name. Here, thanks to Google Patents, is an example of one of his many patents, in this case for a pneumatic fire alarm signal.

United States Patent Office,

PETER H. VANDER WEYDE, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

PNEUMATIC FIRE-ALARM SIGNAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 242,803, dated June 14, 1881.

Application filed August 31,1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Peter H. Vander Weyde, of the city of Brooklyn, Kings county, State of New York, have invented some im provements in Pneumatic Fire-Alarm Signals, being an improvement on the invention for which Letters Patent were granted, No. 213,536, dated March 25, 1879, which improvements are set forth in the following specification.

My invention consists in a peculiar method of starting a pneumatic fire-alarm by the melting of a separate piece of an easily-fusible alloy, consisting of four parts bismuth, two of lead, one of tin, and one of cadmium, described in the patent granted to me March 25, 1879, No. 213,536, and which melts at as low a temperature as 140° to 150° Fahrenheit, which can still be lowered by the addition of arsenic, gallium, or mercury in small quantities. I obtain thus an automatic fire-alarm without the intervention of electric currents, in the manner described in the adjoined drawings.

Figure 1 of the drawings illustrates my invention. Fig. 2 is a modification for which I intend to make separate application for Letters Patent.

The piece of alloy may have the form of a small block, A, placed over a hole in a plate, C C, and preventing the plunger B from entering this hole. This plunger may be propelled by a weight, as shown in H, or by springs, as shown in K and O. It may also be retained by suspension from above, the links being secured by a pin of the same alloy. This plunger may enter a cylinder like a pump-piston, and so cause by its descent a wave of compressed air to be propelled in a system of tubes, T T, with which it is connected; but I find it more reliable to cause this plunger to act upon a flexible membrane placed under the plate C C. This membrane may be rubber, or even very thin sheet metal. It is stretched over a funnel-shaped piece, E, attached to the series of tubes T T, and will by its depression send a wave of compressed air through the same. These tubes are at their extremity attached at the office of a hotel or warehouse, cabin of a ship, &c., to the signal-receiving alarm box Q by means of the lever L, acted upon by the flexible diaphragm M, which, by bulging outward by the wave, will start the wound-up alarm-clock contained in the box and ring the bell D or give any other kind of audible or visible alarm.

It is evident that such an alarm will be started as soon as any of the thermostats A supporting the weight H or springs K and O melts by the heat of an incipient fire. If, however, several such thermostats are attached to the same series of tubes, the effect of the compressed-air wave upon the membrane M, working the alarm, would be diminished in case all the other membranes were allowed to expand or bulge out. This, however, is effectively prevented by the rigid perforated plates C C, placed over all the diaphragms except that of the receiver M L Q.

It is evident that, instead of the elastic membranes described or piston arrangement referred to a kind of small bellows could be used, or any other device which will permit of a sudden slight depression of the air and send an air-wave through the tubes.

Experience has shown me that it is desirable not to close hermetically this system of tubes and connecting diaphragms, because in that case atmospheric changes in temperature or pressure will cause the membrane to bulge outward or inward in proportion that the temperature ascends or descends, or the pressure decreases or increases, which in either case interferes with the proper operation. In order to prevent such interference, I make one small pin-hole in the tubes or in an additional short tube, N. This will not in the least interfere with the propagation and proper action of a sudden wave, as this has no time to spend itself through so small an aperture, while it will allow the interior air to be kept always in equilibrium with the external air, whatever be the changes of the thermometer and barometer, because they always take place very gradually and have time to diffuse themselves through the small aperture referred to. It is advisable to place these thermostats at the ceiling, near the staircases or elevator-shafts, and, in general, in such places as are most likely to be reached first by the ascending currents of hot air, which always precede an incipient fire.

The greater reliability of iron tubing over stretched wires for communicating the alarm-signals referred to is self-evident.

What I wish to secure by Letters Patent is —

1. The combination, with a pneumatic fire alarm tube, of a plunger retained by a piece or plate of fusible alloy, which, by its melting, will cause the plunger to be propelled by a weight or spring and act upon a diaphragm, bellows, or on an air-pump, and operate the signal, in the manner set forth.

2. The combination of the pneumatic tube, the flexible diaphragm, plunger, and plate of fusible alloy with a rigid perforated plate, as A, between the diaphragm and the plate of alloy, which prevents reflex action between the various diaphragms, as set forth.

P. H. VANDER WEYDE.

Witnesses:

J. W. Lasperre,

L. B. Heuser.

Alley #11 -- September 9, 2010

I can't find the name of this Seattle alley, either. The building on the left is the famous Smith Tower. We are looking north from Yesler.

We had light rain yesterday in Pacifica. Tonight there is a big fire in San Bruno, near Skyline. Lots of helicopters and airplanes are flying over.