History Blog: Fires in Early Decoto

Fire has always been a hazard, especially a hundred years ago, when heating and cooking was done with fire and homes where made almost entirely of wood.

Fire fighting was a haphazard effort with local resident using buckets. At the time, there was no fire department in Alvarado or Decoto. For a couple of years, a number of major buildings in Decoto were destroyed by fire.

On July 5, 1891, the grain warehouse of Edward Salz and the saloon and general merchandise store (including post office) of T. S. Fereira's was lost to fire. The Southern Pacific Railroad brought in a "water train" to help put out the fire, but the valves were not working so it was of no use. Hours after the main fire was out the sacks of grain were still burning. The reported cause of the fire was "too many firecrackers."

On August 30, 1895, an early morning fire broke out in the kitchen of the Grand Hotel, a two-story building owned by Mrs Astru. By the time the fire was discovered it was already too late to be put out "without a well-organized fire department."

There was an attempt to have items from the hotel, but they were not successful. The fire then spread to the Fashion Livery Stable owned by Frank Rose. Luckily, the horses, wagons, harnesses and a couple of tons of hay were removed from the livery before it was really burning. In the end, the livery was lost with a total of 40 tons of hay. The residence of Frank Rose, adjoining the livery, as also burned. The residence of Mrs. Murphy, sitting next to the livery, was threatened by the fire, but the efforts of local residents saved the building from too much damage. If the fire had not been put out on this building, the fire would have kept going from building to building down the block.

On December 18, 1895, the general merchandise store of Frank Ribera burned down at 4 a.m. The barbershop owned by M. Brown, located in the same building, was also lost. The adjacent store owned by W. B. King was saved by the hard fight of local residents.