Fire Museum Heats Up for 150-Year Anniversary

The bucket brigades of 19th Century firefighting are long gone but, in Watsonville, the fire department's history is far from forgotten.

 The public is invited to stop in the Watsonville Firefighting museum next door to —a special treat because the homage to firefighting is typically a by-appointment-only destination.

Retired Fire Chief Gene Friend, who has had a role within the department for a half century, administers the museum. The building at the corner of Rodriguez and Second streets was originally a fire station. When the new station was built down the street about a decade ago, the old firehouse briefly became the city parks department office before the firefighters union found the money to lease the building and preserve it as a museum.

The stories housed within the walls are fascinating. Old warehouse fires. The all-volunteer fire crews of 100 years ago. That the buckets for the bucket brigades had rounded bottoms—so no one would steal them, Friend said.

When kids visit the fire museum, they ask to see the brass pole and the Dalmatian.

"We don't have a dog, but here's the pole," Friend said, clanging his hand against the quick exit strategy.

The museum also is home to a fleet of old fire trucks, books chock full of fire records and rooms stocked with old firefighting gear. Much of it was saved from trash piles by one nostalgic firefighter, Friend said.

"Everything is in the museum for a reason," he said.

Saturday's event is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tours of the museum also are available on  weekdays by calling 831-768-3200.