Firefighting History of Mason City

The early years of Mason City’s history were pockmarked with fires of various proportions. These were sporadically documented through local newspapers and have been compiled into one file now housed at the Mason City Public Library’s archives. They document many fires, big and small, throughout the city’s past. As with many American cities, fires were nearly constant threats, and into the 19th century cities took on increasingly larger roles in preventing and fighting them (Mason City Story 1953; Mason City Public Library Archives Files).

After the city was incorporated in 1870, the first major step for fire protection was made on September 20, 1872, when $150 was designated for the purchase of a hook and ladder. Further strides were made toward fire control and safety by O.T. Denison, a local banker and manufacturer who served as Mayor of Mason City from 1885-1887. On June 6, 1885, during his tenure as mayor, Denison established a volunteer fire department that would come to be known as the Denison Hose Company. It was funded primarily through private donations with some municipal support and with funds raised from an annual charity ball held on Thanksgiving nights. Denison also worked to expand the city’s waterworks and water distribution infrastructure, not only while as mayor, but during stints as a city trustee/councilperson and even while out of office (Mason City Story 1953; Wheeler 1910). Efforts made to increase water distribution were important early steps in fire prevention within communities, and they also helped in the ability and efficiency of fighting fires on the fire department side.

Mason City went through a period of expansion from the late 1890s through the 1920s. The city’s population nearly tripled from the 1890 Federal Census to the 1910 Federal Census and then nearly doubled again from then to the 1920 Federal Census. The city expanded with new residential additions, and its commercial and industrial zones were growing too. Part of the city’s responsibility for this growth and expansion was to provide fire protection for the people and their property. The expansion of municipal water systems was conducted throughout the 1890s. On February 22, 1897, the city council voted to supply the Denison Hose Company with $2,700 for hook and ladder equipment, and shortly thereafter it adopted building ordinances designed to reduce the risk of fire. In 1901, the council approved an expense of $1,200 for a new chemical wagon for the hose company. In 1904, the chief of the hose company, J.W. Adams, was named as the city’s first fire warden and allowed a salary of $200 per year. Through the first decade of the century, the Denison Hose company passed further into “municipal maintenance,” and in 1909, the whole department was converted to a paid operation by Mason City Ordinance #250; this conversion was spearheaded by the relatively new fire chief Dennis Kelley. Prior to the conversion to paid positions, the firemen were paid one dollar per response if the hose was rolled out. On September 20, 1911 special election formalized the construction of a new fire station; that station, the Central Fire Station was completed in 1912 and used through 1975, when a large, modern, fire department building was erected. In 1914, the department purchased a 1913 Seagrave, its first motorized fire truck, and by 1919 there were no more horses “employed by the department” (Mason City Story 1953; GG 4/1/1950; Public Library Archives Notes; Fire Engineering 1919).

Through the first decades of the 20th century, municipalities across the country were assessed, graded, and given recommendations for their fire prevention and response infrastructure and capabilities by National Underwriters, which was an association for insurers. The same routine assessments were given to Mason City, in which they often did not score very well (Enright 2001:3). A 1931 report from National Underwriters suggested the construction of two fire sub-stations: one off 12th Street NE and another off S. Federal Avenue. Other 1931 recommendations called for a million-gallon elevated water tank on the south side, improvements to water distribution equipment, and adoption of various fire ordinances and codes (Enright 2001:3; GG 2/11/1931, 12/7/1934, 2/23/1937, 8/26/1937). The recommendations were taken seriously, but little could be done at the time, and no official actions for a building on the south side of Mason City was taken until later in the decade. Official action, with the support of Public Works Administration Funds, to the creation of Engine House No.2, was not begun until 1938.