Menlo Fire celebrates 110 years of public safety service on June 27

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District celebrates 110 years of dedicated public safety service to the communities of Atherton, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and portions of unincorporated San Mateo County like North Fair Oaks on Saturday, June 27, 2026 from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Fire Station 6 (700 Oak Grove Avenue), in downtown Menlo Park.

Residents are invited to gather at the museum and 1899 Carriage house located to the rear of the Fire Station with access on Hoover Street.

Perhaps inspired by the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and Worlds Fair being held in San Francisco where new motorized fire apparatus were displayed, and/or the need to improve its fire rating to reduce fire insurance costs, a letter was sent to the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on September 16, 1915, by a six-person citizens committee that had gathered 62 residents signatures on a petition that said:

“We, the undersigned local residents and tax-payers of Menlo Park, California, and vicinity, desiring to establish a fire department in this town for the purpose of better fire protection, respectfully petition your board to appoint a board of fire commissioners for Menlo Park, as the necessary first step to this end.”

At its regular meeting on Monday, January 3, 1916, the citizens committee put forth a petition of Philip G. Wales et al., asking the County Board to appoint a Board of Fire Commissioners for Menlo Park. The petition was presented and read, and on motion of Supervisor MacBain, seconded by Supervisor Casey, it was ordered that said petition be received and said commissioners appointed. C.W Mardwell, A.G Hahn and Clarence Walter were appointed commissioners on motion of Supervisor MacBain, seconded by Supervisor Casey.

With a Board of Fire Commissioners in place, a ballot initiative was proposed to create a Fire Department. On June 16, 1916, at 11:24 am, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District was established by a vote of 100 in favor and 58 against. That evening, the Fire Commissioners met and passed a resolution establishing the formal boundaries of the fire district. The value of taxable property was determined to be $3,583,231, and property taxes, or revenues to be obtained, were set at $14,000.

In a letter from the new Fire Board Commissioners to the Board of Fire-Underwriters of the Pacific dated January 31, 2017, eight specific areas of improvement were laid out. Generally speaking, they were:

1. Acquire a Seagrave Model T #325 Fire Engine and equipment
2. Acquire a light-weight Chemical Fire Truck and equipment
3. Acquire new hose and determine what old hose is serviceable
4. Engage the services of a paid Fire Chief who will be in command at all fires and care for the apparatus and/or a paid assistant chief who will be on call at all times.
5. Organize a semi-volunteer fire company, the members of which will be paid for attendance of fires and at fire drills.
6. Install a telephone to the fire quarters, to be used solely for fire purposes; details to be worked out with Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company.
7. Install a powerful electrical siren to give a public fire-alarm whenever a call may come to the fire-quarters.
8. Install fire hydrants on the mains of the Bear-Gulch Water Company (which supplies the territory with water under pressure), for which service the fire district will pay a rental to the water company.

“In view of the foregoing, by means of which the fire hazard in the Menlo Park Fire District will be materially reduced, the fire-commissioners respectfully apply to your honorable body for a substantial reduction in the basis rate of premiums for the district included in the service and for such other concessions in rates as you may feel warrant.”

Frank P. Roach, one of the original volunteers, was selected by the Fire Commissioners to become the Fire District’s first Fire Chief. Roach owned and operated a nearby Blacksmith Shop located at Oak Grove and the County Highway (El Camino Real).

In 1916, Menlo Park had fewer than 2,000 residents. That would dramatically change in April 1917 when the United States entered World War I.

Camp Fremont, a 7,200-acre military base, was established in Menlo Park to train and prepare some 48,000 soldiers for war, and the new Fire District would need to adapt and grow with it and the changing community.

The war would prove both a challenge and opportunity for expansion by the fire agency.

Photo: Menlo Park Fire District’s Carriage House built in 1899 is not only one of the oldest surviving structures in the City, but one the oldest original fire stations in the country.

Author Harold Schapelhouman is former chief of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District