Cameron Park Fire Department, the beginning.

This is the dedication plaque that was placed on the new fire station on Country Club Drive.

This shot shows the Chief's 57 pickup, 51 Dodge grass truck, 1956 P.G.&E. pickup, and the brand new 1969 Ward LaFrance. All in Herb's front yard. For the life of me I can't see why the neighborhood would complain!

Here I am loading hose in the back of the P.G&E. pickup. We had not acquired the other rigs yet.

The Chief's pickup in downtown Placerville, December 1969.

Cameron Park Fire Departments first fire chief, Herb Owen, moved up from the bay area a few months before he asked me to make the move to help start the fire department. I moved up on March 28, 1969. My first official day would be April 1, 1969. Who would have thought that I would start a new carer on April Fools Day! Oh well Ill worry about this in about thirty or forty years. When Cameron Park Fire Department board of directors signed a contract with The California Department of Forestry to manage the fire department in 1998, I saved some of the early logbooks, so the dates I use are accurate.

The first two weeks I lived at the fire station in El Dorado Hills, At 990 Lasson Lane. Herb and I finished a room at his home in Cameron Park that I would live in while on duty. It was seperate from the main house, and had an exit to the garage and to the fire equipment that we would be picking up soon.

After a few weeks I made the move to the chiefs house, 3870 Los Santos. We didn't have a fire engine yet, but we got started by equipping a 1956 green ford pickup that used to belong to the phone company. It had a utility bed and a covered pickup bed with a metal sliding top. We loaded first aid, and rescue equipment in the side compartments, and a hose load in the pickup bed. We would have to take every fire with a hose lay from a fire hydrant. No pump on the old pickup. We also had a 1957 Chevy pickup that we painted red and lettered up as the Fire Chiefs vehicle.

Within a couple of months Herb went to a California Fire Chiefs meeting in Sacramento. At these meetings a lot of vender's show up to sell there newest equipment. One of the vender's was showing a brand new 1969 Ford cab over triple combination fire engine. It was gas powered, 750 gallon water tank, a 1000 gallon per minuet two stage pump and ground ladders. Just what we needed and it was available within a few weeks. It still needed to be seen at two other meetings in other states. It was built as a demonstrator model for show and tell. Herb also placed other orders at the show. Things like air packs, hose, nozzles and turn outs for the firemen to wear. We needed everything that a new fire department would need.

Back at Herbs home I set to work placing 4X4 posts in front of the house and pulling canvas over a frame to keep the engine out of the weather. Herb also picked up a 1951 two ton Dodge truck that had been a Forestry unit way back when. on May 20Th 1969 I turned it back into a wild land fire rig. It looked a little silly, but it would really wet down the fire line. I put electric switches on nozzles under the front bumper, and had a one hundred foot, one inch reel line mounted on a 450 gallon water tank. At a military surplus store we found a self contained 500 G.P.M. pump and motor that I mounted behind the cab, with remote controls inside the cab. The new Ward La France engine was delivered on May 26, 1969. The last thing Herb found and brought home was a well used 1947 American La France fire engine from the Sacramento Fire Department. It had been Sacramento Engine #2. Sacramento was having a public auction and Herb picked it up for $500.00. We nick named it "smoky Joe" This is why I was here, to rebuild things. What fun, a 1947 American La France V12 motor! And I get to take it apart and put it back together.

The neighborhood started to take notice of the new hobby that Herb took up on Los Santos. One of the family's in the house behind us was a Realtor and developer in Cameron Park, Richard L.V. Smith. He had a piece of property just off Cameron Park Drive, on Hacienda Road that had been set aside for a Middle School sometime in the future. It had several acres on somewhat flat ground. At the end of October 1969, deal was struck, a Mobil home bought, and with the help of our volunteers we put up a two car garage to keep the engines in. One of the El Dorado Irrigation District guys, Curt Wiesenhunt and I put in a water meter and service to the mobile home. P.G.& E. ran power to a pole we put in. I was driving through Folsom and saw a Shell Gas Station being bulldozed and I grabbed the overhead doors for free. We now had a fire station to call home until we could float a bond to build the station on Country Club Drive. We would camp out on Hacienda Road for about two years.

Within the first few months we had handed out emergency phone stickers and put in the "HOT" line for in coming emergency calls. Cameron Park had an agreement with Shingle Springs Volunteer fire department to respond to all emergency calls until the new fire department was in place and prepared to respond. Chief Owen had his hands full setting up a new department and training me as well. I was very new to the fire service. I may have been a good mechanic, and had put my service time in the Army, but now I needed to be taught a whole lot in a very short time. I was good at first aid, but fire science and tactics I was lacking in. Herb was very patient with me, and we got lots done in a very few months. I have a lot to thank Chief Owen for.

Herb had picked up a radio monitor so we could listen how El Dorado County ran their calls. If something was dispatched in Cameron Park, we would also respond. What we found out was, we were always the first one to arrive, even though Shingle Springs was dispatched. This was because we were at our station, listening, and ready to respond. Shingle Springs was still a volunteer department.

The first call we self dispatched to was a grass fire on Hampton Lane and covered eleven lots in all. The first official emergency call we had was a furniture fire in a structure on December 10, 1969. Little girls and candles caused bedroom fires on a regular basis. From April 1, 1969 to June 30, 1970 we had 38 emergency calls. We have more than that in any week now. Thank goodness it was quiet so we could get everyone trained and equipment built. We put out the word for volunteers and had about six men sign up for training. The problem we had was very few worked very close to Cameron Park. We had two gas stations, Sams Town, and a little hamburger joint called the Burger Soloon. Gravel parking lot and all. After hours we could expect some men to respond, but during the day it was all but zero response from our volunteer force.

My first few months were spent clearing, flow testing and mapping every fire hydrant in and around Cameron Park. Many hydrants were not visible from the street. They were ether covered over with brush and grass, or buried under dirt with, maybe the top visible. Lots of shovel work, and lots of swing blade work. My evenings were spent putting together a volunteer training schedule for evening drills. With Herb training me as we went. I was about as green as you could get. Both Herb and myself were certified in first aid and C.P.R. from being in the fire department in Alameda. We would find out very soon that we were the only two in the whole county that were certified in C.P.R. No one did that function! No pulse, and you were dead. It was as simple as that.

El Dorado County used the mortuaries to transport patients when the need arose. It was handy when there was no pulse. Finally the county hired one ambulance to post itself in and around Placerville. Foothill Ambulance had two men that did basic first aid, and transported patients. Pollock Pines built there own rescue van that had a gurney,ropes, and spair fire equipment, but in the early days only transported in there own fire district. In the late sixties there were eighteen fire districts in the county. El Dorado Hills and Pollock Pines were the first to staff stations. We all had our own emergency phone numbers, so we all needed to have someone sit by a phone. The answering service in Placerville filled in that gap for several districts, and dispatched out the volunteers by radio, and phone trees.

Herb and some of the other fire chiefs started fire training nights for training officers so we could all do the evolutions of firefighting the same way. This was something new for all of us. I ended up being the Chairman for the American Red Cross for a few years. I taught the first aid, and C.P.R. class's for most of the county. We finally got a few more instructors in some of the stations, so I only had to clear the paper work and issue certificates for some of the fire districts. I think school bus drivers were trained better than fireman in first aid back in those days. I had a ton of first aid background from the department in Alameda, and from the Army before that.

The fire service in those days used radio codes instead of what we use now, clear text. When we got our new engine, I installed the county fire radios, and I asked the Placerville answering service for a radio check. In Alameda we called that a (signal 1000) so that's what I asked for. The answering service said (10-4) Cameron Park. For the next few minuets tone after tone went off letting every department around us know that I was asking for a (signal 1000) This is when I found out that the code I used for a radio check is what this county used for an aircraft down. I figured out what was going on very quickly and cancelled everyone. We laughed about this one for a few years.

The Chief and the board of directors put a bond vote together for the voters of Cameron Park. With lots of foot work on our part, it passed. We had secured $100,000. to build the fire station on Country Club Drive. Some residents called it The Taj Mahal. It was also mentioned, how can anyone spend that much money on one building? Wow do times change or what? Herb and I worked with the builder so we could run all the wiring we would need for radios, speakers, bells, and such.

Chief Owen filed for an O.E.O. Grant. (Office of Economic Opportunity) and with that grant we were able to hire two brother's, Pete and Leon Misamore. They could earn a living, and keep going to school at the same time. This was a super opportunity for the two of them. They were 16 and 17 years old when they started with us. With their help we poured concrete until the entire station was circled with driveways, walkways, and patios. I lost count of how many yards we poured, but it was lots. Leon stayed with us for several years and then moved on to something else. Pete on the other hand stayed with us until about 1999 and left on an early retirement.

Because of the low response from our volunteer force during the day, Herb started the (RESERVES) an all female volunteer firefighting force. My wife, Gwen was one of the first to help fill this gap for daytime response. This was something new to the fire service, and worked very well. We had some very memorable calls being backed up with the reserves.

In 1972 our board of directors changed fire chief's. For me it was a huge loss. The Chief was a good friend and mentor. The new Chief was brought out of retirement from the Sacramento City Fire Department. Our new chief was Lewis Cassaglia. Talk about someone with tons of background. Lou started with the McClellan air field during the Second World War and after the War was hired by Sacramento City Fire Department. Lou did several things that changed our direction. One of the programs Lou started was a building plans review for commercial properties. Lou also contacted another government program, C.E.T.A. (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) .With this program we had several young men at a time show up for training in all things related to the emergency service. At one time we had 21 young men to equip and train. Quite a few went on in fire service career's. A few that I remember; Matt Jenkins retired as a Unit Chief with Cal Fire. Henry Ogg, retired as a fire Captain with Sac Metro. Bruce Prender, out with an injury as fire Captain with Cameron Park. Jack
Royal retired on a medical. Bill Sanderson, retired with an injury from Cameron Park. And Lou Motto retired as an Engineer from Sac Metro.

Our board of directors researched a better way to administer the fire department, and came up with a solution. We went under contract with C.D.F., now called Cal Fire. This didn't go over well with some of us, but in the long run it was best both for the district and the employees. It opened lots of doors for any of us that wanted to try another type of fire service opportunities. I went to work in Georgtown at a fire camp. After some training that covered working with State Inmates, I ran fire crews that fought fire with nothing more than hand tools all over the State. I got to hike mountains that I had never heard of. Too bad they were all on fire. It could have been a nice walk in the mountains.

I was there for the building of the new station, and years later I was there when it all but burned down. I had stopped by to see someone and was standing out in the back talking with a fire captain that had his inmate fire crew doing some maintenance work. The district had hired a company to hot mop the roof. While I was visiting, a man came running down from the roof speaking in Spanish. One of the inmate crew members came up to me and said "Capt, he's telling you that the roof is on fire." I yelled over at the station captain about what was going on. I was in shorts and flip flops. As the firefighters were gearing up, I moved an engine into position, set the pumps, and while I was setting up ladders, the inmate crew started pulling hose lines and getting a water supply ready for the firefight.

Additional engines were called in from surrounding departments, and with all that help the fire still worked it's way from the roof, through the mansard siding into the lower levels of the building. It was a long hard firefight. The only blessing from all this loss is, Cameron Park has a wonderful new building that they can be proud of.

I will add to this post as I find other pictures.