Days at the old Balboa Island fire house

Gay Wassall-Kelly

Ring! Ring! “Fire! Fire!” was reported to 22-year-old Keith Aaby, a

“paid call” firefighter on night duty at the Balboa Island Fire House

No. 4. “I run over to the horn, give her four blasts so the volunteer

firemen will know the fire is on the island,” Aaby said.

“We volunteers would hear those loud blasts, jump out of a sound

sleep, throw on our clothes, then wait for the next series of blasts

telling us where to report,” former volunteer firefighter Ken Lindahl

said.

“It’s 1950, and this particular night, we knew it was a drill,”

Lindahl said. “We ran to the fire house on Marine Avenue, jumped on

the fire truck riding to bare Lido Isle to test the fire hydrants,

speed up our pull of the hoses, hook up to the hydrants and squirt

down the sand.”

If walls could talk, this little fire house, built in the 1920s

with stucco and a tile roof, would tell you the wonderful camaraderie

between the fire families who served Balboa Island.

For a time, the police shared one side of the building for a

substation. Usually, one or more paid firefighters slept in the fire

house with a large volunteer contingent on call. The little fire

house gave the residents of the island a feeling of security, since

many of the homes were wooden and built very close together.

Aaby remembers their first-rate fire captain, Ed Zube, who lived

just behind the fire house.

“Zube was a real character,” Aaby said. “His wife wouldn’t let him

sleep at home because he snored so loudly. So he slept in the fire

house most nights. I was going to school and working as a boat

maintenance guy and needed sleep. Thank goodness our shifts were only

24 on, 24 off!”

“In 1955, when Zube, a good friend and problem solver to everyone,

turned 65, the rule was you could not work past your 65th birthday,”

retired Capt. Milt Meehan said. “So just before midnight, I had to

send Zube off. Even after his retirement, Zube slept in the fire

station on bad snore nights.

“I had the dubious distinction of being Zube’s replacement,”

Meehan said. “It was a hard act to follow.”

In 1958, Capt. “Dutch” Van Horn, after a cutthroat chess game with

Meehan, answered a 3 a.m. call, “Car fire on Coast Highway.”

On the way down Bayside Drive, Van Horn suddenly slowed the engine

down to a crawl. Meehan wondered what his plan of attack was, and to

his surprise, the “slow-down” was for a family of ducks crossing the

road. The two guys “quacked” at each other and proceeded.

Right in the middle of Coast Highway bridge, a huge gas tanker had

run into the back of a car, rupturing the car’s gas tank and igniting

its gas. Both men had just been drilled on such a happening.

They didn’t know at the time, but the truck and car driver had

escaped and were probably still running down the road. Two more

engines arrived just before the relief valve in the tank let loose,

igniting the stream of gas vapors that sounded like 10,000 blow

torches had been lighted at once.

Meehan knew he would have to continue cooling the tank with water

from the hose. Suddenly, the relief valve closed and it became

ghostly quiet again.

“We found out later that both drivers were safe,” Meehan said.

“Boy, we were sure relieved.”

By 1992, the island had outgrown the little fire house, and the

city auctioned her off. In 1994, a new and larger high-tech fire

station was designed and constructed on the corner of Marine Street

and Park Avenue on the island.

Today, the original fire house remains empty. The Balboa Island

Historical Society and Museum, along with the community, continues an

active campaign to save the original fire house for a future museum

to display Balboa Island’s rich history.

At 11 a.m. June 1, Balboa Island will put on it 10th annual

“Salute to Balboa Island Parade” on Marine Avenue. Follow the parade

to Marine and Park Avenue for the new Fire Station No. 4 rededication

by Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley at 12:30 p.m. See you there.

* GAY WASSALL-KELLY is the editor of a Balboa newspaper and is

active in the community.

* LOOKING BACK runs Sundays. Do you know of a person, place or

event that deserves a historical look back? Let us know. Contact

James Meier by fax at (949) 646-4170; e-mail at james.meier@latimes.

com; or mail at c/o Daily Pilot, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA

92627.