News Footage: SF Fire Workers; SF Fire

Year Published: 1950

Creator: Guy Morrison

Complete Record: Fire Station: Hand reaching in to break glass on fire alarm box on street, shots of men taking calls for fire alarms, CU on panel with lights lit, men sliding down the pole in the fire station (shot from underneath), firemen running to get in the fire truck, cool shots of firemen in the truck shot from behind, men in white undershirts standing on top of a building watching the building fire from a distance, CU shots of firemen working the location, aerial shot of fire worker shooting the fire hose into the burning building with men standing by watching, B&W still of buildings with fire in distance, B&W still of police man (?) being drawn by horses (two white and one black) with smoke in the background, various B&W stills of fires in the city, B&W still depicting 4th and Pioneer Place with displaced residents with their belongings on a park lawn, loads of amazing stills of SF after the fire and earthquake, most of the shots are from Bear Photo depicting SF streets, landmarks, people after the fire, B&W still depicting the courthouse with leaning street lamp and man seated beneath, burned and destroyed SF buildings, B&W still of hundreds of tents erected in city to house the homeless, Fire Chief being interviewed (1950's), fire training classes, fire chief showing how the fire alarm works while breaking the glass and using a key, fire men standing in a line outside a brick building, men training to climb into windows using ropes and safety nets, men climb from one window to the next one higher dragging a tall ladder with them as they go, aerial shots of the men climbing, shots of the men propelling themselves back down the building using ropes and safety equipment, great silhouetted shot of fireman preparing to jump out the window to land on a trampoline below, fire men in white hard hats carrying a huge ladder, the men construct a scaffolding to get them closer to the building, a smoke machine creates smoke in the windows and the firemen train in fire fighting, teacher shows the men how to use an oxygen tank and gas mask (SFPD is seen on the truck in background), trainees are fitted with oxygen tanks and masks, wearing the tanks and masks, the firemen climb the external fire escape staircase leading up the side of the brick building, aerial shot of men climbing through billowing smoke wearing masks, old school fire truck is seen parked in front of the building, shot taken from underneath as man is lifted up to the building on top of the extending ladder, external shots of Engine #9, SF Fire Department, sign on building reads "Fire Boat I", fire men jumping into a boat docked at the piers, shots of the internal machinery of the boat, shots from a tower in the center of the boat that has a high power hose attached, fire men send water streaming into the Bay, shots of the Golden Gate Bridge as fire boat glides underneath, inside what appears to be a fire alarm hub with indicator panels covering the walls, three older men stand in the center working on machinery, man pulls ticker tape from one of the panel machines and reads the coordinates to another man who uses a Morse code machine to tap the information to the designated fire station, repeated shots of earlier footage with men sliding down pole in fire station and loading the fire truck, shots of the fire truck moving north down Market Street with the old Woolworth’s building on the left and the Ferry Building seen in the distance, shots of the fire truck maneuvering down Market Street with trolley cars and people on the streets, the fire truck turns left onto Embarcadero, fire workers end up in North Beach area (?) and fight a fire in a residential building, inside the burned building investigators look through the debris for the cause of the fire, footage of a night time fire with large area of wood burning on the ground, SF Fire Department Airport Co., external shots of the building with fire men running to a truck, several vehicles tear out of the fire station headed to a small carrier plane, fire men load a ladder up to the plane, one of the workers wears a fire proof helmet and goes into the fire, the men put the ladder away after the drill and drive off