The skills that Corvallis firemen demonstrated
at the Labor Day competitions described in the last post were needed when the
alarm sounded at 4:35 in the afternoon of September 6, 1923. Within three minutes fire fighters arrived at
the corner of Van Buren Avenue and
Second Street where Rickard's Garage was on fire.
Mark Rickard was the first in the area to sell
automobiles. In 1908, he purchased the lot and opened a combination showroom,
repair shop and storage garage there. He
sold REOs, Buicks, Studebakers, and
Dodges, among other brands.
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| Rickard's Garage, Corvallis, Oregon |
On that Thursday afternoon, according to local
historian Ken Munford, “a Studebaker leaking gasoline drove into the
garage. Onus Brown, a mechanic, was bringing
a can to catch the drip when a spark from the machine or some other source
ignited the fuel on the floor.” The fire
caused a tank of compressed air or oxygen to exploded, which quickly spread the
fire throughout the building. Thick black smoke rose to the sky.
The battle then turned to keeping the fire
from spreading. The photo shows firemen on the roof of the adjoining Beaver
Laundry.
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| Beaver Laundry Co. |
People
in nearby houses moved their furniture out to the street in case the fire
spread to their roof.
Although the firemen arrived three minutes
after the alarm sounded, they were unable to save the garage or the cars
within.
The laundry's roof sustained extensive damage
but the building itself was saved. A
house at First and Monroe and a shed on the lot behind the Rickard garage were
not so lucky. Overall, the estimated
damage from the fire was nearly $103,000 (or roughly $1.5 million in today's
dollars). A total of 53 cars were
destroyed.
Ken Munford, “An Explosive Past for Corvallis
Cars,” Gazette Times, December 1, 2007.
By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon
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