Fire | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 6, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hilo Fire Department

When arguing against a legislative budget appropriation for fire equipment for Hilo, a representative rationalized that, “it never got dry enough in Hilo for a fire.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Oct 18, 1890)

However, others saw that “Hilo needs a hook and ladder company at once”. (Hawaiian Gazette. Jan 17, 1888) “… but since then no one seems to feel any interest in the matter. Insurance must be higher here than it would otherwise be, as there is no protection against fire.” (PCA, Nov 29, 1888)

During the 1890 legislative session, Rep. Nawahi moved to insert $5,000 “to provide fire apparatus for Hilo” into the budget. “Rep Brown said $5,000 wouldn’t build the house for the engine let alone buy the engine. A good engine costs from $10,000 to $15,000.”

“The only way to have a fire department is to organize it, and to do that you must pass an Act. Therefore instead of putting this in the Appropriation Bill it had better go to a select committee.” They were told, “Without a law authorizing the organization of a fire department nothing can be done.”

“Rep Lucas stood out numerous calls of ‘question,’ and said that $4,000 or $5,000 would be enough. A very good hand machine could be got for $2,000 to $3,000. The Item passed.” (PCA, Aug 2, 1890)

On January 9, 1893 Lili‘uokalani approved an act that, “There shall be a Fire Department for the town of Hilo, on the Island of Hawaii, which shall consist of a Chief Engineer, not over two assistants, and as many firemen as may be approved by the Board of Representatives of the Department duly chosen as by its by-laws”.

“Any person may be a member of the Fire Department of Hilo by the affirmative vote of a majority of the members of any fire company to which such person shall have applied, provided always, that such person shall not be a vagrant or disorderly person, and shall not have been convicted of any felony which shall not have been pardoned.” (Evening Bulletin, Jan 26, 1893)

On July 27, 1893, “The first election for chief engineer of the Hilo fire department … was held in the court-house … Daniel Porter, Clerk of the third and fourth circuit court, was elected chief for two years and A Wall assistant engineer for the same period.”

“Now that the organization is complete, and the Hilo fire department an accomplished fact, it is expected that the property-owners about the town will take more interest it its welfare and assist the fire company by making donations to its building fund. And by joining the Provisional government to enlarge and improve our water works system.”

“A movement is on foot to establish a hose company among the native Hawaiians, and a meeting was held at the court house, August 1^st, to effect arrangements of the organization.” (Hawaiian Gazette, August 15, 1893)

Although initially volunteer firefighters, “Members of the Fire Department who shall have been in the active performance of their duties for at least a year … shall be exempt for the payment of poll, school and road tax in each year.” (Evening Bulletin, Jan 26, 1893)

Later that year, Andrew Brown, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners in Honolulu, purchased the bell “which has so long occupied a position in the Bell Tower [of the Mechanic’s Engineer Company No. 2]; and after having it cleaned and its fittings painted … present[ed] it to the Hilo Fire Department.” (Hawaiian Star, Sep 4, 1893)

By 1899, “Chief Engineer Vannatta has had but little actual fire-fighting to engage in but he keeps the department ‘up to date’ in drill and discipline.” (Godfrey)

Steam Fire Engine Co., No. 1 was the first fire station and was located at the corner of Waianuenue Avenue and Kekaulike Street. A steamer and hose wagon were located in the new station.

“Wood was used to fire the boiler, which produced steam to run the fire pump. By 1910 the Hilo Volunteer Fire Department had 60 members and responded to 11 fire calls that year. Additional equipment in service included a chemical wagon mounted on a car and a second car was used to tow the steam engine.”

“During 1919 the first motorized apparatus, a 750 gpm Seagraves engine was placed in service. The first career firefighters were hired in 1924 and included William Todd the first paid chief, an assistant chief, drivers, and hosemen; seven personnel total.”

“The career service was supplemented by volunteers, which continue in service today. In 1927 the second motorized apparatus was purchased, which was a 1,000 gpm Seagraves.”

“During 1931, 12 additional personnel were hired, and in 1937 a third engine was placed in service. Emergency medical service (EMS) was added to the department in 1972 with the first two firefighters trained as emergency medical technicians (EMTs).” (Robert A Burke)

January 20, 2019 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Chinatown Evacuations to Kawaiaha‘o Church

“Chinatown is no more. …”

“It was intended by the Board of Health that that portion of Block 15, between Kaumakapili Church and Nu‘uanu street and mauka from Beretania, should be given to the flames, as has been done with several other plague spots.”

“The Fire Department proceeded as usual to carry out the instructions of the Board. Chief Hunt, with the entire Fire Department forces, and four engines, got to work at about 9 o’clock yesterday morning (January 20, 1900).”

“A fair northeast wind was blowing across the city at the time, and realizing the danger from a break away should the wind rise, one engine (No. 1) was placed at the Intersection of Maunakea and Beretania streets while the others obtained connection with the water mains along Beretania street.”

“It was intended that the fire should eat its way back against the wind toward Kukui street and with this object in view a two-story frame structure back of the church was selected as the best situated for the application of the torch.”

“All went well for about an hour, when the wind began to rise and changed about two points eastward. This combination carried the blazing embers upon the dry roofs of the closely packed buildings in the vicinity”.

“The high wind fanned the flames till they took leaps of fifty and sixty feet along the doomed buildings of Block 1, from which the occupants had hastily removed, carrying as many personal effects as could be collected, and in many cases returning three and four times for more.”

“The Fire Department, as soon as it was discovered that the flames were beyond control …” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 23, 1900)

“Four thousand three hundred and twenty-five men, women and children, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiians and white were rendered homeless by the flames today.”

“Tonight they are the wards of a community which has risen to the humanity and generosity demanded by the emergency and with an energy seldom equaled has provided shelter and food and made the refugees as comfortable as it is possible under the circumstances.” (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1900)

“Japanese and Chinamen are being marched by the hundreds to Kawaiaha‘o church yard, guarded all the way from Nu‘uanu street by a line of volunteer citizen guards. There they will remain until some accommodations can be prepared for them.”

“Included in this mass of Asiatics are a great number of women with their children and all that can be done for them is being done.”

“The citizens have the situation well in hand. Every man is out with some kind of a club and there is a set determination that there shall be no outbreak from Chinatown.” (Evening Bulletin, January 20, 1900)

“No church ever held a more extraordinary assemblage than that which gathered in Kawaiaha‘o when the tired inhabitants of Chinatown reached there after their march of four blocks between lines of Honolulu citizens armed with clubs.”

“The march was a very hard one for some of the people who were compelled to move, and the line was a most pitiful spectacle as it moved along King street.” (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1900)

“‘Women first’ was the natural order, as soon as the business of getting people into the church was begun. In two hours the big-church was packed up stairs and down with Chinese women and children. They occupied all of every pew.”

“The big place of worship was so crowded that those who had seats could not even turn in their places. The gallery held a throng that filled nearly all the aisles and the reception rooms, as well as the auditorium, was the same.”

“Still women were coming and asking for places, and a thousand men were outside with no place to do anything but sit down and await developments. Inside the church the women and children sat and waited for what was coming.”

“Some of the mothers walked up and down the aisles trying to quiet infants that cried for food, while Board of Health men ran up and down doing all they could to help their charges.”

“It was a pitiful scene of suffering, as a climax to what the victims have suffered in the quarantined district ever since the beginning of the dread visitation of black plague. The Chinese Consul and the Japanese Consul were both in the building, watching the efforts that were being made to look after their countrymen.” (Hawaiian Star, January 20, 1900)

“Under the shadow of the clouds of smoke and fire the hordes of Chinatown stood in mute terror. Depressed by their long quarantine, when the literal baptism of fire came, it found them without spirit.”

“Beyond the confines of the district, particularly along the main thoroughfares of King and Beretania, they beheld not only the guardsmen with bayonetted guns, but a mass of people which must have overawed them by its very numbers.”

“Hundreds of these citizens had voluntarily offered their services to hold the Chinese and Japanese of the plague-infected district in check, should the advancing fire cause a riot before the unfortunate could be brought out in an orderly manner.”

“There was very little time for the quarantined people to gather their personal belongings. As the first of them came along King street the novelty of their appearance attracted great attention.”

“Stout little (Japanese) carried sewing-machines on their shoulders, and beside them brown infants bobbed up and down on the backs of mothers. Bundles of every conceivable description were carried, some large, some small, but everybody able to lug a parcel had his or her hands employed.”

“Veritable hordes of Asia, they marched along, casting frequent glances back at the red tongues licking up their homes. But there was no wailing – no loud complaint that might have made a bad situation worse.”

“Following the first batch of Chinese and Japanese – men, women and children, who were led out of the burning district down King street, came others from Beretania street down around Nu‘uanu street into King and hundreds of Hawaiians from toward the waterfront …”

“… all being led by guards into King street and along that thoroughfare down past the Executive building gates to the spacious grounds of Kawaiaha‘o Church, at the corner of King and Punchbowl streets.”

“In through the wide gates they passed, the women and children being allowed to take possession of the big stone church building, while the men swarmed over the grounds. Guards were immediately placed along the stone wall surrounding the premises, and crowds of curious people filled up the adjoining streets.”

“The church and the adjacent streets presented a scene of great animation from about 1:30 o’clock in the afternoon, when the quarantined Asiatics first began to arrive there, until a late hour last night.”

“At 5 o’clock in the afternoon the guardsmen and volunteers who patrolled the outer edge of the church premises were relieved by Batteries R and K of the Sixth Artillery, USA …”

“… who, in khaki uniforms and with rifles, took up the work of keeping the Chinese and Japanese within the church yard. The soldiers cleared the sidewalks of spectators and loungers and went at their task of patrolling like veterans.”

“Some of the most prominent men in the city volunteered to assist in looking after the unfortunates, and getting them settled.”

“The Chinese Consul deserves great praise for his efforts, which went far toward bringing order out of chaos. Toward evening it was ascertained that 1,780 Chinese, 1,025 Japanese and about 1,000 Hawaiians were within the walls of Kawaiahao Church yard.”

“These figures did not include the Japanese and Chinese women and children in the church building, estimated to number fully half a thousand.”

“The hospitality and liberality of the people of Honolulu was never before so much in evidence. Soon after it was learned that the thousands of homeless Chinese and Japanese were at the Kawaiaha‘o Church, transfer wagons, trucks and carriages began to arrive there in great number, with supplies of provisions.”

“Tons of cooked rice and other victuals were received through the gates, Mr. George Carter and a number of other gentlemen directing the work or receiving and distributing the provisions.”

“A large awning belonging to the church was also brought into use. Inside the church building the women and children were well provided with mattresses and blankets. No army brigade was ever so comfortably sheltered and fed, in so short a time, as these thousands of Chinese and Japanese were looked after last night.” (Hawaiian Gazette, January 23, 1900)

“In 1886 Honolulu was visited by a fire almost as disastrous as the Chinatown plague fire of last January. The ancient fire occurred in that section of the town now known as the burnt district, and it served to clear out blocks of miserable hovels and to clean up the most filthy section of the city.”

“Prior to the visitation the streets in Chinatown were only 36 feet wide. The houses were of a miserable character, mere shacks, and more suited for stables than the abode of human beings. Honolulu’s greatest cesspool had been cleared out and great chances for improvement were admitted to have been given the city.”

“The men in power at the time were not long in seizing the opportunity. Streets were widened to 50 feet and the majority of the houses were built of brick.” (Honolulu Republican, December 22, 1900)

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Ruins_of_Chinatown,_Honolulu_(02),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

kawaiahao_church-1900

Honolulu_Chinatown_Fire_of_1900_(49),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

Ruins_of_Chinatown,_Honolulu_(06),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

Ruins_of_Chinatown,_Honolulu_(09),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

Ruins_of_Chinatown,_Honolulu_(11),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

Ruins_of_Chinatown,_Honolulu_(14),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

Ruins_of_Chinatown,_Honolulu_(15),_photograph_by_Brother_Bertram

October 13, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cooking

Ahi (fire) was started by a fire plow which consisted of two pieces of dry wood, usually hau. The larger flat stick (ʻaunaki) was held in place on the ground or mat by the feet of the fire maker who sat before it.

He held firmly in his hands a slender stick (ʻaulima) which he moved (heahiʻa, a contraction of he ahi hiʻa) by firm forward strokes over the lower one.

This plowing motion produced a groove in the lower stick and caused wood dust (hāhā) to accumulate at the forward end. In about a minute heat from the friction caused the wood to smoke and sparks to appear in the wood dust.

The lower stick was then lifted, turned over, and the sparks poured onto the fibers (pulu) of a dry coconut husk, or sometimes on kapa.

The sparks burst into flame when the kindling material was blown upon by mouth, with a bamboo blower (ʻohe-puhi-ahi), or waved vigorously in the air. The wood for cooking was lighted by fire secured in this way. (Mitchell)

Hawaiians used several means in cooking food: Baking (kālua in the imu,) Broiling (kō‘ala, kunu, pālaha, olala and pūlehu on hot coals,) Steaming (hākui and puholo with hot stones) and Broiling wrapped food (lawalu, wrapped in leaves over a fire.) (Titcomb)

Baking (kālua) was and still is done in an earth oven, or imu (old spelling is umu). The oven is prepared by digging a hole in the ground; a fire is laid and stones are placed on it to the depth of two or three stones, or enough to fill the hole.

The fire should be so laid as to burn briskly and heat the stones red hot. Embers are then removed, the stones moved to make a smooth surface.

A thick layer of banana leaves, or a layer of banana trunks, split lengthwise, is laid over the hot stones, then more leaves, banana or ti leaves and then the food to be cooked.

All kinds of foods are put into the imu together; families often shared an imu. The imu is covered with leaves after the food has been placed and then with earth to hold in the heat. (Tticomb)

When large hogs were cooked and rocks place in the cavity, the hog was wrapped in coarse kapa and mats. The hog was left until the stones had cooled, then the wrappings were removed. The cooked meat on the inside was cut away and eaten. The outer, under-done parts were cut into pieces and placed in the imu for recooking. (Mitchell)

Broiling food (kōʻala, kunu, pūlehu, pālaha, olala) using hot coals (kō‘ala) or hot ashes (pūlehu) was a common way to cook if a meal was prepared out in the fields away from home or if the small amount of food being prepared did not warrant use of an imu.

Kunu was a term almost synonymous with kōʻala, but it implied that great care had been taken in preparation. Pūlehu (heaped ashes) was cooking by shoving the food into a heap of hot ashes and embers; sweet potato, breadfruit and banana were cooked in this manner.

Pālaha (flattened out), a term used chiefly for land animals―broiling a flattened out piece of flesh. Olala was broiling by holding over the coals and turning so that all sides were heated. Dried fish did not need actual cooking, merely heating a little.

Food was cooked by being spread out flat on a level bed of coals, or it was warmed over or near a fire and periodically turned. Breadfruit and unripe bananas could be broiled this way in their skins.

Steaming in closed calabashes with tight-fitting lids (hakui, puholo) included pork, fish and fowl. These were usually heavy wooden bowls made especially for this type of cooking. The vessels were lined with ti leaves.

Flesh foods, taro leaves and perhaps other greens such as tender sweet potato leaves were added. Hot stones surrounded the food and water was added as needed to form steam.

After several hours in the closed calabash the food was tender. These “fireless cookers” were sometimes filled and carried on journeys and the food was consumed at the destination. (Mitchell)

The ki (ti) leaf was a most useful article to the Hawaiians in caring for food. The leaf is long and wide (20 in. x 6 in. is an average size,) smooth, shiny, tough, and, except for the midrib, the veins are unobtrusive.

It has no odor and is clean and fresh looking. Small foods were wrapped in a ti leaf laulau piʻao, larger in a flat bundle called laulau lāwalu.

Broiling wrapped food (lāwalu) was used a great deal. Food that had been cut into pieces, or small fish that would be lost in an imu, or burned crisp if broiled, were wrapped in leaves of the ti, occasionally in leaves of the wild ginger, which is said to have added a delicious fragrance to the fish.

The leaf bundle was toasted over the open fire, turning it occasionally and the food was cooked when the juice ceased to drip from the bundle. Mullet was “cooked with such perfection that when the banana leaves in which it had been steamed were taken off, it had received hardly a slight alteration in form and color.” (Titcomb)

The food was placed in containers to cool and was served cold. (Lots of information here is from Titcomb and Mitchell.)

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