WPBFD History

Strumpe was the first to hold this title in West Palm Beach. The new chief was quickly put to the test. At about 10:00 p.m. on the same night as Strumpe's appointment, the second major fire broke out in downtown West Palm Beach. A drunken tailor overturned a gasoline stove as he was lighting it. A mob tried to capture him, but he got safely out of town by running down the railroad tracks towards Miami. The fire rapidly spread eastward down Clematis Street and consumed another section of Narcis- sus Street. Losses included several stores, a number of profes- sional offices, and The Gazetteer (a local newspaper that would later become The Lake Worth News and eventually The Palm Beach Post) . Businesses destroyed were Dimick's Drugstore, Livingston & Sheen's Civil Engi- neering and Real Estate, Maltby's Undertaking, Nokes & Heslington's Painting, Oliver's Fruit and Vegetable Store, and Weybrecht Hardware (the first building in West Palm Beach). The fire also burned the tent that the Weybrechts had lived in since 1893. H. T. Grant invited the homeless family to stay in his home located nearby on Datura Street. Chief Strumpe most likely wondered how he

next, resulting in extensive damage to the south side of Banyan Street and the Seminole Hotel located on Narcis- sus Street. The Alerts saved little of the involved struc- tures. An explosion of a gasoline stove started the disas- trous fire. This conflagration caused great concern about the haphazard construction of the past. The town council im- mediately passed West Palm Beach's first fire code. The ordinance established a fire district and decreed that no building could be erected within that district unless it was constructed of brick, brick veneer or stone. The first new construction in the designated district was the Harmonia Lodge. The brick veneer structure, built in April 1896, complied with the law. On January 21, 1896, the record of the Town Coun- cil reflected that "the following bills were reported correct by the finance committee and warrants ordered to be drawn on the same. . . . Help hired by fire Dept. by Flag- ler Alert Hose Company - $2.50." The proceedings of the council meeting Thursday, February 20, 1896, indicated that V. A. Strumpe was ap- pointed the position of "chief of company" upon the rec- ommendation of the Flagler Alert Hose Company. Mr.

Banyan Street in the 1890s. 2