Ontario’s Fire Bell
Ontario’s first fire department was organized in August of 1905 as a volunteer organization, and local blacksmith W. M. Hart served as its first chief. A 40-inch steel alloy fire bell was purchased from a factory in Michigan for $96, but it arrived cracked and made very little sound. City Council wrote to the manufacturer to demand a new one. The bell ended up in Ogden, Utah b...ut after several months finally made its way here. Fire calls were received through the local telephone exchange at Jacob Jesson’s drug store on Euclid Avenue. To alert the fire department and residents of a fire emergency, the drug store’s clerk would ring the fire bell that hung on a steel tower between A Street (now Holt Boulevard) and B Street. If you look closely, you can see the fire bell in the distance on the tower above the pepper trees. A Gamewell fire alarm system was installed in 1913 and the bell was moved from the Euclid median to the fire hall on East Euclid. It was later moved to a new fire station built just south of Holt in 1922 where it was kept as a backup system until 1927 when a siren system was installed. In 1936 a local wrecking company purchased the bell for $150 and then sold it along with other scrap metal to Japan.See More
Ontario’s first fire department was organized in August of 1905 as a volunteer organization, and local blacksmith W. M. Hart served as its first chief. A 40-inch steel alloy fire bell was purchased from a factory in Michigan for $96, but it arrived cracked and made very little sound. City Council wrote to the manufacturer to demand a new one. The bell ended up in Ogden, Utah b...ut after several months finally made its way here. Fire calls were received through the local telephone exchange at Jacob Jesson’s drug store on Euclid Avenue. To alert the fire department and residents of a fire emergency, the drug store’s clerk would ring the fire bell that hung on a steel tower between A Street (now Holt Boulevard) and B Street. If you look closely, you can see the fire bell in the distance on the tower above the pepper trees. A Gamewell fire alarm system was installed in 1913 and the bell was moved from the Euclid median to the fire hall on East Euclid. It was later moved to a new fire station built just south of Holt in 1922 where it was kept as a backup system until 1927 when a siren system was installed. In 1936 a local wrecking company purchased the bell for $150 and then sold it along with other scrap metal to Japan.See More
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