Fire Station No. 60

Fire Station No. 60. . , Firefighters: Service and Sacrifice , When the entire force of four volunteers first started putting out fires here in the 1880s, the brigade used a two-wheel cart that stayed parked next to the train depot between fires. Nearly 50 years later, in 1923, after the area became part of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department built a new brick fire station for Engine Company No. 60 near Weddington Street and Lankershim Boulevard. By then the station had six full-time professional firefighters, and soon, fire alarm boxes and fire hydrants we’re installed along the town’s main street. , In October 1944, North Hollywood firefighters hurried to the water-filled gravel pit where famed Lockheed test pilot Milo Burcham crashed his P-80 on takeoff from the nearby Lockheed Air Terminal. Burcham died in the incident. , In 1949, Engine Company No. 60 moved to new quarters at the corner of Tujunga Avenue and Chandler Boulevard. , A Life Lost and Remembered , At about 3:30 AM on January 28, 1981, the firefighters of Station No. 60 had already been working 17 long hours straight. They’d finished filming fire safety drills earlier that morning, and at midnight, they had battled a fire at a two-story apartment house. When the call came about a fire in a nearby coffee shop, they climbed into their gear. Their pants and coats were wet from rain. The restaurant was about four blocks from the fire station, and four men who got there first climbed onto the roof to punch ventilation holes, then part of the roof collapsed. Veteran fire fighter Thomas G Taylor, 34, plunged into the burning heart of the building and died. An injured firefighter was rescued with an aerial ladder. Two others held onto the roof as long as they could before jumping 20 feet to the ground. One broke his arm, while the other was badly burned. Another four firefighters were injured. , The Cugee’s Restaurant fire was arson. The owners had wanted to collect on an insurance policy, and had paid a Van Nuys barber $2,500 to set the fire. The owners each served 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to arson homicide charges. The barber was convicted of setting the fire that killed Taylor and injured the seven other firefighters. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. , A bronze plaque in Taylor’s honor was installed on the façade of the station and his pictures are hung prominently around the firehouse. The crew’s aerial truck was dedicated to Taylor and his locker at the 1949 station has been kept empty. Another plaque in Taylor’s honor was installed on a façade of the Wells Fargo Bank building that stands on the site of the burned café.