81 Years Ago: Part Acrobat, Twice a Fireman: Harry Tree's Last Alarm

The morning newspaper of March 22, 1929 read...

FIREMAN KILLED UNDER WHEELS
TRUCK CRUSHES HOSEMAN TREE; COMRADE HURT

But a headline tells only part of the story.

Los Angeles Fireman Harry Tree
at the Monroe Centennial Exhibition
in Exposition Park in 1923.

Things were indeed different in Los Angeles during 1929, just six years since Cotton was retired in a Department-wide shift to ancestors of nine mechanical horses that came to power seventy-one Engine Companies and twenty Truck Companies across the burgeoning metropolis, including those at Fire Station 29, which served as home to LAFD's Truck Company 4.

It was at 11:46 PM on March 21, 1929 while returning from an alarm, that Los Angeles Fireman Harry L. Tree - standing on the sideboard of Truck 4 as was common at the time, was killed and a colleague seriously injured, when ladders on the truck gave way, hurling both men to the pavement.

It seemed unlikely that Tree could die in such a manner, as the well-respected 27 year-old fireman was not only an exhibition jumper and ladder-climber - but held the world's record for safety-net jumping. It was equally unlikely that then Chief Engineer Ralph J. Scott could memorialize a man not only part acrobat, but twice a Los Angeles Fireman... (read more...)

To learn more about our Brother Harry and others who have made the ultimate sacrifice in their service to the City, we encourage you to visit the Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Hollywood.


Submitted by Brian Humphrey, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department