On April 19, 1906 this fire hydrant at 20th and Church was one of the few in the city with water. The people fighting the fires ran hose lines hundreds of feet from this corner to buildings threatened by the conflagration. The fire line stood. The Mission was saved.
Each year The City honors the 1906 firefighters by giving this hydrant a new coat of gold paint.
redozdachs and I went out at 7 this morning to watch the ceremonies headlined by Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White (pictured below).
And the irony now is that there are so many layers of paint, the hydrant is no longer functional? 😉
LOL! They claimed yesterday that it’s still a working hydrant, although I think it would probably take a bit of extra wrench action to break through the gold.