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Something super about Station 8

The new 22,789-square-foot “super station 8” sits at 1919 Louisiana. The station houses the former companies 1 and 8, the two downtown fire stations that closed in 2001. Photo by Gary Chism

By Dave Schafer

Mike Cannon joined the Houston Fire Department because he wanted excitement.

He found it.

Cannon was assigned to Station 8 at the corner of Crawford and Polk. After a month and a half of battling small fires, alarms called him to a three-block warehouse fire.

“Smoke was so thick, it blocked out the sun,” said Cannon, now a captain.

Because of that excitement and the constant frenzy of activity, Cannon has spent the past 30 years at Station 8.

“When you’re here, you’re working,” he said.
“There are slower stations, but those aren’t for me.”

In 2007, Station 8 engines responded to more than 8,000 incidents and the ambulances to more than 2,500, according to Alicia White, Fire senior communications specialist.

Origins
The station where Cannon started was torn down in 2001 to make room for the Toyota Center parking garage.

That was the third Station 8 home.

“Washington No. 8” began operations as an independent volunteer station on Crawford Aug. 4, 1894.

“Back then, volunteers were the movers and shakers of the day, the people who had the money to fund and maintain the stations,” said Emily Ponte, executive director of the Houston Fire Museum, 2403 Milam.

When Station 8 began to serve the estimated 32,000 citizens of the nine-square- mile city, it had 94 volunteer members, a Clapp and Jones third-class steamer and a horse wagon, White said. The station had a watch tower, and members were called the “banner company” because their uniforms consisted of white flannel trimmed in black braid.

Members of Station 8 stand outside the station in this undated photo. The first three Station 8s sat at the corner of Crawford and Polk. Photo courtesy of Houston Fire Museum

On May 25, 1912, Capt. Herman Wagner died days after a beam fell on him as he battled a four-building fire at Main and Capitol, according to the HFD 1838-1988 yearbook. He was the third Station 8 firefighter to die in the line of duty: Frank Medlenka died Nov. 23, 1901, and Clifford Johnson died June 13, 1902. Joseph Solito, who died July 29, 1953, was the last.

New homes
By 1958, the station on Crawford had deteriorated, according to Max McRae, who researched stations for the Fire Museum. It was demolished and a new one built on the site.

After that station was demolished 12 years later, a new station was built on the site fronting Polk.

That station, a two-story box building with three poles and about 13 firefighters, is the one Cannon was assigned to. Station personnel covered downtown and surrounding areas.

Downtown plans
In 2001, the city closed the two downtown stations, 1 and 8. Plans included using those sites for development and building a new station for the consolidated companies.

During the three to five years of building, downtown firefighting would be handled by nearby stations and a temporary station housing one fire apparatus and an ambulance, according to Chronicle reports.

After firefighters and the public balked at that idea, the city found a temporary station at 1901 Milam at St. Joseph Parkway to house the two companies. The rented building hadn’t been designed as a fire station, and the fire apparatuses were housed on the opposite side of the block in metal garages, Cannon said.

Plans for a new Station 8 were drawn up, then destroyed like love letters in a house fire.

Companies 1 and 8 called that building home for the next seven years. Cannon grew skeptical that they would ever have a new station.

“Until they tell me to back my pumper up, I wouldn’t believe we’ve got a new station,” Cannon said.
Super new home

On April 21, Cannon backed his pumper into a new 22,789-square-foot “super station” at 1919 Louisiana. The station has eight bays, accommodations for 25 firefighters, and EMT areas.

The $8.5 million station, about twice the size of most HFD stations, was built using Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards. It can be fully operational on its own power for more than the average 72 hours of most HFD fire stations, making it a hub for emergency personnel during a disaster.

“It’s a very nice facility,” Cannon said. He just hopes he doesn’t spend too much time there.

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