Fire Station 28
Fina Oil Company Fire 1986
The quiet of a late fall morning was suddenly shattered when a civilian began beating on the door of Station 28 in Riverside, advising them of a warehouse on fire on Parrott Ave, NW. Engine 28 advised radio and responded. As they got to Bolton Road and Parrott, still about 5 blocks from the scene they could see heavy smoke in the fog of the morning and arrived at 6:18 to find a one story warehouse fully involved. Engine 28 sounded the Signal 18, alerting communications to Standby for multiple alarms.
The building was the oil storage warehouse for the Fina Oil Company Distribution Center at 2970 Parrott Ave. NW in the Chattahoochee neighborhood. Company records would show that roughly 100,000 gallons of various grade oil, grease, transmission fluids and other lubricants were in the building at the time of the fire. The material was stored in quart, gallon, five quart, 55 gallon drum and grease tube type containers. Explosions were seen and felt almost as companies arrived.
The fire was held at a concrete block wall where a service bay separated the office and other warehouse area from the section burning in the 500 foot long building. Although of serious concern, the bulk storage tanks of gasoline and diesel fuel did not become involved.
Chattahoochee is a tank farm terminal for BP, Union 76 and Fina Oil Company. The massive storage tanks are fed by petroleum pipeline. When the fire was discovered, both Plantation and Colonial pipelines were shut down so no additional fumes would be lingering in the area from tank filling.
Oil laden runoff became an immediate problem as the petroleum separator could not handle the volumn of water and oil mix it was receiving. The oil contaminated water entered Proctor Creek but was held out of the Chattahoochee River by a contractor rushed to the scene by the EPA. The cause of the fire was never determined.
Chattahoochee Elementary School Fire
A roaring fire virtually destroyed the school, located at 2715 Peyton Road NW in Riverside, on Sept. 9, 1961. The initial alarm was sounded at 9:46 pm and required three alarms to extinguish.
21:46 Engines 28,22,23. Ladders 23,17. Acting 2nd Battalion Chief J.T. Anderson and 1st Assistant Chief C.T. Ragsdale.
21:57 Second Alarm: Engines 16, 17 Ladder 16
22:15 Third Alarm: Engines 15, 27 Ladder 7 Light Unit 1
The fire was caused by a ceramic kiln being left on in the science room of a one story wood frame with brick veneer and wooden roof deck building. Constructed in a “U” shape, the science room was the first to the east of the main entrance or right at the bottom of the “U” shape. Fire rapidly spread in both directions, both into the attic and into the basement.
Six 2-1/2 inch and two 1-1/2 inch hand lines were placed in operations assisted by cellar pipes and a ladder pipe. Sixty one firefighters worked at this alarm. Firefighter Ed Norris of Company 23 received a cut to the arm as the only injury noted.
The loss was listed as $53,000 and the school was rebuilt with the same construction and shape interestingly, by the 1980’s, population shift had caused the Atlanta Board of Education to close the Chattahoochee Elementary School. Although they retained ownership, this building was vacant until Feb. 28, 1987. On that date, the Margaret Fain Elementary School in Adamsville was leveled by fire. The Fain building was also a frame, brick veneer building constructed about the same time as the Chattahoochee facility. Classes from Margaret Fain were moved into the Chattahoochee school until the Fain facility could be reconstructed.
2040 Main Street NW
On April 9, 1954,
this company was established
in the Riverside community.
Maloyd Lester, Jr.
Pictures to be added soon of
Fire Station 28 and the
members of Battalion 2
listed below -
April 9, 1954
FAO
Jerald Holcombe
Captain
Danny Byess
Captain
Timothy Garrett
FAO
Walter Fitzpatrick
Captain
Roderick Humphreys
Firefighter Lorenzo Broadnax
Firefighter David Ware
Firefighter
Tommy Body
Firefighter Ulysses Gladden
Firefighter George Sasser
Firefighter Frederick Jordan
Riverside is going to receive a new building to house Fire Station 28, a Police Mini Precinct, and a Community Room. It is projected to be completed by 2010. Below are some plans for the new building.
