Paris Fire Department

Paris called for help once the fire was out of control, and Neville's account shows how fast it came. A hose wagon from Hugo, Oklahoma, reached town by rail and was at work about 8:30 that night. An automobile-driven hose wagon from Bonham covered 38 miles in a little over an hour and was working at 9. A pumper from Cooper arrived at 10, and seven firemen came from Honey Grove. At 1 a.m. a big pumper and crew from Dallas reached Paris on the Santa Fe and helped check the fire on the eastern edge.

What the plaque says

Paris Fire Department Fire protection in Paris dates to the early 1870s, when a group of businessmen led by Willet Babcock organized a volunteer fire company. Known as Phoenix Fire Company No. 1, the volunteer unit continued in operation until the city created a paid fire department in 1908. Operating from facilities at this site since 1884, the fire department has exhibited exemplary service in a number of disastrous fires, most notably the great fire of March 2,1 1916, which killed three people, destroyed 1,400 buildings, and caused millions of dollars' worth of property damage. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 0.4 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 1.1 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Eiffel Tower — 2.3 mi
  A 65-foot Eiffel Tower with a red cowboy hat, built by the local welders' union in 1993 beside Paris's Love Civic Center.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 22 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• Robert Cooke Buckner — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Paris — steps away
• The Paris Fire, 1916 — steps away
• Paris Public Schools — steps away