Excerpt from History of the Moab Fire Department

by Bill Hines

When I first came to Moab as a handsome young bachelor in 1936, I singlehandedly increased the population of the town by about 1/10 of 1%. With a population of about 1,000, Moab had few fires…but I responded to those fires along with everyone else in the community.
In those days, fires were treated like sick people. When someone in town got sick, everyone would call on them. When there was a fire, everyone would pitch in to help put an end to the emergency.

The town’s firefighting equipment consisted of a few of the old pyrene fire extinguishers, some shovels and about 30 or 40 metal buckets which held about 10 to 12 quarts of water each. On a good day, with a short bucket brigade line, we might have been able to put about 10 to 15 gallons per minute on a fire.

Consequently, when anyone arrived at a fire scene, the first order of business was not fire extinguishment. No matter how small the fire, the first priority was get all the furniture and other valuables out of a structure. A few of the people might turn their attention to putting out the fire, but most of the manpower was devoted to carrying everything out of the building. Most of the time, this rapid removal of a building’s contents caused more damage than did the fire.

This practice caused some problems in 1937 when a fire started at the old liquor store, a wood-frame structure located on the southwest corner of Main St and First North. Someone was burning weeds behind the store when the flames apparently touched the building and scorched it. It was put out with a few shovels of dirt. However, the alarm had been sounded, and everyone responded since it was one of the more valued buildings in town. It was in the evening, so a lot of CCC boys from the Dalton Wells Camp were in town. They pitched in with everyone else to help save the stock. Case after case of liquor was evacuated from the building with more than the usual care. A few dabs with a paint brush was all that was needed to repair the damage to the building, but the evacuated stock of liquor was never seen again.

(Read more of this Article in the Winter Issue of the Canyon Legacy)

Song and History

What does this Song have to do with the history of Moab?

During World War II a young Charlie Steen, unable to serve in the military because of poor eyesight, began working for a Texas Oil Company with interests in the oil fields of Peru. In Peru Charlie came to enjoy the local love songs which used phrases like, Mi Corazon, Mi Vida, Mujer Sin Verguencia, and others.

When Staking his claims on the rim of Lisbon Valley Steen used these names for each of the 12 claims in the area. It would the Claim called Mi Vida that would make Steen rich.

Mi Vida translates as My Life.

Song By Manu Chao