#Petaluma's First Firefighter James Mott Not Forgotten

You may have seen some of the posts on James Mott and his memorial today. This led me to do a little more research on him. The first firefighter in Petaluma was 1873 but at that time there were no city employees and only volunteers. James Mott was the first paid Petaluma firefighter for our city starting 1807 and became a part of the YOUNG AMERICA ENGINE COMPANY NO. 3, PETALUMA FIRE DEPARTMENT. He was also the city jailer and ambulance driver well-known for his special bond with his horse Black Bart. He is also the first Petaluma firefighter making the ultimate sacrifice while fighting a fire in the downtown who lost his life in the line of duty in an vehicle explosion on October 20,1912. His life would end a few days later at the age of 57.

Positively Petaluma memorializes his life for his duty to our city but also celebrates that we have not lost the lives of any other firefighters since then. A record we would like to sustain indefinitely.

Click here to read more from the actual San Francisco Call newspaper who covered the accident as well as some other archived articles. We also captured a photo of the California Firefighter Memorial in Sacramento where James Mott’s name is inscribed. You will find that Mott and other volunteers acted heroically to help the injured from this explosion.