Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial

The Los Angeles Fire Department Museum and Memorial is located at Old Engine Co. No. 27, also known as Fire Station No. 27, on Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood. The museum houses old fire engines and fire apparatus, some dating from the 1880s. The museum also houses a reference library and fire safety learning center. The building was named a Los Angeles Cultural-Heritage Monument in 1976 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The Fallen Firefighters Memorial in front of the station consists of a memorial wall listing all of the Los Angeles firefighters who have died in the line of duty and five life-size statues of firefighters.History of Engine Co. No. 27At 20000sqft, the Italian Renaissance revival building housing Engine Co. No. 27 was the largest fire station west of the Mississippi River when it opened in July 1930. For more than 60 years, the old fire station served the Hollywood community, including the motion picture studios and the stars who lived in the Hollywood Hills. It was also used a movie location by, among others, The Three Stooges and Buster Keaton. The use of the building as both a movie location and a working fire station sometimes led to difficulties. In 1937, a real fire broke out while a Hollywood studio was filming the motion picture, "Two Platoons", at Fire Station No. 27. The Los Angeles Times reported on the incident this way:"The entire crew was on hand as atmosphere and the equipment served as a background. Dick Foran and Robert Armstrong were in the middle of a scene when the alarm sounded. Moviemaking meant nothing in the life of Battalion Chief Rothermel at that moment. Before (director John) Farrow could finish the sequence, the fire engines were speeding on their way to a brush fire in the Hollywood Hills. The movie company had to wait an hour before action could be resumed."