After the 1875 fire which nearly destroyed south Main street was put out by volunteer bucket brigades, and other smaller conflagrations, the City purchased a used Hunneman hand pumper fire engine on April 14, 1883. The end-stroke torrent pumper had been built in the 1850s and been shipped west in the 1860s. The name on the side of this engine was "Franklin" because the city bought it from the Franklin Fire Company of San Jose, California. The engine was transferred to the newly formed Ferndale Fire Department when they organized in February 1897. In November 1923, after 41 years in service, the hand pumper was shipped to the American LaFrance Company, "as part payment on the fine new pumper recently purchased by this town." Other sources say the engine was sold to a Hollywood film company. Modern equipment arrived in 1905 with a motorized pumper engine, in 1917 with a Model T truck with chemical tanks and in 1948 the Hook and Ladder Company formed. In 1883, water supplies were consolidated in local cisterns under present-day State Route 211 which were later filled in and water from the hill reservoirs was used to supply the hydrants. In 1902 the fire alarm was placed in a wooden structure at the corner of Brown and Main which fell over entirely in the 1906 earthquake (see below) which led to the bell being hung at the firehouse, and a steam-whistle at the Creamery used for the fire alarm from 1906 until electric sirens came into use in 1931.