On Sunday morning, July 3, 1927, fire officials were alerted that a fire was threatening Roop’s Fort, Susanville’s oldest structure on Weatherlow Street. When the fire department arrived they found a nearby shed and chicken coop in flames, that threatened the old fort nearby. Luckily, the fire was extinguished in the nick of time. It was determined that children playing with fireworks started the fire.
There are two interesting anecdotes about this incident. First a newspaper reporter was more focused on tomorrow’s holiday, as evident in the lead sentence: “Fort Weatherlow, the first building in Lassen County, built in 1854 by Peter Roop . . . “
Roop’s Fort was barely located outside the City Limits back then, and the City fire department were prohibited to assist with any fire outside the city limits. In this instance they did. Fast forward to 1946 and a very similar episode. Poulsen’s Welding Shop caught fire, but the city did not respond, because it was just across the city boundary.
