Truman Showen, who served the Ceres Fire Department for four decades and was the first paid fire chief in Ceres, passed away on Nov. 12 at the age of 90.
Showen was hired on Oct. 1, 1958 as Fire Marshal in an age when training was less important. He came to Ceres with only the experience of driving a fire truck while serving in the Army during the Korean Conflict. He retired on April 16, 1984 after spending 17 years as chief.
“They really didn’t push for any type of training in those days,” Showen told the Courier in 2010. “We tried to work some training in but you have to realize oh a lot of these guys were working eight to nine hours and wouldn’t want to spend two hours drilling. We had to do things to keep their interest in being a volunteer.”
In those days, fire suppression operations were underfunded, he said. Showen recalls battling the City Council for funds for much needed equipment or part-time clerical help. They refused to buy a jaws of life so the community raised funds for a pair.
His role often included janitorial and maintenance work. As a chief with little budget, Showen had to jerry-rig things to get them to work. A photograph showed him setting up an electrical device to receive fire calls.
In that Courier interview, Showen recalled: “When we built the new garage onto the old garage, I was putting up the mechanism that ran the siren and everything. When the call came from the county dispatcher, they picked up the telephone. We had a phone on the wall. When that phone rang it started the siren.”
One of the most memorable fires was the time in October 1958 when a gasoline tanker truck overturned and burst into an inferno at Fourth and El Camino when the frontage road was then the highway. The truck driver locked up his wheels to prevent from hitting a motorist who ran a red light. The sudden braking caused the tanker to jackknife and flip and then explode. The driver was burned and later died. As soon as Showen was finished fighting the fire, he had his brother-in-law fetch his badge and gun issued as a reserve police officer so he could switch hats and direct traffic.
That night the City Council was scheduled to hire him as the first paid firefighter.
“By the time we got back to the fire station had finished their meeting and I was hired that night.”
Even though he was fire chief, at night he continued to serve as a reserve officer for a time.
Showen earned media coverage when he helped rescue a young girl who was trapped in a vertical irrigation pipe near the Casa Grande Apartments. When she was pulled out the traumatized girl would not turn loose of his neck.
Mr. Showen was born Oct. 12, 1933 in Gage County, Nebraska where his father died of tuberculosis when he was young. His grandmother in Modesto brought the family to California in 1942. Truman attended grammar school in Turlock while living in Keyes but didn’t like the way Keyes students were treated in Turlock so he quit school. After he quit school he worked for Patchett’s Ford in Newman until he was laid off. He went back to school, this time in Ceres. He walked or rode his bicycle to Ceres every day for two years. School teacher Maud Smith made arrangements for him to babysit her children and got the head custodian to let Showen clean classrooms for $5 per month. That got his foot in the door for employment and found his first good paying job as a janitor at Whitmore School.
In April 1953 Showen was drafted into the Army to fight in Korea. He was assigned to drive a fire truck to occasional put out fires that broke out in tents. Showen left the Army in April 1955, went back to the school to work and got married that May. A friend talked him into considering applying for a police reserve officer position and he served from 1955 to 1958. Officer Hank Trantham urged Showen to apply for the fire chief’s job, telling him that “you’ve got as good a chance as any of the rest of them.” The only other applicant walked away when he found out the salary was only $325 per month.
He was preceded in death by his wife Norma and a grandson.
