Flames of Red Feathers

In reading Irene Winnick's paper on Friendly Acres and researching some of the local businesses she mentions, I was amazed to see how many of these places had burned down - in some cases more than once.  Not because "everything is made of wood out there" as my mother keeps reminding me, but because the safety procedures and security controls which are inherent in all modern businesses were still rudimentary even in the mid 20th century.

The Red Feather factory mentioned in Irene Winnick's paper on Friendly Acres, or Red Feather Products Inc, just like Frank's Tannery were businesses located by the shoreline, or by the creeks for good reason: they used volatile chemicals and needed a water outlet, and also used water in their own production processes for rinsing and cooling.   But despite access to water, both businesses burned down.

An interesting list of Redwood City's most memorable fires is published by the Fire Department on their website and Red Feather is up there as one of its costliest. 

The story of the conflagration that consumed Frank's Tannery in 1968 is well documented, but not much information is available regarding the earlier disaster with Red Feather Products which is surprising when you consider that its losses were estimated by the Fire Dept, to be around $350,000.  That's almost $4 million, in today's money.  The San Jose Evening News of Oct 17, 1947 reported that the plant manager, who estimated the equipment and building losses to be around $500,000 had suffered "a nervous breakdown"!    Not surprising.  After all, this was his second fire within a week.

Description of Fire at the Red Feather plant in Redwood City, San Jose Evening News, Friday Oct 17, 1947

You could say that the Red Feather Manufacturing Plant, was the precursor to Xerox and HP.   Located just north of Redwood City, on the Bayshore Highway (now US 101) it started off as a simple ink mill, but with the advent of typewriters, it diversified into other color ink and duplicating supply products for consumer and commercial advertising/editing purposes.  Back in the day, the typewriter was the desktop publishing user interface of choice - and inks, ink ribbon, and specialized copy paper and duplication supply products were the tools of the trade for anyone who wanted to write and print anything.