No Mas

As a younger firefighter, I actively collected fire department shoulder patches. I would go to musters, answer classified ads in Firehouse Magazine and visit stations in order to expand my collection. It grew out of a hobby that I had as a kid, collecting military patches.

There are advantages to collecting patches as a hobby. It is inexpensive compared to my other hobbies, they are easy to display and the collection doesn't take up a lot of room in storage.

I don't actively seek out patches any more, my more costly pastimes take up my spare time. Most of my collection is in a box, I only have one board displayed and that is in a station that I worked at many years ago. I still get new additions to my collection, people in the district send me patches that they have picked up here and there. Collecting patches is not nearly as popular as it once was.

I keep them  separated by state and in some cases by county. It was as I was filing some new patches to my collection that I came across a patch from a department that no longer exists. It stood out because it was one of my "goal" departments back when I worked for the Very Small City Fire Department.

That led me to go through my collection from just four counties located in Southern California. Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino. Out of those counties, I culled the following patches:

All of these patches are from fire departments that no longer exist. All but two have disappeared during my career. These do not represent all of the departments that have disappeared during the span of my career, just the ones that I have a patch for and that I remember existing. Some of those agencies HAVE BEEN ABSORBED TWICE!

Some months ago, I wrote of a friend whose department may be absorbed by Los Angeles County F.D. He lamented on some of the feelings that he had about the prospect of changing organizations.

The future of his department has not been decided as of yet. If it is absorbed, he will not have any options and will go to work for L.A. County. As he is a professional and is adaptable, he will make this change successfully.

In the short time I have left at the K.B.F.P.D. I am sure that I will be adding more patches from the above counties to the group in the photo. The continued economic issues in the region have caused the subject of consolidation to come up in many communities. It has not been discussed in my agency, of that I am thankful.

As for my friend, I would not be surprised if his patch showed up. I will likely know within a few more months.  Not to sound crass or self centered, but better him than I.

Thanks for reading,
Schmoe