Fire Department

A small community existed in the Daly City environs at the turn of the 20th century. The area was called Vista Grande and at the "Top of the Hill", where the street car traveled from San Francisco to San Mateo, stood John Daly's Dairy. The 1906 earthquake and fire in San Francisco created widespread devastation in the City and brought an exodus of refugees to the unpopulated areas of the Peninsula. John Daly responded to this need by opening his dairy to subdivision to accommodate the need for new housing and a community form the dispossessed. As the tiny village of Vista Grande began to grow, one of the first needs was to provide fire protection for its residents. Thus, the scourge of fire, which wrought havoc on the San Francisco neighborhoods, became the impetus of the formation of the Daly City Fire Department.