Cornelius Blom, Jr. saw a lot of fires. The son of Cornelius Blom, Sr. and Jannetje Mieras Blom, he was five years old at the time of the Great Holland Fire. He was eleven years old at the time of the Kenyon fire.

The Kenyon fire originated at Kenyon Hall, a three-story opera house at 194 River Ave. where Reader's World is today. That fire consumed a total of four buildings, including lumber baron and banker Jacob Van Putten’s house and store.

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Thankfully, later fires were not as devastating as the Great Holland Fire, due to weather, new zoning regulations and technology. In 1877, the fire department introduced an alarm system that indicated which ward the fire was in by the number of rings.

In 1878, the city made it illegal to build wooden structures over two stories high inside the boundaries of Seventh Street and 11th Street and Columbia Avenue and Pine Avenue.

In 1884, at the age of 18, Blom began his long service as a Holland firefighter, while also serving as a confectionary store operator. His first fire chief was John Hummel, who followed the charismatic Reinder Werkman, who had persuaded the city to increase the number of its water wells and water mains.

But those changes didn’t prevent the West Michigan Furniture (1896) and Holland Furniture (1901) fires.

Blom became fire chief in 1910. In 1917, he persuaded the city to float a bond issue to finance its first motorized fire vehicle, a ladder truck, which had one 50-foot ladder and one 40-foot ladder.

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More History:Jacob Van Putten and Cornelis Ver Schure

More History:With saloons aplenty, the adventurous and fire-chasing Bloms thrived

In 1918, after state authorities called for the removal of urban wooden structures, Blom enforced the policy by condemning fifteen structures in downtown Holland. But he also gave business owners time: Herman Van Tongeren’s cigar shop at 12 W. Eighth St. wasn’t razed until 1922.

Lake Michigan cottage owners were exempt — and, in 1922, 30 cottages burned. In 1925, 59 more followed — plus 74 additional cottages in 1927.

On November 6, 1923, Blom and his crew were able to save many cottages, but not the Ottawa Beach Hotel, located next to the Pump House Museum on Ottawa Beach Road — then the hotel’s electrical plant.

The hotel had its own water tank and fire hose. Unfortunately, its caretaker had drained the tank for the winter. Blom was the hotel’s only hope, but the city fire station was 20 minutes away.

When the firefighters did arrive and tried to back up their pumper to Lake Macatawa, they discovered they needed a plank road to keep the wheels from sinking into the sand, and then something to keep the hose from sucking up seaweed and other debris from the bottom of the lake.

By that time, the hotel was lost. Then, when they turned their attention to the cottages, they found they did not have enough hose. Fortunately, Charles Jackson, a maintenance worker at nearby Getz Farm, delivered a truckload of firehose to the fire site.

But automobiles and their drivers were not always helpful. In 1925, Blom and Holland’s police chief, Frank Van Ryn, commented in the Holland City News that the “fire whistle usually is a signal for a large number of people to back their cars out of the garage in a great hurry and follow the fire trucks. Sometimes these goers-to-fire are in fact ahead of the fire truck or try to get ahead of them…They are an all-around nuisance.”

Yet, there were at least two people who were always welcome: Philip Brooks and Louis Padnos. Brooks, the soda pop entrepreneur, delivered a supply of 7Up to fires in his lime green Buick — soda which, in the frigid winter months, was rumored to be “spiked” with whiskey.

Padnos, the scrap entrepreneur, spent up to four nights a week at the Eighth Street firehouse, playing cards with the men and bringing with him cake, cookies and donuts.

In 1937, Blom sought to replace the 1917 ladder truck with a new one, which would have two 50-foot ladders and two 40-foot ladders, hose and a pumper. He also proposed a new firehouse on the corner of Central Avenue and State Street.

In 1939, he persuaded the city to purchase an aerial truck with a 65-foot ladder. In 1942, on his 76th birthday, Cornelius Blom, Jr. retired as fire chief. He died five years later.

Information for the Blom articles comes from Robert Swierenga’s "Holland, Michigan," plus the blog of Hamilton Beach Commercial and the archives of The Holland Sentinel and Hope College Digital Commons.

— Community Columnist Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. Contact him through start-upacademeinc.com.