Fire Station No. 23

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1894.

From the record

“Fire Station No. 23 is a former fire station in downtown Los Angeles. Built in 1910 as an operating station, it was also the Los Angeles Fire Department's headquarters until 1920 and the residence of every fire chief from 1910 to 1928.”
Wikipedia article Fire Station No. 23 (Los Angeles, California), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1980 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 225 E. 5th St., Los Angeles, 90013
When was it listed? June 1980
Category. building
Census division. Los Angeles
National Register reference number. 80000809 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1894 to 1979

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Fire Station No. 23, surveyed 1979

Topographic sheet covering Fire Station No. 23, surveyed 1894

Fires near this property

225 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 225 fires within 5 miles of Fire Station No. 23 between 2005 and 2020, burning about 1,240 acres in total. None started naturally. 21 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	142
Arson/incendiarism	21
Smoking	20
Misuse of fire by a minor	19
Equipment and vehicle use	10
Debris and open burning	10
Railroad operations and maintenance	2
Recreation and ceremony	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
6 September 2009	Smoking	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
5 September 2019	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
5 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
5 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
3 September 2012	Smoking	under an acre	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
28 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
24 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1.0 acres	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
23 September 2005	Smoking	1.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 27 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 27 workings within 5 miles of Fire Station No. 23: 23 past producers, 2 prospects, 2 producers. 2 still produce. What was taken out: Clay, Sand and Gravel, Construction, Limestone, General, Gold. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status
Cahuenga	Gold	Prospect
L.A. Mill	Talc-Soapstone	Producer
Reynolds Crushed Gravel Co. Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
California Portland Cement Company	Limestone, General, Clay	Past Producer
Southwestern Portland Cement Co	Limestone, General, Clay	Past Producer
Alameda St. Plant	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Beyrle	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Blue Diamond Corp. - Alameda Pit	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
City of Los Angeles	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Home Teaming and Transfer Co.	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this property

8 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Los Angeles, the town this property stands in, in 8 storm reports between 2000 and 2026: 3 flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 high wind, 1 tornado. The reports record 2 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
March 2023	Tornado (EF1)	East Los Angeles	1 hurt	A weak tornado developed in the community of Montebello. The EF1 tornado impacted the area around the intersection of Washington Boulevard and Maple Avenue. There was substantial damage to the industrial warehouse and commercial business district, including nearly total roof collapse in one building and a total of 17 damaged structures. Numerous vehicles were damaged due to flying debris.
February 2000	Thunderstorm Wind	Los Angeles	1 hurt	no account filed
February 2026	Flood	Los Angeles	-	Heavy rain produced significant roadway flooding on Interstate 110 near West 39th Street.
February 2026	Flash Flood	Los Angeles	-	Heavy rainfall generated flash flooding near the intersection of Interstates 10 and 110.
February 2026	Thunderstorm Wind	Los Angeles	-	Strong thunderstorm winds knocked down several trees in the South Los Angeles area.
March 2002	High Wind	Los Angeles	-	no account filed
February 2000	Flood	Los Angeles	-	no account filed
April 2000	Flood	Los Angeles	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

15 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1894 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:62500
1896 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1900 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1900 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1928 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1953 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:24000
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1979 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
King Edward Hotel	under 500 feet	2021
Hotel Rosslyn Annex	0.2 miles	2013
Pacific Electric Building	0.2 miles	2009
Spring Street Financial District (Boundary Increase	0.2 miles	2000
Spring Street Financial District	0.2 miles	1979
Board of Trade Building	0.3 miles	2008

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 80000809 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles County	All 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.