Sam Haskins
Early Los Angeles Firefighter and Line-of-Duty Pioneer
1892–1895
How this work helped shape America
Born enslaved in Virginia in 1846, Sam Haskins moved to Los Angeles around 1880 and became an early Black American participant in the city's developing professional fire service. By 1892, Haskins was serving with the Los Angeles Fire Department as a call firefighter, a paid part-time position used to replace regular firefighters who were absent because of illness or other circumstances. On November 19, 1895, Haskins responded with Engine Company No. 2 to a fire alarm and was fatally injured after falling from the steam fire engine while it traveled to the incident. His service placed a formerly enslaved Black American within the municipal emergency-response workforce of a rapidly growing western city and documents Black participation in the development of professional urban fire protection.