Helen Frances Pershing

Helen Frances 'Frankie' Pershing (Warren)

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5795509/helen_frances_pershing

She died along with three of her children in San Francisco fire in 1915.

A Catalyst for Change

A series of fatal fires at the Presidio in the early 1900s culminated in the notorious Pershing fire of 1915. This fire killed four members of General John Pershing’s family. Mrs. Pershing, the daughter of U.S. Senator Francis E. Warren of Wyoming, and three of the four Pershing children suffocated in the early morning hours after coal from an unattended dining room fireplace fell to the floor, leading to a quick-spreading fire in the old wooden house.

Establishment

After the Pershing fire, Senator Warren led a congressional mandate for improved fire fighting resources at the Presidio. At the same time, San Francisco Fire Chief Thomas Murphy recommended establishing a permanent fire company at the Presidio. Based on Chief Murphy’s recommendations and encouraged by an embarrassed U.S. Government, the army built a fire station in 1917. The new Presidio Fire Station was the first on any U.S. Army post to house a permanent fire company with trained firefighters

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