Menlo Park Fire Station Finds Long-Lost Monument Plaque

MENLO PARK, CA — A commemorative plaque that was once affixed to a Menlo Park fire station has been reinstalled, more than a decade after it disappeared from the station's wall.

For more than a decade starting in 1997, the plaque was installed on Fire Station 77 on Chilco Street, indicating the year the station was built and listing the names of the fire board, chief, architect and general contractor.

But about 10 years ago, while the station was being repainted, the plaque disappeared. Fire officials called around and checked scrap yards around the Bay Area, to no avail, according to a release from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.

But things changed recently, when an off-duty firefighter looking through an estate sale website spotted a photo of the plaque and alerted his battalion chief, Joey Figone.

"When I got the message from Acting Battalion Chief Figone wondering if 'we were interested in this piece of Menlo memorabilia,' I thought to myself of course, who wouldn’t want to their recover stolen property and possibly locate the thief that took it!” fire chief Harold Schapelhouman said in a statement.

The Walnut Creek auction house told the Fire District that the plaque had belonged to a single man who had died suddenly and appeared to have been a carpenter.

“Sometimes things happen for reasons you can’t explain or completely understand," Schapelhouman said. "I’d like to believe this guy reached out to absolve himself. If so, case closed, you’re forgiven!"