1925 - the first fire station

1925 – The First Fire Station

By mid-March of the year 1925 the Association acquired its first pieces of equipment. This consisted of twelve hand-operated fire extinguishers. Although state-of-the-art at the time, they provided little help in fighting a fully engulfed fire. A fire truck would be needed for those situations.

There were problems with purchasing a truck. Where to house the truck was a major question. A big, old, unused barn adjacent to the Harmony Hotel, across from the Brown and Staples store, was leased for three-years to become the firehouse. It required some renovations, such as widening the entrance, strengthening the floor, and adding a kitchen.

The other big problem was how to get the money to purchase the truck. An auction of a horse and mule named “Maggie” was a big event. So big that the Providence Journal covered the story. Maggie eventually sold for $112.30, just about enough for a down payment on the truck.

Because money was tight the process of purchasing a fire truck was challenging. Eventually the Combination Ladder Company agreed to sell us a truck for $4800, and another $430 was spent on hose. The new Reo truck had a four-cylinder engine, three hundred GPM pump, eighty-gallon booster tank, ladders and other equipment. Now the Association was a true fire department.

Now that everything was in place the first officers were elected to the department. They were Harry Staples, Chief; Byron Winsor, Asst. Chief; Austin Corbin, Captain; and Earl Farnum, Lieutenant. Raymond Lewis, William Tucker, Everett Thompson, and Harold Cole were named drivers.

The next step in becoming a functional department was to organize a method to report a fire and alert the fire fighters to respond. It was agreed that all fires would be called in to the Brown and Staples store, where Chief Staples worked. Two sirens were purchased and installed, one on the barn and the other at the Laurel Grange. When a fire call came in, Chief Staples would lock the store and go to the barn. There he would activate the sirens a set number of times. This pattern let the firefighters know which part of the village the fire was in.

Coming next time ... Paying off loans and purchasing the Barn

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