How old is your Department

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Permalink Reply by Jamie Morelock on February 23, 2009 at 6:01pm

1837...our first hand drawn pumper is in our fire museum

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Permalink Reply by Gary Rauch on February 23, 2009 at 6:27pm

My Department was first officially organized in 1898, and had bucket brigades before that. We even have our first motorized engine in our museum, a 1912 White, and a 1947 Chevy engine some members restored.

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Permalink Reply by Walter D. Patterson on February 23, 2009 at 6:41pm

The Grove City, PA Fire Department was organized in 1904. Our oldest piece of equipment is a wooden hose cart from around the same time period. Our oldest piece of motorized apparatus is a 1925 Reo. We take it to parades occasionally.

Stay Safe!
Walter

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Permalink Reply by Joe Heim on February 23, 2009 at 6:56pm

East Dubuque Fire Department was organized in 1885, our oldest truck is a 1939 Chevy.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Fritz on February 23, 2009 at 10:06pm

High Point is 100 years old, having been formed in1900. Our oldest piece is our parade piece a 1929 American LaFrance pumper taken oos in 1960!

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Permalink Reply by John Malool on February 24, 2009 at 9:35am

My Dept. was created in January, 1892 (engine 1). One month later Truck 1 was created. Unfortunately our original apparatus was either sold or scrapped.

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Permalink Reply by Ethan Royall on February 24, 2009 at 10:46am

my department is about 13 years old

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Permalink Reply by Billy lewis on February 24, 2009 at 8:44pm

February 5, 1850 The Sacramento Fire Department was organized as a Volunteer Fire Department.
March 30th, 1872 Sacramento fire department be came a paid fire department.
Not bad for the west coast?
Oldest piece of equipment? There is a restore hose cart, but lets not give anyone any ideas in this day in age of budget cutbacks.

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Permalink Reply by Sven Schievink on February 25, 2009 at 3:21am

My Department will be celebrating its 60th Anniversary March 1st. We are still considered a County fire protection District. The Dept is made up of 5 former Fire Protection Districts. The last Merger was in 2005, when we became South King Fire& Rescue.....AKA King County Fire Protection District # 39. We use the Anniversary date of District 39, even though some of the Departments that merged with us were Formed earlier!

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Permalink Reply by Greg Deverell on February 25, 2009 at 11:40am

City of Lapeer Michigan Fire & Rescue started in 1858 our oldest truck is a 1976 supthen platform it will be replaced later this year with a 2009 KME 100ft. midmount platform

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Permalink Reply by Stan Siegel on February 25, 2009 at 12:29pm

Our department, Port Jervis Volunteer Fire Department, in Port Jervis, NY, was started in 1847.
The history is on our web page, http://pjnyfd.com

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Permalink Reply by Frozenhosehead on February 25, 2009 at 1:17pm

Boy you got me started and now I can't stop so this will be a bit long but I hope people will learn something from it or research it more. Well I can't list all the departments I have been in but generalizing it a bit.

My starting Volunteer Fire Company in PA, Jefferson VFC was formed in 1947 which is young for that area because our town was founded in like the late 1700's. Oldest piece was a 1947 Mack Pumper sold to a private buyer. The other FD's in our area where I grew up were founded in the late 1800's or early 1900's except for York. York City Fire has been around since 1771 but some say it is older than that and could be the oldest continuously operated FD in the Nation....I can see there could be some disagreement over this one but I am only recalling what one of the programs from the fireman’s assoc stated in the parade booklet from the annual parade.

The US Army and Air Force Fire Protection here in Interior of Alaska have only been in the last 60 to 70 years but the Army has had firefighters for longer than that. If anyone could shed some light on this we can have a fire service history lesson from this by the time we are done here. History of Ft. Wainwright LADD AFB here in Fairbanks has had firefighters since the 40's because of the "Lend Lease" aircraft program the US had with Russia during WWII. LADD AFB later to be named Fort Jonathan M. Wainwright honoring the general who led delaying tactics on Bataan and Corregidor in the Philippines against a superior Japanese force in World War II. Oldest piece of apparatus I have seen from the Army is a 1954 Ward LaFrance located in a remote village about 200 miles North. Eielson AFB has been around since the late 1940's originally called Mile 26 Satellite Field as a result of needing another runway for the "Lend Lease" program here in Alaska and later being named Eielson AFB in 1948 for pilot Carl Ben Eielson who became the first to cross the North Pole by air History of Eielson AFB. Oldest piece of apparatus I saw there was a 1978 single cab Ward LaFrance on a ford chassis and a 1979 the second produced P-15, the Largest fire truck in the world weighing in at 65.5 tons.

Finally my current Volunteer FD was formed in 1975 by a group of local citizens concerned about a rash a fires in the area. Before then Ft. Wainwright and Eielson AFB FD's along with the City of North Pole FD founded in 1957 had been graciously agreeing to fight some of the larger fires in the area. North Star's oldest engine that finally about two months ago breathed its last breath was a Ford 9000 6X6 mfd by Pierce in 1979.

Alaska has a few departments that are over 100 years old to include Valdez and Fairbanks and all have apparatus that is over 100 years old in various stages of restoration with Valdez having the fully restored Steamer and other apparatus in my photos. I encourage everyone to explore the histories even further as I know I will learn something here for sure after reading all the replies so far.

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