GREENFIELD — An old mockingbird whistle was the first official alert siren, and firefighters used rubber boots and coats when the Greenfield Fire Department was officially established in the 1880s.
The first time the alert whistle was blown, very few people heard the sound. According to the authoritative Binford and Richman histories of Hancock County, the whistle — when it could be heard — sounded “like a small dog howling or wind blowing through the whiskers of a councilman.”
Fire coverage has changed dramatically for the community and firefighters since then, when men first gathered downtown to form the Hook and Ladder Brigade — the start of fire protection in March of 1880.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Greenfield Fire Territory, originally established on Nov. 17, 1894. Officials with the department plan to look back and celebrate 125 years of fire service with special events planned throughout the year.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryOfficials will have a 125-Year Celebration at Fire Station 421, 17 W. South St., for the community in early September. The public will be invited to enjoy festivities and see antique fire trucks from around the state.
The department also will also participate in the annual Riley Festival Parade in October, where they’ll wear dress uniforms in honor of the anniversary. The biggest celebration for the department will take place during its annual Thanksgiving dinner in November at Fire Station 421. That’s when firefighters will have a chance to reflect on what being a part of the department really means, said James Roberts, chief of the Greenfield Fire Territory.
Roberts, who has been with the department for 25 years, kicked off the celebration during the department’s recent annual awards banquet.
“It was eye-opening to share the time-line with our guys and let them see how we got to where we are today,” Roberts said.
A growing town
As Greenfield grew in the 1880s and building density grew — the population expanded by two-thirds, to 2,013, by the beginning of the decade — local officials realized there was a need for actual fire protection, leading to the creation of the Greenfield Fire Department in 1894.
The Greenfield Fire Department was organized by a couple dozen local men who earned 50 cents a hour when they fought a fire. In February of 1895, the city council adopted a resolution to construct the city building where the first fire station and council chambers were housed.
According to the history reports, after the city installed the water works plant in 1894, it purchased the first wagon, which was kept at Kinder’s Livery Barn on Main Street, until they moved to the city building in 1895. Crews used horses to pull the hose wagon until they got their first truck in 1917.
The department’s first horse was said to be “an animal all our people will be proud to see going to a fire,” the history said.
“It all got started when somebody got a wagon, the first team of horses, threw some ladders and a few buckets on and took off,” said Corey Breese, public information officer for the Greenfield Fire Territory.
A veteran looks back
Don Ogle, 76, Greenfield, was a longtime firefighter for the city, spending 45 years — or nearly a third of the department’s entire history — with the department. He joined the department in August 1966 and witnessed many changes before his retirement in 2011.
Ogle left a good-paying job at Western Electric when he was 23 to join the fire department, prompting his family to call him “nuts,” he said.
He started out making $4,200 a year, $175 every two weeks. He didn’t do it for the the money or excitement; he became a firefighter because he wanted to help people. He joined the department just when city officials started realizing the benefit of having full-time fire protection.
“We we’re called chauffeurs back then,” Ogle said. “We drove the fire truck wherever you wanted it.”
Ogle worked by himself in three-day shifts with the help of volunteers. Not only did he answer every emergency call, he was also the dispatcher.
“We did everything, and when you went on a run you just hoped that somebody would meet you because you were on your own,” he said.
They didn’t always have street numbers when Ogle first started at the department. They instead used location names to figure out where a fire was.
One of his first runs was to a place called Kissing Cousins Restaurant in Maxwell. The building is now the Mom & Pop’s Mini Mart.
How it used to be
In the 1880s, firefighters were called “the fire boys,” according to the history reports. They held their first annual meeting and supper on Dec. 7, 1895 and the second one Dec. 7, 1896, establishing an annual tradition.
Some of the rules created by the Greenfield firemen broke up the city into four districts known as fire wards under the first fire chief, William H. Cosby.
By the time Ogle joined the department in the 1960s, things had changed considerably. However, the department didn’t have ambulances and paramedics for every run like firefighters do now. The old Civil Defense organization controlled ambulance runs, he said, making them a separate unit from the fire department, even though they were housed in the same facility, on North Street.
“The guys used to buy the gas for the old ambulance and rescue trucks because there wasn’t any funding for it,” Ogle said.
The old fire station wasn’t equipped to house firefighters overnight, so Ogle used to sleep on a cot, in the back room. That was fine, he said, except for when it snowed; the building allowed snow to blow into the room and onto his bed.
All the officers currently working for the Greenfield Fire Territory, including Roberts, the chief, trained under Ogle as a volunteer or young career firefighter. He has passed along the history and culture of a fire department he grew to love.
“It was a great part of my life,” he said. “This is like a family here.”
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The Greenfield Fire Department was officially established in 1894.
The first fire chief was William H. Cosby.
The city council purchased the city’s first horse and wagon in January of 1895. Its first motorized vehicle would arrive in 1917.
The first official home was part of the City Building on North Street erected for a cost of $2,291 in March of 1895.
Another fire station was established in November of 1895 at the John. B. Huston Livery Stables. The hook and ladder, with 100 feet of fire hose, were located there.
Source: Binford and Richman histories
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This is the first story in an occasional series that will look back at the history of the Greenfield Fire Department — now called the Greenfield Fire Territory — since its founding in 1894.
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