In this ongoing series, we feature a piece from our Museum Director, Billie DeLancey, originally published in The Johnstown Breeze on August 22, 2024. Enjoy this look back, and keep an eye on the paper for the newest stories shaping our community.
Johnstown’s first record of an organized group of fire-fighting, bucket-brigade volunteers was public notice on August 20, 1908 that read:
“To Johnstown Fire Department: In case of fire, several dozen tin pails, two axes and two extension ladders can be found stored in a wareroom just north of the old Morrison Black Smith Shop (where Precision Family Eyecare’s building is located at 16 N Parish Ave). The key will be left at the Davis-Hartford Store, or a 2 x 4 may be used to break in a front window. Outside towns may smile at our fire department’s equipment, never the less the department did excellent service at the recent fire. Please do not forget the place and hold yourselves ready to defy any blaze in any part of the city. I thank the department for their most excellent services at the recent fire. H.J. Parish, Mayor.”
By 1912, two years after a large fire destroyed several of the buildings on the west side of Parish Ave, Harvey Parish bought a hose cart to carry equipment, and a “locomotive tire,” was secured from the Town of Windsor and used as the town’s fire alarm. A centrally-located cistern was used to convey the water through the long hose that could reach most of the small town’s buildings.
In 1924, the first official Johnstown Volunteer Fire Department was organized. The town bought its first fire truck in 1945, and in 1957 the 25 fire department volunteers moved from their Charlotte St location to the larger building at 310 S. 1st St. (now H&R Towing), and the fire station moved to its current location on Telep Ave in 1998.
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Source: Excerpted, in part, from A Tribute To Johnstown, Rebecca S. Healy, 1977