History of Auburn Volunteer Fire Department
- 1953 Approximately twenty-five Auburn residents met to discuss
the organization of a local volunteer fire company. This process
assisted by the Auburn Community Fair Board, which donated two
thousand dollars towards the start-up cost of the project. Before the end of
the year, an association was formed, a constitution and by-laws were
adopted, officers were elected, fund raising activities were
proposed, a fire station was planned and efforts were made to secure
a used fire engine for the cost of eleven hundred dollars.
- 1954 In this year the ground breaking on the northeast corner of
Washington Street and Auburn Road for the new three bay fire
station started. The building was erected through the efforts and
determination of the early members, township officials, local
residents and businesses. While this was occurring, plans were made
to develop an alerting system using a radio transmission with the
antenna on the roof of the old church at Auburn Corners, members
were being trained in the basics of fire fighting, several fund
raisers were held and a used tanker was purchased (with money loaned
to the department from one of its founding members). A considerable
amount of time and energy was put into the two used trucks the
department purchased, as they both required a substantial amount of
repair before they could be put into service. The fall season found
the department ready to respond to its first emergency call.
- 1955 The members were still busy finishing the interior of the
fire station. This did not deter them from sponsoring a number of
fund raising activities. The early years of the department found
them hosting dances, auctions and turkey shoots to supplement the
one thousand dollar annual contract with the township. The members
worked very closely with the Auburn Community Fair Board, going so
far as to put on a minstrel show during one of their events.
- 1956 A major addition to the department during the year was the
purchase of their first new piece of firefighting apparatus. It was
a high pressure fog equipped pumper that cost over seven thousand
dollars. This was also the year that the clambake came to be an
ongoing tradition of the department.
- 1957 The members were busy taking advanced training courses in
both fire fighting and first aid. The department purchased their
first resuscitator (a device used to deliver oxygen to ill or
injured patients).
- 1958 This year the members worked on plans for a grass and brush
fire truck in addition to their fund raising efforts.
- 1959 The chassis for the grass truck was ordered and the members
gathered together to construct the back end of the vehicle to best
serve the needs of the township.
- 1960 Plans were well underway and construction started on the
addition to the north end of the fire station, adding an additional
bay and kitchen facilities to the structure. Work was also being
done on the telephone alerting lines and the radio system.
- 1961 The department officially joined the Ohio State Fire
Fighters Association during the year. Fire training, fundraising and
maintenance work to hook took up the bulk of the year.
- 1962 A fast moving fire that was believed to have been caused by
a malfunction in the heating system destroyed the gymnasium at the
Auburn school.
- 1963 Newer alerting radios were purchased this year. The members
planned their first door-to-door donation drive in three years to
help defray the cost of the radios.
- 1964 The opening of the Ladue Reservoir to boating was the big
event of the year, with the City of Akron placing on hundred rental
boats on the lake. The first fatality there was a man killed by
lightening in late August. A new radio transmitter was purchased and
the department was asked to assist in providing fire protection
during the County Fair, an activity that continues to the present
time.
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