The Fairview Area Historical Society
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Posted December 17, 2011
Fairview Firemen's Relief Association had its beginnings 80 years ago!
Eighty years ago fires were a
hazard in every community. Frame structures were commonplace.
They caught fire easily and burned quickly. Before 1931 every
household in Fairview was required to own two leather buckets in which
they could carry water to a fire. Fires were next door, down
the street, and sometimes in one's own 
home. "Whoever
was in the house was expected to turn out, get them filled and join the
bucket brigade. But, whatever was burning, burned down," said Wesley
Herbol, who joined the Fairview Firemen's Relief Association in
1959. His source of information from the early years was
Charles L. Weislogel, one of the charter
members.
The old borough then acquired a hand pumper, which was hauled to a fire by a team of horses. "Whoever got it there, stayed with it and returned it to the barn was awarded 50 cents." It was housed in the barn behind the Fairvirew Hotel (once on the southeast corner of Routes 98 and 20. The barn was called Hyke's Hall for many years and is long gone.)
Fire control was a nagging, growing problem. Basically, the fire fighters at that time were merely trying to contain the fires and protect surrounding properties.
"We finally came of age," said Hebol. A group of men in the Fairview area came together to resolve the problem. Other communities had done it, and so could theirs. In 1931, the Fairview Fiermen's Relief Association began the process of organzing as a non-profit all volunteer organization; they were chartered in 1933. This group took on the responsibility of handling the fire hose that could be connected to the newly installed fire hydrants in the town's water system. The first fire hall was a garage on the old borough's Peffer Drive (aka Pig Alley). The first communications system to alert the firemen was the woman who attended the telephone exchange housed in the enclosed porch of a private home. The house was located on North Avonia Road where the telphone company has a building today. When she received a call that a fire was in progress, she notified the fire fighters. "It was a good system," said Herbol.
The garage they acquired on Peffer Drive had a steel tower next to it with a bell attached. Later sirens were attached and these became part of the alert system. Some time after that Penelec located a pole there and another siren (obtained from a ship),which needed power to run it, was attached. The undulating sirrens would indicate the location and type of emergency. After the organization moved to their East Main Street building the pole was moved to Frank Bendure's property where the siren continued to operate for many years and still is given practice runs from time to time.
Those men involved in organizing and serving on the first board of the fire department were H. C. Herbol, President; Charles F. Busch, Vice President; Charles L. Weislogel, Secretary; Frank Thornton, Treasurer..Trustees were: T. W. Sterrett, Frank Hetz and Charles E. Weislogel. Olin Hauck was elected as the first fire chief in 1934 and was assisted by S. C. Buseck and Earl Vigrass. Vigrass became chief the next year and remained in that position for ten years. "He was as peppery as they come," said Herbol, "but he was a good chief."
Early in their history the department purchased a chemical truck from Girard Borough and in 1933 Chevrolet dealer Martin Anderson arranged for them to get a Chevrolet chassis on which they mounted a 350 G.P.M. pump.* Later the fire department bought a 1937 Chevrolet chasis, adapted it and used it into the 1970s. Rudy Leininger, fire chief in 1945 and 1946, was a contractor who worked on the chasses.
To raise funds for more equipment the men sponsored an annual picnic. The picnic began at the Erie County Airport (Neil McCray's airport just west of the old borough on the south side of the road). Advertised as "Old Home Day," the event was day-long on August 12, 1931. It began with a parade and ended with a dance, the music provided by Charles Campbell's Concert Bank from Erie.* During the next many years it grew to include arts and crafts sales tents, rides, games of chance, and more. Soon it moved to the meadow of the popular dancehall Willowbrook on Ruhl Road. Then the Main Street was blocked off for a few years between Route 98 (called Garwood Street then and Avonia Road now) and Water Street with traffic diverted around West Water Street. Next the picnic was held behind the elementary school on Chestnut Street then the high school building grounds and lastly, the middle school grounds. As the event grew the members knocked on doors around the township, handing out pie pans and asking for folks to bake pies that could be sold in the food tent. Chairmen for the event - a real people eater! - were predetermined and moved through the chairs of responsibility, where, as his last responsibility,the out-going president of the Firemen's Relief Association moved up to chair the picnic. In the late 1970s it became an overwhelming project and the firemen elected to send out requests for donations by mail, which continues to this day. (In fact, the firemen are winding up their 2011 drive, so now would be a good time to remember them and their good works!)
Early training was mostly on-site, on the job. Those working the ambulance they eventually purchased were qualified through the Red Cross. Meetings were held on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. The one blast of the whistle/siren indicated it was time to come and get in some practice drills. When a fire was discovered the siren would signal that too and businesses such as Anderson's Motor Sales, the Fairview Chrysler Garage, Titan Tool, etc., emptied out. Business shut down while the male employees and even some of the employers responded to the emergency.
As the township grew so did the volume
and variety of calls. Some of the worst responses occur on
Interstate 90 where traffic can be stopped for hours while firemen
use the "jaws of life" to extract what was once a living, breathing human
being. Training has changed dramatically and meeting
the qualifications requires time, devotion and a commitment of
personal funds. During severe snow storms or wind storms
firefighters have answered the call to keep vigil on the four generators
that maiantain the traffic lights; they cut up trees and guard downed
wires; as professionally trained EMTs they respond to medical emergencies
along with West County Paramedic Service. Today also, women are
no longer relegated to "auxiliary" status, but can become full-fledged
firemen (firepersons?). The auxiliary needless to say,
continues to provide its own important part of the
organization. All this is voluntary. The organization never did nor
does it now receive any governrment funding.
The orginal firehall is gone, replaced by another larger building where the Boy Scouts meet today. The firemen built a large brick building on Main Street, dated 1940 on the front. When they moved into even newer quarters on East Main Street the 1940 building became the Senior Center in Fairview. Another fire hall was built on West Lake Road to meet the needs out in the township north of the old borough. (South of Interstate 90 the area is still largely farmland with fewer residences.) With the passing of time the older men whose efforts began the organization, gave way to younger men, as is the natural way of things.
Still, it is important to look back at those early members and remember their efforts. Some were businessmen, some farmers, some teachers, some grocers, manufacturers, salesmen... and on and on. Many had served in World War I and knew that their duty to their families, homes and communities never stopped. Below is a listing of all those who in 1934 joined that first great effort in this unselfish cause for Fairview - -
Fred Baumgartner Charles Busch Burton P. Cobb Fred W. Dasen Olin G. Hauck H. C. Herbol John Heidler
Frank Hetz George Garver John Gimber Rudy Leininger Ferdinand Niebauer Adolph L. Osterber illam A. Ruhl
T. Woods Sterrett Frank Thornton Harvey M. Tingley Fred Turner J.. Vincent Walker Charles E. Weislogel
The Fairview Area Historical Society would like to recognize and thank all those men whose efforts led to the fine, highly
trained fire department operating today.
* Fairview Centennial Commemorative Booklet, page 66.
** Cloud Busters, Neil McCray and the Erie County Airport, page 64. The book is available through the Fairview Area Historical Society.
The Fairview Area Historical Society is one of 26 members of Erie Yesterday, a county-wide consortium of historically-oriented organizations and individuals. Together these organizations are saving history for the future. For more information, see erieyesterday.org
To read past "Special Features" please indicate the title you would like and e-mail: fahsmail3@gmail.com.
The Republican Party Ox Roasts (6/15/08) The Almost High School Jointure (7/29/08) About Helen Schluraff (10/19/08)
Jackson Koehler Comes to Fairview (3/2/09) High Flying - About Neil McCray 4/24/09) The Tie That Binds - Schools (6/8/10)
Railroads and Rippers (9/6/10) On the National Register (11/6/10) Fairview & the Civil War Sesquicentennial (6/1/2011)
2010 Year in Review (1/20/2011) The Saga of the New School Presbyterian Church (8/15/11)