Some Early History of LMF&R Inc.

 

In 1974 a group of residents at Lake Meade felt with about 150 homes, it was time to have a nearby source to help with emergencies. A meeting was held at the old community center with about 50 people showing up. A hat was passed and we collected almost $500 to get things started. An organization called "Lake Meade Volunteer Protective Organization" was formed and a very used Step Van was purchased. It was used for fire, medical emergencies and security purposes for almost 2 years.

The next logical step was to incorporate as a Fire and Rescue Company and our charter was approved in 1975 as we became "Lake Meade Fire and Rescue, Inc" with about 30 active members. We have never looked back.

Our first piece of real emergency equipment was a 1969 Cadillac Ambulance. At that point in time, it was only required that you be trained in First Aid to run on an Ambulance so we had plenty of help. I long for those times again when there was plenty of help. One of our first real Ambulance calls was an assist to East Berlin with a car fire at the intersection of Germany Road and Rte 234. It turned out to be a tragedy with two deceased victims who were burned to death out of four teenagers who were in the car and had been drinking. It made several of us question our decision to run ambulance but found later calls to be much more gratifying.

It was then time to address the need for Fire equipment to help contain a fire until help from the surrounding Fire Companies arrived. We purchased a classic used 1949 Ford truck and yes it was a real Fire truck. It was even painted red as most equipment was in those days. Its problem was it had a separate "Center Mount Pump" that didn’t work very well, but at least it looked and sounded like a Fire Truck. The best piece of Equipment on that unit was the siren. We junked that piece after several months without ever making a call with it and bought a 1953 Dodge Darley "Pumper" or should I say "Engine" depending upon your point of view. It was a "real" Fire truck with hose reel, direct drive pump, 300 gals of water, etc. We bought it from Conawago Fire Company. Our first call with that unit was a house fire just outside of Lake Meade at the airport on Lake Meade Road. We were the first unit on the scene and flames were coming out of the windows. No, not the Fire Truck, but the house. Lake Meade Fire & Rescue had the flames knocked down before any additional equipment arrived from the adjoining Fire Companies. It’s a fire I will never forget and there were a few funny things that happened that day that make a good story. One of them was all the arriving equipment wanted to know what that piece of equipment was up next to the house. Heck it was Lake Meade Fire & Rescues "new" fire truck, complete with stick on gold letters from Cashmans Hardware showing who we were. Boy were we proud that day, "We were a real Fire Company"!

We also converted a used Fuel Oil delivery truck to be used as a tanker for several years. That was when we started painting our equipment "Slime Lime" instead of Red.

As for a place to house this equipment, we used the old maintenance building of LMPOA that sat behind our current Fire House. The concrete pad is still there. It was a metal building with sliding doors that were hard to move. If it was a fire call, we had to move the ambulance in order to get the fire truck out. We also had to put electric heaters under the truck to keep water and things from freezing. The need for our own Fire house was desperate, so in the summer of "76" Ken Eisenaur and I spent every weekend going door to door in the Lake begging for money. We raised several thousand dollars and with a loan from ACNB, which some of us co-signed, we built our original fire house. It was built with a lot of volunteer labor from Lake Meade residents and some contractors who worked with our Fire Chief at the time, Cal Richey. It was functional and warm but expensive when we had no regular source of income. At the monthly meetings, on occasion some of us had to pay the electric bill and phone so we could continue to operate. That part of the fire house is still in use today and is now our meeting room. If you look at the four panels out front you can imagine them as doors. The drivers test was being able to back the truck in without damage to the building or truck. Still a good test.

We paid off our loan over the next three years and bought our first piece of new equipment after a huge battle about buying new or used. We got a 2% loan from the State and bought an International Darley Fire Truck. It looked similar to our current Tanker which you can see in the pictures elsewhere on the web site. What a morale builder, "New Equipment". It had some unknown throttle problems when we flew to Chicago to pick it up and we were well underway when we discovered it wouldn’t go very fast up a hill. Chicago was flat as was the State of Indiana so Ohio is where the problem showed up. It was a simple solution, go 80 mph plus downhill so you didn’t drop below 50 mph going uphill. That worked great until I got stopped for speeding in radar. That’s a different story. Hey, I was on my way to a fire! We got it fixed and it was a great piece of equipment for more than 15 years and is still in service today someplace in Arkansas.

Over the years we have replaced numerous ambulances and we now have a new engine and rescue unit. We probably have well over $2,500,000 invested in fire fighting, ambulance, fire and rescue apparatus and equipment along with the building. We came " a long way baby" from passing the hat in 1974 and paying our bills out of our personal pockets.

Following are also a number of noteworthy items for LMF&R Inc. over the past 30 plus years.