Tuesday, May 09, 2000
Fire department marks 50 years
By Cindy Schroeder
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT WRIGHT — Fifty years ago this week, members of the Fort Wright Civic Club decided their rapidly growing city needed a fire department.
Agreeing on the need for a volunteer fire department was easy, charter members recalled. Paying for it was not so easy.
To come up with the $10,000 needed to buy a 1950 Howe pumper, the fire department's 36 charter members went door to door, collecting $25 from every homeowner, said Otto Siegrist, one of the department's charter members. “We told everyone that if we got a fire truck, their homeowner's insurance rates would go down.”
Even with that selling point, members of Fort Wright's first fire department found themselves making multiple trips to some households.
“It took awhile, but in the end, we collected from everyone,” said Mr. Siegrist, an 87-year-old retired builder said.
Today, Fort Wright's newest pumper cost $276,000. The department also operates a second pumper, a heavy rescue vehicle, an ambulance and two staff vehicles.
As Fort Wright officials move toward filling the newly-created position of paid, full-time fire and emergency medical services chief, the department of 38 volunteers and three full-time paid employees shares a challenge faced by other Northern Kentucky volunteer fire departments — a declining pool of volunteers.
“We're competing with other volunteer agencies that have much nicer schedules and fewer training requirements,” said Ron Becker, assistant chief and fire administrator of the Fort Wright Fire Department. “And people are just generally busier. It's hard to find people who can devote the time to it.”
Today's aggressive recruitment efforts are in stark contrast to the past, when it wasn't uncommon for two or three generations to serve on the fire department, and helping one's community took precedence over liability concerns.
Charter member John McCormack, now 82, remembers inviting a visitor along when he was called to the department's first house fire.
“I said, "You want to go to a fire?' And he said, "Yeah, let's go.' So we went and fought the fire together,” Mr. McCormack said.
In the fire department's 1997 video, “Neighbors Helping Neighbors,” Bob Wiechman recalled how three firefighters' station wagons formed the nucleus of Fort Wright's ambulance service.
“When the alarm would go off, whichever one of the three of us was home would get down (to the firehouse), and put the cot and the first aid kit in our own personal car,” Mr. Wiechman said in the video.
He later offered with a chuckle, “I found out afterwards, our insurance was null and void.”
IN CELEBRATION
Today,the Fort Wright Fire Department will mark half a century with a reception and historical display recognizing the generations who have served the Kenton County city's fire and ambulance needs. The reception will follow an 8 p.m. meeting of the fire department's board of directors at the firehouse, 409 Kyles Lane.
Historical highlights include the Aug. 14, 1973, blaze that caused $2.5 million in damage to the Lookout House, and the Dec. 8, 1991, move to the present firehouse.
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