Freeport Rural Fire Dept.

Freeport Rural Fire Department – Freeport Il. 61032

Fire Departments Executives of Freeport Rural Fire Dept
N/A, Keith Hinrichs Business classifications
SIC (US 1987) : The first board of trustees purchased a pumper with a 250-gallon tank capacity, a hose and 35-foot ladder. The City of Freeport agreed to house the fire truck and the board paid two city firemen to man the truck and respond to rural fires. The men depended primarily on property owners and neighbors to help battle the fires. If the tank went dry and there was no cistern or creek nearby, the structure was usually lost.
By 1958 the trustees began to canvas the four townships to recruit four volunteers from each township to help the two city firemen responding to rural fires. These 12 men trained with Freeport city firemen once a month to become firefighters. In those days it was not unusual for the volunteers to show up in everyday clothes to fight fires in bitter cold and rain because there was no funding for firefighter gear or equipment.
A Referendum Passes
The Department soon began to take shape with a main pumper, a 4 x 4 and three truck chassis equipped with new altered fuel delivery truck tanks to be used as 1, 000-gallon tank trucks. About the same time, the number of firefighters increased to 40 volunteers equipped with helmets, boots, coats and tools for fighting fires.
Fire services