Fire & Rescue History

Early in the month of April, 1940, the writer met for the first time one of the Township Trustees. It was on an occasion when I was distributing the literature for the annual Clean Up Campaign that I stopped in at Lester Dunn's Garage. At that time, Mr. Dunn, one of the trustees, discussed the question of fire protection in Anderson Township. This was several months after the City of Cincinnati had refused fire protection to all territory outside of the City of Cincinnati and a contract had been made with the Village of Newtown. Fire service from Newtown was all the protection the citizens of Anderson Township had, and a large sum of money was owed for this service which consisted chiefly of runs to grass fires at a cost of $75.00 per hour.

Because of this high cost of fire protection, the writer offered his services in organizing his services in organizing a Volunteer Fire Department for Anderson Township in an effort to reduce for the Township taxpayers the burden of this expense. During the first eleven months of its existence the newly organized department made one hundred and eight (108) runs without cost to the Township.

Permission was given for the organization of a fire force, and the following men made up the list of firemen: Clarence E. Armbrust, George Bell, Les Dunn, Morris Dunn, Dan Linder, Bob and Donald Goff. Arrangements were made with the Solar Hill Rangers to take all fire calls and report all fires to the firemen by telephone and radio. These arrangements are very much like those in effect today, except that at the present time, since the Fire Department is in its new quarters, fire calls are received at the Fire Station, then are relayed to the Solar Hill Rangers who broadcast by radio on signals through the Cincinnati Radio, and finally calls are phoned to every fireman.

The original equipment of the department consisted of four Indian Fire Pumps of five gallons each, furnished by the Township Trustees , and two extinguishers of the water and compressed air type, donated by the Volunteer Firemen themselves. The members of the department used their own cars to respond to the first one hundred and eight fires from July 1940 until June 8, 1941.

From these humble beginnings the department, along with Anderson Township has grown to become a career fire deparment with four fire stations to serve the Township twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The staff, all of which are Paramedics, continues to be dedicated in providing the best service to Anderson Township in the same spirit of its founders.