Founded: October 18, 1906
Hours of Operation: This all volunteer organization is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
A brief history: The fire company started with six volunteers meeting in a house on Beechwood Avenue. A house on Sharon and Pusey Avenue was acquired called "Floral Hall" because it was right next door to Max LaRoche's greenhouse. In those early days firemen would store equipment in one house and use another residence to set up meetings. It soon became apparent that the fire company needed a building of their own to both store equipment and have a place to meet. The building seen here was the 2nd fire house built on land acquired for the purpose in 1917. The fire company moved once in the 1920s after acquiring land at their present location on Clifton Avenue. This was also around the time that a women's auxiliary was formed to help with administrative tasks and provide food for the firemen. The women's auxiliary became a necessary part of the fire company by taking those tasks that seemed tedious and providing much needed support. It was actually also the only way women could get involved with the fire company for a number of years.
Today women can become more involved and train as firefighters along with the men. So after many years of service the women's auxiliary was disbanded in the late 1980s. For more information, please visit:
Collingdale Fire Company No. 1
In the early 1960s, my elementary school class had a walking field trip to this firehouse, and I've been hooked on fire trucks ever since!
ReplyDeleteThey used to have a 1948 Mack fire truck that kids could ride on during 4th of July festivities. Privately owned since the 1970s, it was destroyed by an explosion & fire in Collingdale a few years ago.