1850 to 1945: Fighting Fires

January 1, 1945

Prior to WW2 fires were put out with only buckets and wet sacks while awaiting an engine from the city of Evansville. A resident would pick up the phone and make four long rings. This would alert the other homes of a fire. It wouldn’t be until WW2 when the civil defense would donate a pumper trailer to the community. Many of these pumpers were used throughout the United States for a long time.

Also during the war, the city assigned an extra engine to station 12 on First Avenue and West Morgan. This Engine (13) was first due to calls north of the city where much of the war supplies production was taking place. Due to its proximity from the county, this apparatus had an extended travel time to fires in the community of McCutchanville, leading to total losses.