HistoryThe information below is a history of the fire service in the Husum area as recalled by Dick Smith in 1997. Dick was one of the original firefighters and went on to become Chief.
THE HUSUM FIRE DEPARTMENT THE EARLY YEARSThe idea of having a fire department in or near Husum, may have been around for sometime, but came to a head in 1955, with the occurrence that year of…
OUR TRUCKOur “New” truck, was a 1934 Ford. I understood that it had been a farm truck hauling cotton in the south. That it had been used to move someone out…
COMMUNICATIONSOur alarm system couldn’t have been simpler. We still had the old crank telephones. While the system was poor, with no expectation of privacy, it…
OUR FIRST FIRESThe first fire we responded to was in July of 1956. It was the Hoppe – DeWilde Mill Fire at Gilmer. I had been in White Salmon and was on my way…
GETTING STARTEDAll of this had taken place in 1956. We realized that the next order of business was a building to house the truck, and some equipment to put on the…
GETTING A BUILDINGBy the first of august 1956, we had permission to put a building on the State highway property in Husum. We also had buried a 3000-gallon water tank…
GAINING CONFIDENCEUp until the first of January 1957, White Salmon was still answering calls in the district and we were assisting. On January 15, 1957, we announced…
