Firemen's Hall, S. Burdick Street

1853 map of Kalamazoo, published by Henry Hart, New York

The story of the Kalamazoo Fire Department begins on 5 June  1843, soon after the first charter of the village of Kalamazoo became effective. The village trustees passed an ordinance requiring all homeowners and storekeepers to provide themselves with two ladders and buckets. The citizens were being told to fight fires themselves; the ordinance was later repealed in 1850. A volunteer fire company, the Kalamazoo Hook and Ladder Company, was finally created on 11 March 1846. Other fire companies soon followed, including the Burr Oak Engine Company, the Excelsior Fire Company, and the Star Fire Company. Arcadia Creek first provided the city's water supply, but because horses were not used, firemen literally had to run back and forth between the Creek and the fire with their buckets of water. In the 1840s, an elaborate system of cisterns was built downtown. Intended to serve as an adequate source of water for fighting fires, the cisterns were frequently emptied before the fire had been extinguished. This lack of a reliable water supply motivated the village trustees to authorize the construction of a public water works in 1867. A large blaze on Academy Street in April 1869 hastened the construction of the plant, which became operational in October of that year.

 

Kalamazoo Public Library postcard collection, uncataloged.

The city's first fire engine was bought second-hand in 1853, and a second engine was purchased soon after. Firemen's Hall, the general headquarters for the various fire companies, was completed in 1853 after several delays. Located at 136 South Burdick Street, the Hall served as Kalamazoo's center of social activity for many years; the building was demolished in January 1942. The Kalamazoo Gazette reported that "Kalamazoo can now boast of as fine a building...for lectures, concerts, exhibitions, parties, etc. as can be found in the state." Kalamazoo's first fire alarm system was later installed in the clock tower of the First Baptist Church in 1855. Despite little financial support from the village government, the fire department by 1862 had nonetheless grown to three engines, three horse carts, a hook and ladder truck, over 1800 feet of hose, and 148 men in several companies. Corporation Hall, built in 1867, soon became the new home of the village fire companies and other civic and governmental groups. Two of the original tenants included the Ladies Library Association and the Kalamazoo Public Library; the building also served as City Hall from 1884 until 1931. In 1870 the fire department was reorganized with four hose companies of twenty men each, and soon after firemen finally began to be paid for their work. A new Central Fire Station was constructed in 1907 on the corner of Burdick Street and Lovell Street. Responsible for protecting downtown, the building stood until it made way for Jacobson's (now the Epic Center) in 1959. The fire department first became motorized in 1916, with the last of the horse-drawn trucks being retired in 1924.

Memorial display honoring firemen killed fighting the Hall Brothers fire in 1898.  Although it isn't clear which man is which in this photograph, the men were Eugene Dole, George Halliday, Patrick McHugh and William Wagar.

History of the Kalamazoo Fire Department, 1900.

Kalamazoo Fire  Chiefs
Charles Russell Kalamazoo's longest running fire chief
Thomas O'Neil	1882
Hugh Beggs	1882-1884
Byron J. Healy	1884-1902
Henry P. Raseman	1902-1907
Clifford Miner	1907-1909
Charles H. Russell	1909-1934
Maurice Welch	1934-1935
J. Frank VanAtta	1935-1952
Lloyd J. Curry	1952-1961
Chester W. Douglass	1961-1975
George H. Danz	1975-1982