Early articles in the Douglas Herald Newspapers of 1868 stated that the fire protection in Douglas was made up of volunteers that used bucket brigades to extinguish fires and in most cases were unsuccessful.

In 1880, the town purchased a new fire engine which was really a Hand Tub which took 20 or so men to operate. The hand tub was moved from fire to fire by a team of horses and it took 12 men to operate the brakes which were long wooden handrails that ran along each side. With an up and down motion, they would build pressure and then on a signal by their commander, they would open the hose attached to the tub and spray water on the fire.

The proud men of this department did not wish to call their handtub a "tub", but rather named it the 'Fire King.' Thus in 1880 the Fire King Company was started. On July 7, 1880, the Fire King was put to the test. The Lee & Murdock mill was on fire. The new Engine, with its crew and their first Chief Engineer A.F. Jones, were successful in stopping the flames before they destroyed the entire mill.

The Fire House was built in 1882 on the west side of Cottage Street. On the front of the station they erected a sign that read, "The Fire King Company, Veni, Vidi and Vici. Which is Latin for: "We Came, We saw and We Conquered." This sign hangs in the new fire station on Main Street and is still the name of each Engine Company.

The Cottage Street Station.
Click to enlarge.

The original 'Hand Tub' (pictured above) was called Fire King #2 (Serial # 208) and was built by Hunneman Fire Trucks in 1841.  It was first delivered to Concord, and was then sold to East Douglas, MA.

In 1928, the Fire King #2 Hand Tub was retired to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, where it still stands today.

Update; September 1, 2003, both Chief Gonynor and I journeyed out to Dearborn, Michigan at the end of August. We visited the museum, but were told that the handtub was no longer there and that no record of what happened to it existed.

I am now actively pursuing all leads in the hope of tracking it's whereabouts.

'Water Witch 2'
Click to Enlarge

In 1935, the residents of Douglas received their first new motorized fire engine, a 1935 Ford (pictured above) with a 500 GPM (Gallon Per Minute) pump and a hose bed with 1000 feet of 2 1/2" hose.

In 1952, an additional truck was purchased and again in 1959. This brought the department up to three engines. In 1981, a new pumper tanker was purchased. The town did not purchase any more new equipment for fire protection until 1999.

Picture of first apparatus.
Click to enlarge.
Note: The 1935 Ford is in the center.

The first Fire Chief was Charles Anderson. He was followed by Felix "Flaxy" Vecchione. He served until 1954. At that time, Edward "Buff" Therrien served until 1981 when Ted Sochiall was appointed. He retired in 1990 and Joseph Nedoroscik was appointed. Joe retired in 1996 and the town appointed Donald Gonynor, Chief.

Chief Gonynor was appointed full-time in 2000. This was the town's first full-time Chief. The town also appointed two full-time firefighters as well.

Today the department has 18 on-call Firefighters and 11 on-call Emergency Medical Technicians. The department handles about 1000 incidents per year.

Below is a picture of the Original Fire King sign that hung on the front of the Cottage Street Fire Station. This sign has been completely restored and now hangs on the rear wall in the new fire station on Main Street, Douglas.

Picture of the old East Douglas Elementary School. The Fire Department conducts many of it's training programs here now. See the 'Picture Gallery' section for pictures of some of these training programs.

More to come.