A fire in the Main Street business district spurred in 1860 the incorporation of the Village for the express purpose of establishing fire protection for the most heavily populated area of the township. On December 6, 1864, the fledgling village government established the Groton Fire Department with the appointment of the Excelsior Engine Company which contained a roster of thirty members and then
appropriated $1,500 for the purchase of a hand engine. So enamored of the engine, built in Seneca Falls and shipped by way of Myers Point on Cayuga Lake by barge, the company renamed itself the “Seneca Chief Engine Company.”
On March 20, 1865, a second company, the Pioneer Hose Company #1 was appointed, and it also consisted of thirty members. The hose company became the operators of a hose cart built for $150 by the local carriage makers, Bowker & Crittenden. For several years, the engine and hose cart were stored on Williams Street in the barn of Mr. Hall, until the Village raised money for construction of the “Engine House,” which stood just east of the Baptist Church on East Cortland Street. With the completion in November 1888 of the village waterworks and reservoir, located at the summit of Clark Street hill (and still in use today), the Village sold the engine, disbanded the engine company and re-formed its membership as the C.W. Conger Hose Company #2, named then in honor of the local businessman and early fire insurance broker, who generously provided the new company with uniforms and equipment. The pressure supplied by the waterworks to hydrants located throughout the village proved sufficient to allow retirement of the hand engine from firefighting chores, with hoses thereafter fed directly from the hydrants. An 1899 news article wrote that
“a very strong pressure is obtained, and its availability
for mechanical and fire purposes is most excellent…
with such a head the water can be thrown entirely by
pressure over the church steeples in the village.”
A third, thirty-man company, the Citizens Hook & Ladder Company #3, was established in 1890, and a Chief Engineer was elected thereafter annually to command the united companies. With the growth of apparatus, members and civic activity, the Village bonded for the construction of a Municipal Building, known fondly as the “Opera House,” which opened in 1900, and contained, in addition to the fire equipment and three company “parlors,” the village offices and an 850-seat gallery and stage that hosted community celebrations and activities for the next 57 years. In March 1913, the fire department introduced the first “moving picture show” at the Opera House, and thereafter, the firemen’s transformed “Theatre” provided the community with regular entertainment, and the department with a steady income, ceasing only after the widespread infiltration of televisions into homes in the mid-1950s. At the turn of the 20th century, it was written that the fire department was
“well equipped with first-class modern fire apparatus, well
uniformed, and have on many occasions demonstrated
their ability to fight fires successfully.”
Throughout the first fifty years, the rosters of the fire companies reflected a mix of businessmen, civic leaders, and workers from the many houses of an industry that thrived in the environs. The bridge and manufacturing operations, road roller plant, carriage factory, and after 1910, the typewriter plant, provided a reliable pool of volunteers and multiple generations of members. Many of these family names have continued to appear on the rolls up to current times, and the typewriter operations fed the department membership through the mid-1980s. January 1915 brought yet another conflagration to the Main Street business district which devastated the Hotel Goodyear (before and after, the Groton Hotel). Discovering the flames at 1:20 in the morning, Groton Police Officer Brokaw alerted occupants by firing his revolver, and he was aided by first responders in rescuing four people by ladder. Though seriously damaged, the building was subsequently repaired. The fire provided the impetus for the village and department to move to more modern protection methods, and away from the traditional hand-drawn equipment. The Groton and Lansing Journal, in a front-page highlight on January 5, led the call:
“GROTON MUST HAVE
At least a dozen efficient smoke protectors
or helmets, the present ones are useless. A chemical apparatus of some kind. Greater realization that
the business of the fire chief is to direct the firefighting and not do the
work himself.”
By the next year, the village had voted by referendum to purchase a chemical truck, and in July 1916, the Conger Hose Company bought a “chemical motor apparatus” for $2,800 from the LaFrance Company in Elmira. Voters approved the purchase of a motorized ladder truck in March 1917 by a vote of 58-47 but turned down an effort by the Pioneers to buy a motor hose truck (35-64). Undaunted, the hose company began raising funds in 1919 to purchase a “motor-driven pumping truck,” and by 1923, an American LaFrance engine was on its way to Groton, at a cost of $12,500. The department’s early performances were neither restricted to the village proper, nor to firefighting. A telegraphed call for assistance to the Locke community in April 1912, initiated response of firefighters and hose carts to a fire that consumed twenty-five structures along the Main Street. Permission of the village president was obtained, and a special train transport arranged through the Lehigh Valley railroad station. Articles in the Groton Journal routinely reported on the companies’ award-winning appearances at distant parades, state and regional firematic conventions, and annual inspection marches, always accompanied by the Corona Typewriter Marching Band. Such out of town travel occurred by rail. A 1931 article testified to the valor of local firemen, joined in their efforts by the Moravia and Auburn fire departments, in attempting to save a row of cottages north of Cascade on Owasco Lake. The rapidly moving, wind-fed fire was contained at a break made at the cottage of Dr. G.M. Gilchrist, who coincidentally was a GFD member and village resident, and the LaFrance engine “demonstrated in a way not to be overlooked, its value to the village.”
The blaze was held accountable for the death of a Groton volunteer, Frank LaRouche, who suffered a fatal heart attack upon return to his Walpole Road home some three hours after the response. LaRouche was a polisher at the typewriter plant, his family long since removed from the area, and most sadly represents the only suspected line-of-duty death in department history.
1935 brought the first witnessed major flooding of the village, and photographs recorded the efforts and ingenuity of firemen in rescuing stranded residents with rigging and pulleys attached to the 1917 ladder truck. The ladder truck was replaced with a new Sanford model the following year. The fire department established a formal “first aid squad” in 1939, with the purchase of a positive-pressure resuscitation device, and a combination of company members and police officers were trained by Dr. James VanMarter, a then Williams Street practitioner and, himself, an active “Hook.”
Formal expansion of fire service beyond village borders occurred in 1942 through enabling state legislation and a formal “Town Contract.” With this additional territory come new challenges, those of rural fire protection and the additional government funding enabled the $4,704 purchase of a Sanford pumper with booster tank, specially fitted for non-hydrant/water drafting usage. Water hauling tanker trucks were added to the fleet of apparatus, the first (Chevrolet) in 1957 and a second (Ford by Sam Saulsbury) in 1966. The second tanker was designed with compartment space to store “porta-power” rescue tools for auto extrication purposes, thus further expanding the department’s technical and practical capabilities. A 1940s equipment “van” was then retired. Prior to 1942, a response outside the village could only happen by express permission of the Mayor, and even afterward, village-owned pieces were by resolution to remain at all times within the village boundaries.
