Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department

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Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department

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This page is maintained by Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation, and not by the City of Hillsboro, Illinois.

It is NOT an official emergency notification service. Call (217) 532-2345 or 911 in an emergency.

11/03/2026

When the visible fire is out, our work at the scene is not necessarily finished. Every fire receives some level of investigation. Firefighters begin collecting useful information as they arrive: what they see, where smoke or flames are showing, what occupants or witnesses report, and how conditions change as the fire is brought under control. After extinguishment, those observations become part of determining where the fire began and what caused it.

Some fires require only a relatively brief examination because the circumstances are straightforward. The Fire Chief decides whether a more extensive investigation is necessary, including whether the scene should be photographed and a detailed report prepared. A closer investigation does not necessarily mean that arson is suspected. Accidental fires also have origins and causes that should be identified when the available evidence permits it.

Fire suppression and fire investigation are therefore not entirely separate tasks. The firefighters who first enter the building may also be the first people in a position to recognize and preserve information needed to explain what happened.

11/01/2026

Calls for October 2026, 10 Total.

26-075 Smell of Gas
26-076 CO Call
26-077 Mutual Aid Shoal Creek
26-078 Illegal Burn/ Trash
26-079 Smell of Smoke
26-080 Structure Fire
26-081 Fire Alarm/ False
26-082 Power Lines Down
26-083 Gas Leak
26-084 Fire Alarm/ False

10/30/2026

Nearly 70 factory employees, along with employees of the adjoining Illinois Power & Light office, were able to get out before firefighters began their work. Hillsboro firefighters were joined by the Litchfield Fire Department as they fought to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring buildings, including C. R. Nail’s store.
The fire destroyed the pants factory and heavily damaged the adjoining power company office. Part of the building collapsed onto Berry Street as firefighters worked from both Main Street and the rear of the structure.

The 1929 fire is a reminder of how much responsibility already rested upon Hillsboro’s volunteer firefighters by that time. Forty years after the Fire Company was organized, they were no longer responding only to isolated residential fires or small commercial incidents. They were protecting a growing downtown, industrial workplaces, neighboring businesses, and the people who worked in them.

Sources: Tom Bliss, “1929: Pants went up in smoke,” The Montgomery County News, Mar. 10, 1977; Hillsboro Guide, Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Illinois, 1940.

10/27/2026

When did you last look at your house number from the street after dark?

The address included in a fire page tells responders where to go. The number displayed on the property helps them identify the correct house, driveway, or entrance when they arrive. A number that seems obvious during the day may be difficult to see at night if it is small, faded, blocked by vegetation or decorations, or does not contrast with its background.

As the evenings grow darker, take a moment to approach your home from both directions and see whether the address can be read from the street. If the house is set back from the road, place the number where the driveway begins as well as on the house. Reflective numbers are especially useful in rural areas and at properties with long driveways.

A correct address gets emergency responders to the area. A clearly displayed number helps them find the right door.

10/23/2026

In 1896, fire destroyed the old Empire Mill on Vawter Street, only eight years after Hillsboro organized its Fire Company. The response exposed some of the limitations of early firefighting equipment. The hose was unreeled at the corner of City Hall and then had to be carried the rest of the way to the fire. When the volunteers reached the scene, they discovered that the toolbox had been removed from the hose cart and had not been replaced. Without a wrench or nozzle needed to make the connection, someone had to make a second trip for the missing equipment.
The delay cost valuable time, but the contemporary account nevertheless concluded that, once the firefighters were ready, they “did splendid work.”

The episode provides a glimpse of Hillsboro’s fire service during its earliest years. The Department had moved well beyond the neighborhood bucket brigades of the previous generation, but its effectiveness still depended upon hand-drawn equipment, the condition and completeness of that equipment, and volunteers physically moving hose and tools to the scene. The equipment has changed considerably since 1896, but the old account reminds us that preparation before the alarm can determine what happens after it.

Source: Hillsboro Guide, Writers’ Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Illinois, 1940, recounting a contemporary Montgomery News account of the 1896 Empire Mill fire.
Photos: 1886 and 1893 maps are courtesy of Jeff Dunn.

10/19/2026

Last Monday evening, we were in the classroom portion of a grain bin rescue awareness course when our pagers sounded for an outdoor fire. Training stopped, and those of us in attendance left the class to answer the call. The fire involved things being burned after dark in someone's yard. The City's open burning ordinance does not permit trash, rubbish, garbage, general household waste, commercial waste, or construction and demolition debris to be burned. Landscape waste is treated separately and may be burned only under the conditions stated in the ordinance.

After the incident was concluded, we returned to the classroom and completed the course. The interruption provides an example of how volunteer service fits into everyday life.

Hillsboro open burning ordinance (adopted November 27, 2007):
https://hillsboroillinois.net/wp-content/uploads/Hillsboro-Burn-Ordinance.pdf

10/16/2026

The first minutes of the Hillsboro Fire Company are dated October 15, 1888. By then, the City had formally established its fire department, and the volunteers had begun the practical work of turning that organization into an operating fire company. The handwritten minutes from that meeting show Chief R. E. Henshie calling the meeting to order and the members addressing some of the most basic needs of the new organization. Among their first recorded actions was a request to the City Council for firefighting equipment. The Company asked for four rubber coats and helmets, two trumpets, a hook-and-ladder wagon, and a fire bell. The minutes also reflect the consideration of additional men for membership.

The entries that followed over the next several months show the routine work of a young volunteer organization taking shape. Meetings were called, officers were selected, prospective members were considered, committees were appointed, and arrangements were made for equipment and the fire bell. More than 138 years later, these handwritten pages preserve something more than a list of names. They show Hillsboro's first organized firefighters beginning the ordinary work necessary to build a functioning fire company, one meeting and one decision at a time.

Sources: Bob Bliss, “Fire Company to HVFD, 100 Years,” Montgomery County News, Sept. 1, 1988; Patt Miles, “H.V.F.D. Celebrates 100 Years,” The Hillsboro Journal, Sept. 8, 1988; original Hillsboro Fire Company minute book, 1888–1889.
Photographs: Original Hillsboro Fire Company minute book.

10/13/2026

Last night, we participated in grain bin rescue awareness training presented by the Illinois Fire Service Institute. The course addressed the different types of grain storage facilities, how their construction and operation affect an emergency response, the hazards responders may encounter, and the resources that may be needed. After some time in the classroom, we practiced on a simulated bin wall to create openings through which grain could be removed during a rescue.

Grain bin emergencies present hazards and rescue problems that must be understood before someone needs help. Training gives our members the opportunity to study those problems, practice the appropriate response, and prepare for emergencies in which there is no time to learn after the call comes in.

10/09/2026

Six years after Hillsboro purchased its first motorized fire engine, the department added a second truck to its growing fleet. The 1926 Dodge was equipped differently from the American LaFrance pumper that had arrived in 1920. It carried chemicals intended for fuel and electrical fires, along with hooks, ladders, and other equipment. Together, the two trucks gave Hillsboro firefighters equipment suited to a broader range of emergencies than the single pumper could address alone.

Like the American LaFrance, the Dodge was housed at McDavid’s Garage on Wood Street. Members of the garage’s sales and mechanical staff were among the men who regularly drove the department’s apparatus during this period.

The addition of the Dodge reflected another stage in the development of Hillsboro’s fire service. Motorization had already changed how quickly equipment could reach a fire; the next step was expanding what firefighters could bring with them when they arrived. As the types of equipment carried by the department increased, so did its ability to respond to different hazards within the community.

Sources: Bob Bliss, “Fire Company to HVFD, 100 Years,” Montgomery County News, Sept. 1, 1988; Patt Miles, “H.V.F.D. Celebrates 100 Years,” The Hillsboro Journal, Sept. 8, 1988.

10/05/2026

Fire Prevention Week has been part of the Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department’s relationship with local children for generations. By 1988, our volunteers were regularly visiting Hillsboro schools during Fire Prevention Week to talk with students about fire safety and distribute coloring books and small fire helmets. Of course, the methods have changed with time. Today, Fire Prevention Week activities include the department’s smoke house, where children can practice what to do when smoke fills a home and learn how to get outside safely. The purpose, however, remains the same. We hope to give children information and experience they can use before they are ever confronted with an actual fire.

Much of the history of a fire department can be told through its apparatus, stations, and major fires. For us, fire prevention is part of that history, too. Generations of our volunteers have understood that protecting the Hillsboro community includes teaching our youngest residents how to recognize a danger, how to respond to it, and how to get themselves safely out of harm’s way.

Source: Patt Miles, “H.V.F.D. Celebrates 100 Years,” The Hillsboro Journal, Sept. 8, 1988.
Black and white photo from The Hillsboro Journal, Sept. 8, 1988 (photographer not identified); color photo is recycled from our 2025 post regarding Fire Prevention Week activities.

Address

101 S Broad Street
Hillsboro, IL
62049

Telephone

+12175322345

Website

https://hillsboroillinois.net/fire-department/

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