The Denver Lion's Club started to talk about forming a Fire Department in 1957. The club raised money to help buy the stations first truck in 1958, with the chassis being bought in the Fall of 1957. Bob Smith sold the land to the station for several hundred dollars. Construction of the fire station started in the fall of 1958 and went through the Spring of 1959. In the mean time the fire truck was kept in Wade Fox's garage until the station was finished.
The Fire Station in 1959 consists of a 1958 Chevy Fire Truck, a 1955 Ford Tanker and a 1954 Cadillac Ambulance (donated by Warlick Funeral Home).
The equipment that we had sitting beside the ambulance were two Indian water packs used for putting out wood fires, an air pack (the only one the fire station had), an oxygen unit, a spare oxygen bottle, and a First Aid Kit.
This picture is of our first crew at Denver Volunteer Fire Department. Back Row- (left to right) Raymond (Mutt) Ballard, Little Joe King, Monroe Sherrill, Richard Sigmon, Sr., Kenneth McCall 2nd Row- Walter Abernathy, Thomas Cristie, Lee Turbyfill, Richard Armstrong, E.F. Killian, Jr. Front Row- Jesse Carpenter, Q.L. Moore, Billy Perkins, Troy Dellinger, Tim Killian (Mascot)
Not Pictured- Lee Killian, Wade Fox, Bill Ballard, C.A. Dellinger, Dwight Callaway, Sr.
This picture of a grass fire was taken by the Lincoln Times back in 1981. The fire was started by a cigarette thrown out of a car around 10 a.m. on Hwy 16 at the old Barker's Phillips 66 (which now is the Food Lion at Westport). Ronnie Lineburger was driving Brush 15, Lee Killian was running the pump with Tim Killian standing by, and David Noble, Jr. was on the nozzle. The grass fire consumed about a quarter of an acre.
This is the fire Station in 1982. We had a 1978 GMC Pumper, 1979 GMC Tanker, and a 1968 Chevy 3/4ton Brush Truck. We didn't have pagers back then so a siren was mounted on top of the station so when a call came in a tone was set off to let the firemen know that there was a call. For the firefighter's that could not afford a scanner they were put on a call list that was kept by several of the firemen's mothers.
The Bar-B-Q pit was built in 1978 and is where the fire station raised most of its money. Every year we would start cooking hams on a Friday and begin our fundraiser on Saturday. A lot of work and preparation went into our fundraiser but it was fun and we had good fellowship in the process. If this building could talk, what stories it would tell. One night we were discussing other means of funding. The idea of a fire tax was discussed so that everyone could contribute. A fire tax was established in the physical year of 1992-1993. Today the property under our protection is valued at nearly 1.2 billion dollars!