history

Up until 1951 the department was under the Town Board of Greens Fork and they used anyone who wanted to help. The people of the town usually got there before the fire department did and had the belongings of the people out in the yards. If it was out in the Township, the people usually lost their structure. Read about the great Greens Fork Fire of 1912 here.

In 1951, the Town with the Township held an organizational meeting at the School House, and Guy Dearing was appointed as Fire Chief and Horace Boyd as Secretary of the Department. They agreed to split the cost of the Department.....the town to pay for maintance and insurance on the pumper and pay half of the clothing allowance for the firemen, and the township to pay all maintance and insurance on the tanker and the other half of the clothing allowance. Per State law, the town had to house the trucks.

In 1961, the Department was Incorporated as the Clay Township Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. for legal purposes under the Township Trustee, with the Township assuming all bills for the Department, as they wanted to buy a new truck. In 1962, a bid was let for a new pumper. This pumper was put into service in January 1963 and has remained in service until the recently purchased pumper was put into service in February 2001.

The 1962 Pumper has been in all the major fires in Wayne County since it was put into service.

      *General Telephone fire on North 9th Street in Richmond (February 4, 1965)
      *Explosion in downtown Richmond (April 7, 1968)
      *Fire at Morton and National Road in Centerville (April 30, 1969)
      *Main Street in Hagerstown, Two Sisters
      *Converto (factory), Cambridge City
      *Train wrecks, Pennville and Pershing
      *Elevator fire, Straughn

When the school left the town for Hagerstown, the
department was moved to the Bus Barn. The company
who had leased the old school house went broke and
Gary Dearing bought their lease and traded us to the
Case Building. When Greens Fork Alignment moved to
Centerville Rd and I-70, the old school house sat empty
for almost a year. Gary Dearing gave the lease back to
the Township and the Fire Department took it over.
With alot of work and money, the building is in the
shape you see it now.

When they organized the Department in 1951, they decided that 16 members were in the membership. Over the years that number has grew. Currently, the department has 23 members.

The Department is broken down to Fire Chief, 2 Ass't Chiefs, Fire Instructors, Medical Instructors, Firefighters and First Responders.

In 2001, the membership consists of:
      *3 Master State Certified in Tactics, Fire Prevention, Arson and Instructor.
      *12 Certified by the State as 1st and 2nd Class Firefighters.
      *8 Certified as 24 hour Firefighters.

Of the above, 2 are EMTS and 13 are Certified First Responders by the State.

Fire Chiefs:
? to 1951................Controlled by Town Board
1951 thru 1964.......Guy Dearing
1965......................Joe Fouts
1966 thru 1967.......Robert Meadows
1968 thru 1995.......Thom LaBoyteaux.....Department 1969 Photo 1.....Photo 2
1996 to present.......Jan Riggleman

Currently, the Fire Department uses a tanker to transport water from a 500 GPM well that was drilled at the City Building. The well is plumbed with 3 inch galvanized pipe and is on it's third pump. Lightening got the first pump and a short in the wiring got the second one.

With the addition of 2 Dry Hydrants for water, our ISO rating improved to a 9. One of these is located in Bond's Pond on Mineral Springs Road and one at Brown's Pond on Smokey Row Road. We also have permission to place one in Martindale Lake for protection of the town of Jacksonburg, which we have a contract to provide fire protection. Clay Township and Milton have a joint contract to provide fire protection for Harrison Township.

The 1926 REO/HOWE pumper, which was in service before the purchase of the 1962 Pumper, was sold to the Shrine Club of Richmond, Indiana to be used as a parade unit. They took the reel hose off of it and put benches on the hose bed for them to ride on in the parades. They have kept the truck in excellent condition and it was brought to the Department for an Ice Cream Social in 1997.

Back to the Station

~Pumper~

~Tanker~

~Van/Rescue~

~4x4 Grass Rig~

~Snowmobile and Sled~

The earliest pumper that anyone has talked about was a hand pump for pumping the town wells. Then a Model T Pumper and then in 1937, the 1926 REO/HOWE pumper was purchased (pictured above). In 1962 the township purchased Chev/American Front Mount 500 GPM Pumper (pictured above left). Click here for more pictures of the 1962 Pumper. This truck was put into service January 1963 and currently remains in service as our backup engine. Recently, with the help of a State Grant, a 2001 Freightliner fire engine (pictured above right) was purchased. It has a 1250 GPM Waterous midship pump. It was placed in service in February 2001. Click here for more pictures of the 2001 Pumper.

The first tanker the Township purchased was a 1948 Studebaker Chassis and a welding shop in Hagerstown, Indiana built the tank to put on it. This truck was replaced with a 1954 Chevrolet chassis that was purchased from Hap Miller, and a tank was placed on that. This Tanker was in service until the motor blew up in 1975. The Township then purchased a 1974 Ford chassis that Vere Ketring used for an oil delivery truck. They had Jim Tucker of Richmond Steel build a tank for it (pictured above left). This tanker was in service until October 1994 when it was traded in on the new International/Conway front mount 1000 GPM Tanker that we now use (pictured above right). Click here for more pictures.

The Department had SCBA'S to haul to the fires and no place to carry them, so the Township Trustee, John Bond, bought the old Webster Dodge Van for the Department to use. When Andy Richardson became Trustee, he purchased a Ford Van from GTE for $1.00 and the old Dodge was sold. In 1995, we purchased a box Ford Van from Tom Roberson in Cambridge City, Indiana, that came from Arizona. This van was paid for with help from the Greens Fork Community Center. This was the van used for Rescue. It carried a set of Jaws, rescue tools, First Responder equipment, oxygen, carbon monoxide detector, AED for heart attacks, back boards, etc. In December of 2000, the Department took delivery of a 1999 Ford E350 (pictured above). This vehicle has same box as the previous Rescue. Click here for more pictures.

When Trustee Bob Dickey was in office, we fought grass fires with the Chev Pumper and usually ended up getting it stuck in the fields. The Advisory Board decided to see what they could afford to put a stop to this. A salesman of fire equipment brought a demo skid unit to show them and they bought it after a demo of it. Then then bought a Chevrolet 4 X 4 from Charles Houston. In 1980, Trustee John bond purchased a 1980 Chevrolet 4 X 4 and the skid unit was placed in it (pictured above). It is currently still in service. Click here for more pictures.

After the Blizzard of 1978, the Department decided that we needed a snowmobile and sled. The Township was asked for donations and the one we now have, as well as the sled, was purchased from a man in Dublin, Indiana.

Many thanks to Thom LaBoyteaux for supplying most of this information!

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