Sugarcreek Township Volunteer Fire Department

In 1949, a group of concerned men met in Ross Buzzard’s garage where he repaired automobiles, the outcome of the meeting was not exactly what they initially set out to do. Sure, they were concerned about fire protection in the community but in a different way so to speak.

The meeting took place after a fire had destroyed the Foster Boltz residence. When this group of men met, their intention was to see that each household in the area was furnished with a fire extinguisher for their protection. The end result was the formation of the Sugarcreek Township Fire Company. Prior to that time the area was covered for fire protection by, as one member put it, "whoever showed up."

To set the stage they had no equipment, no facilities, and no training. But what they did have was the desire to help their area residents in times of trouble. It is this same desire that binds this organization today as it did 60 years ago.

The first truck purchased in 1949 was a used 1934 open cab Howe pumper on a Dodge chassis. The cost of the truck was approximately $2000. The loan was taken out at the Merchant’s National Bank in Kittanning with monthly payments of $49.78.

In 1950 the first truck garage was constructed by the member themselves. The first building was a two stall garage with a cinder floor and a coal stove. At the same time, the Ladies Auxiliary was raising money through fundraisers and donating it to the firemen toward the completion of the fire hall.

In January 1951, the members voted to join the Armstrong County Firemen’s Association. At that time, the meetings were held throughout the county at places designated by the host company.
When Sugarcreek's turn came, the meeting was held at the Odd Fellows hall in Cowansville, pa due to the fire station was too small to accommodate such a large crowd. In 1951, it was agreed to buy approximately 1/2 acre of land from Dick Graham for $200. This ground later became the parking lot at the side of the building, excluding the corner lot near the intersection where at that time, a blacksmith shop stood.

During the mid 1950's, the pump on the fire truck was damaged beyond repair at a barn fire at the Hoffman farm. At that time a portable pump was purchased and mounted on the side of the truck to serve as the fire pump until a new truck could be purchased. On July 12, 1955, a new truck fund was started with a beginning balance of $100. Also during 1955, a tank truck was bought for $600 to serve as a water supply.

On August 12, 1957, a representative for Howe Fire Equipment was present at the regular meeting with a new pumper for demonstration. A special meeting was set for August 19, 1957 to vote on the purchase of a new truck. The vote was seven in favor and nine not in favor of buying the truck at the present time. Then in November 1958, a vote was taken and passed that a new Howe pumper be purchased. The chassis would be bought from Anderson Chevrolet in East Brady and sent to Howe to have the truck built. The Howe pumper with 500-gpm piston pump and a 500 gallon water tank that was purchased then, still served as our back-up unit until 2002.

The next major purchase was a new Ford chassis from Kittanning Ford Sales in January 1967 for a low bid of $4075. Steadman Fire of Herman, Pa. was contracted to build the tank truck. The 1967 Ford tanker with a 500 gpm pump and 1100 gallon water tank was also still in service until 2002.

In 1972, work began to expand the truck room. Again the members pitched in and did the work themselves as they did in 1949.

Although there is no record as to when it was received, during the 1960^’s and part of the 1970's the fire company had a 1946 Dodge Power Wagon that served as a brush truck. The truck was a surplus unit received through Civil Defense and the firemen equipped it with a water tank and a portable pump to use on grass and brush fires. This unit was replaced in the late 1970's with our present unit--a 1967 Army surplus Jeep received from the Department of Forest and Waters in Clarion. The firemen fabricated their own skid unit, which contains 230 gallons of water and a portable pump. They also modified the body of the truck, and installed a different motor to complete the unit we have today which has been complimented on by many people.

In 1979 it was again time to update our fire equipment, mainly our attack pumper. The new unit, on a Ford chassis purchased from Rumbaugh Ford in Chicora was built by W.S. Darley of Melrose Park, Illinois. This unit was equipped with a 750 gpm pump and carries 750 gallons of water and served as our number one fire fighting unit for twenty years.

Major events that had an impact on the firemen, would be the tornado of 1978 and the flood of 1980 that struck in the Brady’s Bend area. The way that fire companies, volunteers, friends, families, and neighbors joined together to help people through trouble and sorrow was truly phenomenal.

In 1981, several members of our department along with fellow firemen from neighboring departments were active in the formation of the Rural Firefighters Association. This organization was developed to address common problems among rural fire companies. The original membership of thirteen fire departments and industry fire brigades has risen to seventeen member organizations.

In 1987, the time came to consider replacing the 1967 Ford tanker and discussion of the future of the 1957 Chevrolet pumper was brought to the monthly meeting. A committee was formed consisting of the fire department’s line officers to determine the best route to take. The committee’s first job was to decide what type of truck would fill our needs with many factors to be considered. After much study and discussion, it was agreed on to build a tanker/pumper combination unit which would take the place of both the old Chevrolet and Ford units which would be put out for bid. A 1987 Ford L8000 diesel chassis was bought from Altoona Ford and the 1800 gallon tank and rear body was to be built by Filges Metal Fabricating near Butler. A 1000 gpm pump along with other accessories was purchased from W.S. Darley and work began. The members mounted the pump and constructed all necessary piping before the tank and rear body was installed.

Finally, the truck was painted by Doug Apple, at a local auto body shop. Mr. Apple donated his time and effort. The bids for both the older trucks were awarded to a firm located in Mississippi that purchased used fire equipment for restoration and resale.

On April 22, 1990 (Earth Day) at about 8:00 P.M., the fire department received a call to assist Worthington V. F. D. at a train derailment in the village of Craigsville. This call turned out to be one of the worst events in the nineties. We were on scene for approximately 72 hours, and Sugarcreek assumed the role as on scene incident command. A film was made documenting this rail incident by the company American Heat, which is used as a training tape all over the world.

On June 22, 1991 Sugarcreek was again called upon to assist at a huge lumber company fire in West Kittanning. Twenty nine fire companies attending the annual Parade in Worthington, when the alarm came in, assisted in extinguishing this fire.

In February of 1995, the fire department suffered its first major accident involving one of our trucks, the tanker while responding to a brush fire dropped off the side of the road, onto a soft berm, and rolling over onto its side. None of the passengers were seriously injured.

Also in 1995, we went into a joint venture with three fire companies, attempting to purchase three identical pumpers to save money. After many hours of work and arguments, Sugarcreek and West Sunbury finally agreed to purchase Freightliner chassis and a body build by New Lexington Fire Equipment Company. This pumper was considered state of the art firefighting equipment. The purchase price of this piece of equipment came in at $120,000.

Over the course of our fire departments lifetime we have gone from an operating budget of less than $100 dollars a month to a yearly budget of approximately $50,000. So you can see that it take a lot of good hard working volunteers to keep this fire company operational.

In 1997 the fire department started talking about rebuilding our fire station to accommodate the growth of the trucks and the size of fundraiser needed to keep us up to date. We formed a building committee in partnership with our sister company STAS (Sugarcreek Township Ambulance Company). The partnership had purchased a store and property from the Vlassich's family for the future expansion of both organizations housing needs. The joint group made grant application for three years without success. In the process the joint group had the opportunity to purchase the piece of property at the intersection of Kittanning Hollow Road, State Route 268, and Rodgers Road. This 26 acre parcel was purchased from the heirs of the Adams family. Hoping that the purchase of land would show the grant system that the group was truly serious about this project we again went to the grant system for yet another try. After another year of failing to succeed we dissolved the joint committee and sought funding thru the banks in our area. We jointly agreed to trade our share of the joint property in Frogtown, to the ambulance company in return for their share of the joint property on Rodgers Road. We also agreed to sell the ambulance company our old fire hall and property upon completion of our new facility.

Timber was cut, stumps were dug and pulled, and land was cleared and leveled in 2001 and 2002. While we were still trying for grants to assist us with our project, in 2003 a loan was secured and contractors were hired. The new hall was under way. We dedicated the new building in the spring of 2004. Even though we have moved and are operational, the work continues. In 2004 we received a grant for a generator large enough to make our building a stand alone operation.

The new hall has a four bay garage, office, meeting room, lounge, huge kitchen (dedicated to Paul and Flora Mellish. Paul was one of the men at the first meeting) and a hall capable of seating four hundred people.

The Sugarcreek Township Volunteer Fire Company does not belong to one person or small group of people. Every person who was ever voted into this organization shares a piece of its history.

Company 230

History